-Micheals PoV-
Micheal walked down the tunnel and looked around as he did so while the breeze they had felt earlier slowly got stronger. Not into a full blown gust of wind but enough to move the air in the tunnel and as they continued down the mana changed as well becoming almost primal feeling in its purity. He glanced back over his shoulder at Jeanne Alter who was walking a few steps behind him lost in her own thoughts. He watched her pause in front of one of the crystals in the walls and stopped to look at the light play over her face as it illuminated her eyes.
He frowned and looked away right as he noticed that Jeanne was done examining the crystal. He began moving forward and internally sighed.
We must still be… connected somehow given that I've been in her memories and dreams almost constantly but I'm no longer her Master and the war's over so…. what else could be connecting us?
The first thought his brain came up with was one he immediately scoffed at and tossed away. He glanced back and caught her gaze feeling his face heat as he quickly looked forward.
We never did… properly talk about that night… Did we…. I mean, We… tried to but….
What would there even be to talk about?
Even if she did feel that way for me before she sure as fuck doesn't now.
Micheal inhaled a slow breath pulling the mana filled air into his lungs as he once again remembered what he had felt from her end of their bond. It was still just as sharp and painful now as it was then.
The feeling of her heart shattering.
He let out the breath slowly and noticed that she had come up beside him while he was lost in his own thoughts. He watched out of the corner of his eye as her cowlick bounced in time with her movements and then looked ahead as they kept walking only,
"Micheal…?"
He noticed that she had stopped several paces behind him so he turned around to look at her. He could see her fighting herself in her eyes as she opened her mouth to speak only to close it.
"Yeah?"
He asked trying not to let any of the emotions running through his head affect his voice.
"When we… get out of Avalon… I want to…"
He watched her, wanting to help somehow, but knew she'd hate him for it. She clenched her hand into a fist and blew out her cheeks before looking him in the eye,
"If I asked you to sign something like a contract, something other than the Master-Servant one we established when you summoned me… would you honor it?"
Micheal blinked,
"Of course. Geass or not I'd stand by anything like that. Even more so if its between myself and someone I care about. Why?"
He watched as various emotions flickered across her face before she settled into what he knew by now was her neutral mask.
"Okay. Good. Lets keep going."
Micheal stood to the side as she walked past him. He opened his mouth to ask what that was about but decided against it, instead walking a bit behind her. As they kept going down Micheal noticed something changing within him. It was like a part of him that had been asleep was slowly, achingly slowly, waking up the further down they went. He wondered at the source of the feeling but kept his attention on the path as it seemed to steepen under his feet.
Eventually they wound up outside a truly massive cavern lined with crystal pillars stretching from floor to ceiling. The path clearly kept going along the floor of the cavern except,
"Well this sucks."
Jeanne said kicking a rock with her shoe off the edge of the cliff they were on. Micheal leaned over and noticed that the path picked back up at the base of the cliff. He narrowed his eyes, trying to measure the angle when the back of his eyes started itching. He blinked,
"Somethings messing with my eyes…." He said as he ground the heel of his palms into his eyes until he saw stars trying dispel the feeling. He pulled his hands away and blinked to clear his vision when for the briefest moment he saw that the cavern was gone and in its place was a smaller cavern with a single stone pillar that had blue symbols and lines on it. He blinked and the massive cavern was back.
"What do you mean- Micheal? HEY!!"
Jeanne grabbed his shirt and pulled him away from the edge as he was about to walk off of it.
"Are you insane!? I would get hurt falling from this height and even if you are half faerie you'd be in rough shape too. What the actual hell were you thinking?!"
Micheal blinked again and focused on pulling mana into his eyes as he saw the view in front of him waver slightly like a badly tuned TV. He was about to turn to look at Jeanne when he remembered his promise. He turned off his eyes and looked at her,
"The cavern is fake- Well...not fake but- Whats with that look."
He watched as the Servant looked at him like he was insane and just raised her eyebrows. She bent down to pick up a rock and he felt mana pulse off of her as she threw the rock across the entire cavern to smack into the opposite wall with a loud crack. She turned to look at him and folded her arms,
"You just don't want to admit that I'm right."
