towerofanimus | One failure too many... [open]

Characters: Saber (Alter) and YOU
Setting: Floor 48 (Graveyard)
Format: Action (but I'll match)
Summary: Saber finds Irisviel's gravestone and loses control of her emotions
Warnings: Violence - ANY SERVANT ENTERING THE GRAVEYARD HAS A REAL CHANCE OF DYING VIA EXCALIBUR

[She should be used to not being allowed to have the things she wanted. After all those years being king, denying her emotions, ruling fairly and justly, and the time spent watching her once master with the woman she loved... she should be used to to it. Everything was always taken from her, no matter what she did to try and hold onto it.

Avalon, her kingdom, her knights, her ideals, her trust, her faith... All of it taken away because of her own failures. She'd lost Irisviel in the Fourth War, but had been granted a second chance with her. And yet, she still couldn't have what she wanted for Kiritsugu's ghost lingered even now, even here in the Tower, staying Saber's hand, making her swallow her emotion - her love - for the woman in white. Again, she had tried to be content as nothing more than Irisviel's knight and leave it at that. But it had been so hard with the taint of Angra Mainyu within her, making her feel all those emotions she suppressed so clearly. So, the knight had found other outlets to keep Irisviel pure, to not let her purity be stained by Saber's corruption. And Irisviel was a married woman; Saber could not and would not do what had been done to her back in Camelot. Circumstances may have been different then, but her honor would not allow her to walk the path Lancelot did.

But when Saber could not find Irisviel and instead found the gravestone bearing her name, everything came crashing down upon her at once.

Failure... failure... failure... She'd failed to keep Irisviel safe again. She'd failed to make her princess happy. She'd failed in her duty as a knight. Again.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Small moments of happiness, all she could ever have, were taken from her again. The one person who understood her as well as, if not better, than herself had disappeared. The loneliness inside of the Saber was a dark and hollow place. She was always lonely and in that emptiness surrounding her heart, Angra Mainyu sat and twisted and squeezed and poisoned Saber's heart. All the Evil of the World wrapped about Saber's core and fed on that emotion she suppressed.

Betrayal.

Failure.

Hatred.

Anger.

Sorrow.

Pain.

Longing.

Rage.

The longer Saber stood there looking down at the stone bearing the name of Irisviel von Einzbern, the more the taint coiled in that kernel of emotion.

Rage.

The evidence of her failure was right before her. The Tower Administrators were rubbing it right into her face.

Rage.

Mocking her. Taunting her. As if she wasn't suffering from self-castigation knowing her failure had sent Irisviel straight back to her death.

Rage.

Such an apt symbol of her failure - this gravestone - knowing Irisviel's fate. But it wasn't a real stone. Irisviel's body wasn't there underneath it. Irisviel had become the Holy Grail. The very thing Kiritsugu forced her against her will to destroy.

Rage.

She'd been the one to destroy Irisviel, to end her existence, commanded to by the man who supposedly loved her. Did he even love her as much as Saber did? Did he even acknowledge that she was there... And now, now, Irisviel was gone again. It was just like Saber had cleaved her in half again. The gravestone started to look to Saber like it was covered in mud as her emotions grew inside.

Rage.

Angra Mainyu coiled tighter and the emotionless king couldn't be emotionless anymore. She hated this place. Hated the stone before her. Hated the way everything she touched corroded and disintegrated. Her kingdom, her wishes, her desires, her hopes, her goals, her dreams... All of them crumbled in her grasp.

Rage.

Legend may call her a great king, the Once and Future King, that lead Britain to a time of golden prosperity, but she knew what she really was. She wasn't the King of Knights. She was the King of Nothing. Nothing... nothing... but RAGE.

Corrupt, dark prana flooded the graveyard then as the red marks of Angra Mainyu spread up Saber's neck and along her jaw and her armor materialized. Visor sliding down to cover her eyes, the black knight had little to no control over her prana, over her anger, as she raised her right hand.]

Excalibur.

[The black sword, tainted with her own corruption and pulling on the dark side of the fae, was summoned into hand. No Invisible Wind obscured the blade from sight. It glowed with a pulsing red and the swirling of dark violet prana around Saber traveled up the sword and then back down in opposite to the pulsing of the red.

She was the King of Nothing and Fuyuki City had been nothing. Her kingdom had become nothing. Her heart was well on its way to becoming nothing. Nothing but rage.

This graveyard should be NOTHING.

With a tremendous surge of prana, Saber activated her Noble Phantasm. The sword in her hand grew in length until it was hard to tell exactly how long it was. Power and corruption crackled along its length as the black knight wielded it like it was also nothing. The rage Angra Mainyu was squeezing out of her black heart was manifest in this version of her Noble Phantasm. Vortigern had indeed been a vile king of Britain before her father. His infamy was almost as famous as her legend.

She would smash everything to nothing. So it would be just like her. Just as all should be. Nothing. Then there would be nothing left to lose. Nothing left to fail.

Nothing.

And with that, Saber swung Excalibur and leveled the entire row of gravestones, Irisviel's included. Clearing a swath, she took another step and turned, cutting another row. Two more rows later, she turned back and saw that name on a stone behind her.

Irisviel von Einzbern.

