ITP: Avenger

[no_longer_a_king]

Characters: [AU5] Saber and Shirou/Avenger
Setting: Floor 62; The beach
Summary: Arturia thinks Shirou is ready to go monster hunting with her and takes him to a floor to see how well he does. Little does she know she's gotten more than she's bargained for.
Warnings: Violence, character breakdown, Avenger's mouth, the mun's squeeing over the big reveal.


[After things quieted down, after Arturia had some time to process what had happened, and contemplate things, she returned to the Shirou in the Tower to resume their training. He was used to her having days where she couldn't face him, though they were getting less and less frequent, especially now that he knows the reasoning behind her odd behavior. She will not tell him of the shadow child who saw her off, and the school ID she had been given is tucked safely in her trunk for now. No, they need to get back to training.

After a short hour of fighting, she'd realized something: Shirou had improved. His senses were sharper and there were a few moments where Arturia had to put in actual effort to block his hits. It made her lips quirk into a pleased smile and she told him he was ready. They made arrangements to meet up just before sunset on the beach. Not too far from an elevator (though Arturia loathed them by now), and not too easy to fall off of. Shirou's abilities would be in tact here and soon he could test his mettle against the monsters themselves.]

Remember to keep close to the stairs.

[She says as the sun sets in the distance. Some part of her is filled with pride that Shirou's come this far, that she's letting Shirou get this far. For so long she'd been afraid to let him fight. If nothing else what happened with the phantoms reminded her of how hypocritical that was. Shirou had done the same thing to her, though he had been very vocal about it. Arturia, on the other hand, just kept telling him he wasn't ready with nary an explanation. Not that Shirou asked for one.

But now? Well. Maybe he can start helping her with her maps and finding the secrets here. Maybe next time she goes downstairs, she can see about him coming with her.]


This particular floor tends to have mostly Chuchus and Miniblins. Dangerous, but there's never too many of them. We can move on to another floor once we've cleared out this one.

Comments

[destructiveprinciples]

[ The embodiment of all the world's evil grins, the dull ache of his wounds paid no mind. It's not a very stable smile. ]

I'm Avenger. [ Insincerely; ] Nice to meet ya'!

[ He's frank about giving his class title. Given his tendency to be honest if rather meanly cheeky and unhelpful when asked the correct questions by people, the Servant didn't see any reason to bother with lying, much less about this. It's not like identity fraud was that big of a deal. ]

I mean, he's not present in the Tower and has not been for several months. Ever, for as far as I know. [ Hand resting on his hips, on the dirtied pants he's wearing, he looks at Saber and down the length of the sword she's pointing at her, noticing the tip shaking for a moment. They're standing on a beach strewn with the corpses of dead monsters, the light only coming from the stars in the sky and the staircase; it's not a pleasant scene. ]

[no_longer_a_king]

[Avenger. Diarmuid mentioned him once and how dangerous he is. No one had ever mentioned shapeshifting, but who would dare admit to it? The scene around them is grisly and she had been planning on telling Shirou he'd done well once they managed to escape. The battle had been hard and long even if the opponents had been weak, but he'd done well and she'd been proud....]

You mean....

[....and all of it had been a lie. A lie like their bodies, their powers. This time it was not even a lie the Administrators had perpetuated. This had been Avenger's own doing and what reason did he have to lie.]

You mean Shirou was you the whole time?

[That the only Shirou present had been that broken shadow in her bed? The shadow that had sat on her chest when she'd last been revived?]

[destructiveprinciples]

[ The beach will be clean and pristine, come the next morning. But tonight, the sound of the waves and Saber's slow breathing are the only sounds that disrupt the scene of carnage.

He crosses his arms over his chest, feeling the fabric of the shirt crinkle. If he'd looked at it from her viewpoint, he would probably realized she would consider it all a lie in the same vein as the lie the administrators imprisoned them within and call it betrayal. He doesn't look at it from her viewpoint; that idea of empathy doesn't occur to him at all. Avenger confirms it with a kind of inappropriate casualness; ]

Yeah, we're the same.

[ His head tilts and he chuckles again, his lips stretching a little wider like he's not bleeding and there isn't Caliburn pointed in his direction, but that still comes out weak, tired. But still far from docile, merely verging on the edge of tolerable. ]

[no_longer_a_king]

Oh.

[That's all she can say really because what can you even say to finding out the person that has been keeping you sane the last few months is not who you thought he was? That he was nothing more than a lie?

Arturia can practically pinpoint the moment she feels something inside her crack and break. It's not her heart. She long ago broke her own heart when she beheaded Shirou by her own hand. But now.... now...

She lowers Caliburn, dismissing it entirely. Avenger might have that awful aura, but he's weak, tired. And wearing Shirou's face.

As long as he wore Shirou's face, she would never be able to strike him.]

I see. [Her voice doesn't sound like her own. It's strange, knowing she's in control, but being unable to really do much but react. She should be screaming, she should be demanding answers, she should be doing a hundred other things.

But what's the point?]

I apologize. I should leave you to your business then.

[And so she turns, walking for the stairs. Anything to get away from him.]

[destructiveprinciples]

[ For a moment, all that greets her words and the lowering of her sword is silence, dissonant and deeply uncomfortable. Then; ]

Alright.

[ Her calmness, her lack of vehement outward or vocal reaction to what she's learned is telling, though he doesn't care (isn't capable of caring) enough to be concerned about it. The expression on her face is blank, and Avenger is a tad surprised to realize he recognizes it; the look of something crumbling, surely and steadily.

The silence from before lengthens. Saber turns her back to him and walks away. He doesn't stop her, makes no move to follow her retreat or prevent it. ]

. . .

Hey, don't go apologizing needlessly.

[ He tosses the remark after her just as she's walking up the stairs, as if to slam it into the back of her shoulders. And then, too tired and injured to maintain his material form without exerting a lot more effort than he wants to right now, Avenger slips into spirit mode and vanishes from the bloody, dark beach. ]