Micheal rolled his eyes and looked back down at the floor of the cavern. Now that he was looking at it he noticed that several puddles of water and groups of crystals seemed to be identical in shape but rotated and grouped seemingly at random. He had the beginnings of an idea form in his brain but he needed to be sure. He summoned Blessed Hellfire into his hand and changed it into Fusil then manifested the scope onto it and held it to his shoulder pointing it out into the cavern watching the numbers on the mount below the lens,
"Micheal." Jeanne said tiredly, "It is too damn early to be going insane so-"
"The distances are wrong."
He looked at her as she blinked and gave him a look clearly expecting him to explain further. He angled the rifle so that she could look down the scope and told her to watch the number on the bottom of the scope's mount. He slowly swept the rifle from side to side.
"Wait when you're aiming…. there." Jeanne said pushing the rifle back to the right with her hand and then stopping it. She pulled her gaze away from the scope and then looked at the number furrowing her brow, "This works by using distance between the scope and the target right?"
"Mhm. Its a way to measure distance so I can adjust for bullet drop off not that I really have to given that Fusil fire beams of light or plasma or whatever. You noticed what it did though right?"
"Yeah…. when you're aiming down the middle of the cavern the distance gets cut by almost half only to reset…. but there's nothing in the cavern that could be doing that. It would have to be floating in midair."
She crossed her arms and thought about it as Micheal looked back out into the cavern. He thought he knew what was going on but didn't know how to get past it without Jeanne thinking he was about to walk off the cliff edge again. As he thought about this Blessed Hellfire suddenly changed from Fusil to d'Argent Noirci in his hands causing him to drop the blade in a panic. He bent down to pick it up when he suddenly saw something as he felt his fae eyes draw in mana,
_____
The light around him seemed to darken as he stood upright and looked around noticing a woman with blue white hair held in a ponytail with a black bow was standing in front of the pillar with a pitch black staff in her hand. She tapped the staff on the ground and a wave of blue-black mana flowed out from the spike at the bottom of the staff that quickly covered the pillar causing the same runes he had seen before to take shape.
Then he heard her speak and he realized it was eerily similar but still different from the voice that had called itself "Titania" while he was inside the grail. He watched her circle the pillar as though inspecting it,
"Hmmm….," She tapped her staff against the pillar causing the symbols to all move into a central point that Micheal thought looked like a target circle. She tapped the pillar again and the symbols dispersed, "So this is what they consider a 'challenge' then? Utterly Pathetic."
He blinked and she had vanished from where she was then suddenly she was standing beside him holding out her staff at an angle as more of that blue-black mana gathered around its tip. With a disdainful flick she launched the orb of mana and the symbols automatically moved to form the target right as the mana impacted it dead center blowing the pillar apart. She hummed appreciatively and put away her staff. She walked forward to inspect the ruins of the piller. pausing to pick up a fragment. She turned it over in her hand and then tossed it into the air as she made a finger gun with her other hand, aimed it at the fragment, and blew it apart with a shot of condensed mana from her fingertip. She looked at her hand as she extended the rest of her fingers rubbing her thumb against them,
"I should ask that man to have the fox get me some of those 'Firearms' that she keeps talking about. It would be interesting to see how they work on faeries and on seals such as this…." She trailed off and Micheal watched her ice blue eyes briefly glow before dimming, "The seal clearly functions as intended which means its mirrored properly in Proper Human History, which is a pity. I needed more materials for my project. I just hope whoever inherits my other self's origin and core in the main timeline isn't a complete dullard."
_____
Micheal blinked as his normal vision came back into focus and realized that Jeanne was talking,
"-on't see how we can get down without jumping. Out of all the things we should have brought I knew hiking gear and a rope was one of them."
Micheal looked down at La rose d'Argent Noirci, flicking his gaze between the ornament and the blade. They seemed to match each other too well to think of them as entirely separate. He grabbed the ornament out of the air and looked at it, turning it over in his hand, and saw a bit of metal sticking out of the bottom of it that was clearly one half of a twist lock mechanism. He flicked his gaze to the blade and noticed the counterpart to the twist lock was on the pommel. He inverted his grip on the blade and began to move the ornament to the pommel when it suddenly jerked itself out of his hand and attached itself with a clicking sound.
Okay…. Now what do I do with this….. hang on…..