Rage in her grew and she let out a primal scream as she cut the stone down again. Every few seconds, it would return, as did any other she destroyed. The more they returned, the more she was fueled by emotion to destroy them. Destroy them all.

Nothing... She wanted this place to be nothing. Why did it refuse to end? Unable to answer her own rage-filled question, Saber furiously destroyed row of gravestones after gravestones. It was unending. Neverending.

The stones just kept coming back...]

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It is not contempt, black knight. It is intrigue. [Even as he says as much, he laughs quietly and crosses his arms. His eyes continue following the blackened blade more than the tainted Servant herself.

He couldn't care less about the graves erected here; to think they were real when it seemed death was a slippery slope in this place would give the administrators too much credit.

And he had done enough permitting in his short time here.]

Just as this tower has shown me a sane Berserker, it shows me a Saber in the throes of darkness and madness. A complete reversal of the holy sword wielder.

I suggest opening your eyes, Archer. If I was under madness, you would already be dead. I will grant you the other.

What do you want?

[He shrugs in a deliberate motion, walking closer; his sandaled feet find sure footing even amongst the torn grounds.] My eyes are open, and all I see is the King of Knights and-- [her] --her holy sword tainted. It is lamentable, but apparently a fate shared with my own world's Saber.

[But was that the reason he came here? No. The lure of power, the surge of prana -- a way to entice him, to remind him of the War he had been pulled from. Even if he had fallen to Saber's Excalibur, there was still that rush of adrenaline to be so close to battle, as if on the verge himself.]

I retain my mind, unlike the King of Knights from your War. Our fates are different and mine was by choice. His was not.

[She raised her head a bit then.]

This sword was crafted by the fae. It is not tainted; it is its nature to reflect its wielder. I am no longer a knight of the summer but one of the winter. All fae have such duality to them as does this sword.

[She shifts her stance to bring her sword at the ready with Gilgamesh advancing. The extended blade retracts to its normal size, though the dark prana still crackles about it.]

[He hums thoughtfully as Saber's words reach him in their noticeable sanity, his lips curving more so into a smile. The hound had not been wrong then, to say the Servant was still in control of herself.

It's her motions that cause his smile to split, to give way for a short laugh.] And what are you doing now, black knight? Do you intend to turn your blade against me instead of these stones?

[The amusement is as clear in his words as it was in his earlier laughter.] Would that perhaps quell your rage?

I wish nothing to do with you. [She practically spat that.] Maintain your distance lest I find myself unwilling to tolerate your presence.

[The smile remains in place, though he does at least stop moving forward. For now.]

Even more intriguing. The others react with wariness, but your hostility is unlike any of theirs. You will tell me why.

No, I shall not. [She doesn't do what Gilgamesh tells her to do, even Babylonian kings from other worlds.]

What I will tell you is that I know who you are and the version of you from my world and I have a personal conflict. I will not have you following in his footsteps.

A personal conflict. [He repeats the words with the slightest rise of the brow, as if trying to figure out what she was implying. If she knew who he was and this other version of himself was anything like himself...

And then he laughs again, longer than before.] I see. How unfortunate!

Silence.

[She did NOT like that. She was NOT going to put up with it from -another- Gilgamesh.]

[He finally uncrosses his arms, raising his hand up as if to silence her. For a moment, there is something approaching seriousness in his voice.]

I am sure you will make a man very happy, King of Knights, but I am not interested in anything but perhaps your sword in battle.

Good. I am no one's possession or treasure, least of all yours or that of your counterpart.

[Nor will she make any man happy; she hasn't found any man to be of that kind of interest to her, though she knows her other self fell in love with Shirou.]

[He grins, lowering his hand to rest it on his hip. Perhaps he could find a girl like this King of Knights worth his hand, in another world; she had a certain beauty to her, even darkened as she was.

But though his eyes could stray, his mind would return to Ayaka.]

Hah. The only treasure I would have is your holy sword.

You are welcome to continue to want, but my sword will never be yours. The Lady bestowed it upon me. You will have to content yourself with those your Gate contains.

[And, at that, she dismissed Excalibur and her visor, meeting his eyes with her pale ones.]

A bad habit I simply cannot rid myself of. But I suppose it has its uses. [Gilgamesh tilts his head at the knight as she dismisses her blade, now unable to switch his gaze back and forth from the weapon to the Servant herself. He meets her strange eyes with his equally strange ones, momentarily quiet before he comments in amusement.]

Your rage seems to have faded.

Not faded. Contained.

Contained. [He does not make a fuss over agreeing with the knight's wording, shrugging once again. Though they both now stand without weapons, there was still a certain tension; they were both familiar enough with each other to know appearances could be deceiving.]

You have answered my questions adequately enough. Shall I leave you to mourn your fake graves in peace?

[Had it been just about anyone else, Saber would've turned her back to him and started to walk away. But she knew better.]

Yes.

[He never stops smiling as he turns his back on the King of Knights, though he goes a step further in dematerializing as he walks away.]

I do hope you keep that temper in check when it matters most, Saber.

[Soon enough, there are only golden motes trailing off into nothingness as Gilgamesh disappears.]

[NOT ALL OF US CAN GO INTO SOOPER SPESHUL SPIRIT MODE, GILGAMESH.

*ahem*

Saber frowns and stalks across to the far side of the floor, away from where he'd been.]

One failure too many... [open]

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