He held out the combined La rose d'Argent Noirci and looked at it realizing it looked like an ornate casting staff and glanced from it to where he knew the pillar would be as he had an idea. He set himself where the woman had been before and held out La rose d'Argent Noirci in one hand as he held his other hand behind it in the same stance she had been in with her staff. He subconsciously settled into his stance behind it as he tilted the staff a bit so he could aim using the filigree as a crosshair,
"Micheal? Wait- Since when did La rose d'Argent Noirci combine-"
Micheal grinned and quickly gathered mana, noticing that it was gathering inside what he now realized wasn't an ornament or perfume bottle but was a spellcasting focus. The mana he gathered quickly became energized within the focus and he imagined pulling a sling shot back and then letting go as he flicked the staff forward and the mana shot out as a crystaline dart that vanished into thin air.
"Okay...impressive but what-"
"Give it a second."
There was the sound of rocks shattering followed by an explosion as a fraction of a second later the entire image in front of them shimmered out of existence exposing the ruins of the pillar in the smaller cavern. Jeanne's mouth fell open and she looked from the scene in front of them to him and back. He grinned at her and reverted his grip on La rose d'Argent Noirci, noticing that while the focus automatically detached as he did so the blade retained some of the energized mana from the focus.
"How…."
"Morgan… I think. She was here before us…. but also wasn't? I got the feeling that what I saw wasn't… here but… also was."
Jeanne gave him a deadpan look,
"So you're seeing visions of Morgan le Fay. How long has this been going on for then."
"This was the first time and it wasn't a vision so much as an… echo. ...I think."
"uh huh…. anyway. Path is open. Lets go."
Micheal put La rose d'Argent Noirci away and continued walking, hopping over the ruins of the pillar as he did so. Right as he was about to exit the small chamber he felt a cold winter breeze blow past him from behind. He looked around and his eyes locked onto what looked like quickly dispersing blue-black mana particles. He stood there for long enough that Jeanne yelled for him to hurry up and he hesitated before fully turning his back on the chamber still feeling that breeze.
####
"Fucking finally," he heard Jeanne mutter as the path finally leveled out.
"Agreed." Micheal grumbled as they paused for a break, "What I wouldn't give for some water."
"I could use a nice glass of wine myself…"
They leaned against opposite sides of the tunnel and massaged their aching muscles. They had been walking downward for what felt like hours and had encountered several more of what Micheal had decided were tests of some kind. The one immediately after the pillar had been trying to cross a river. They had done that easily enough by having Jeanne use her fire to jump across while Micheal drew in mana and froze a section of the river solid which, of course, got him yelled at. The test they had just passed had been odd in that it wasn't a test so much as a bounded field that both had crossed easily.
"Do you think that bounded field just now was the whole "Only those free of sin may pass" thing?" Jeanne asked after a minute or two.
"Really can only ask the guy sitting at the end of this tunnel can't we?" Micheal said standing up with a groan as Jeanne did the same. He rubbed his aching thighs, "I wonder how much longer we have to go though. Avalon is 'paradise' right? Wonder what kind of paradise it's supposed to be."
"Whatever it is I hope it has running water because I need a shower after all of this crap. I don't even want to know how much cave dust is in my hair."
He chuckled at this and they fell into silence as they walked until finally the tunnel curved in front of them and they saw light around the bend ahead of them. Breaking into a jog Jeanne went forward and then vanished as she turned out of the tunnel. Micheal broke into a jog himself and found her standing just outside the exit. He came up beside her and his mouth fell open.
"Its…. beautiful…" She breathed as a breeze blew some flower petals by them.
He could only nod in response.
I finally get what they mean by 'paradise'….
They were looking out from the top of a small hill overlooking rolling hills of flowerfields in every color of the rainbow. Behind both of them was the cave exit seemingly standing on its own in the air. In front of and all around them were flowers of every color and shape while a simple stone path led out from under their feet. In the distance he could just barely see a tower against the horizon while closer to them was a small town.
What really drove home that this was 'Paradise' was the feeling in the air and land itself. Everything radiated peace and contentment, like an everpresent but unspoken feeling of 'no matter what ails you may have, you will find peace here.' that seemed to come from everything and everywhere.
They walked down the path continuing to look around in awe. Eventually they reached the town and entered through what was clearly the main gate and got to the main square only,
"...There's no one here." Jeanne said quietly, "An empty town sitting in paradise…. seems bitterly fitting in a way."
Micheal nodded and kept looking around. He felt like they were being watched but he couldn't tell from where.
"Oh! You're new here!"
They both turned around to see a woman with pointed ears and ankle length blonde hair step out from an open door in one of the buildings. She smiled at them and Micheal immediately felt a part of him respond to it. He frowned and placed a hand over his heart as the woman walked over to them,
"Its been a while since we've had any visitors. What are your…." She trailed off as she got closer to them and Micheal noticed she was staring at him with a complicated expression. Jeanne coughed and got her attention back,
"We're here because our friend-"
"Because you were invited yes?"
She asked not taking her eyes off of him. He nodded and she breathed out a sigh of relief,
"Sorry if I seemed wary just now. You're mana is identical to my late sister so I was worried that she had somehow reincarnated."
Micheals eyes widened as Jeanne inhaled a sharp breath,
"You're Vivian. You're the Lady of the Lake."
Vivian performed an elaborate bow and smiled at them warmly all suspicion gone,
"At your service."
She looked at him again and she pursed her lips,
"You're barely using your faerie core. Any reason why?"
"I'm sorry my what?"
"His WHAT!?"
She blinked at both of them and tilted her head confused,
"Is that not why you're here? One of you is a Servant with a Grail core, Hellfire, and Dragon Witchcraft while the other is a partial Faerie with a Faerie Core they are barely using. I thought you would have come here to learn how to use all of that better if nothing else. Surely your not here for the company."
"Now, Now, Vivian my dear. I've been told that my company is in high demand right now. Isn't that correct Micheal Lafaire? Jeanne d'Arc Alter?"
Another voice came out of a sudden whirlwind of flower petals that dispersed to show a man with white hair, purple eyes, and white robes who was holding a staff in one hand. Vivian sighed and rubbed her temple,
"The fact you can leave your tower at all, even as a flower clone, is infuriating for a number of reasons Merlin."
Micheal and Jeanne suddenly focused their attention on the man who fidgeted a bit and frowned,
"I had an introduction ready to go and everything…." He coughed into his fist and performed a bow, "Oh well. Merlin. Mage of Flowers and Wizard of King Arthurs court."
He smiled in a way that reminded Micheal of a predator looking at its prey,
"And I've been watching your journey so far with great interest. Its been the finest show since the late 18th century and I've been on the edge of my seat the entire time."
"It was you…" Jeanne said slowly as her eyes widened, "You saved us from dying when Blessed Hellfire was forged."
Merlin blinked and tilted his head smiling at her innocently,
"No idea what you're talking about. Now then," He said tapping the tip of his staff on the ground causing the door to a nearby house to open, "You all need your rest. Luckily you're in the best place bar none to get that. Also Micheal, a moment please."
Micheal looked at the wizard who gazed at him with clear anticipation,
"I am intrigued to see your decision."
He blinked,
"Decision?"
Merlin nodded and smirked at him,
"Surely you've felt your faerie blood reacting since the moment you entered the cave correct? I bet if you take off your shirt your fae markings will have become more prominent as well. I give it a little over a year before you're no longer human."
#######
-Two Months Later-
Micheal cracked open his eyes and looked out into the room he was sleeping in. It had been two months since he and Jeanne had first arrived in Avalon. Two months of trying to learn Faerie Witchcraft while also trying not to stimulate his Faerie Core at the same time. He sat up in bed and his eyes landed on the scorch marks on the wooden floor. He shut his eyes and took slow breaths as he remembered the argument he had had with Jeanne Alter two weeks after they had came here,
"I don't want you or anyone else in my damn life! I've fucked up too much already and the fact you still treat me kindly despite everything I've done to you just-"
"Jeanne you haven't- I've never- Wait! WOAH-"
The room was suddenly scorching hot as Micheal jumped away from Jeanne who had yelled in rage and launched hellfire at the floor. Just as quickly it vanished leaving nothing but smoldering embers and a lingering heat. In the deathly quiet that followed neither of them moved until Jeanne turned on her heel and almost ripped the door off its hinges. She didn't look back at him as she said,
"…..I'm leaving. You're an idiot. Don't follow me. Don't talk to me. If we ever wind up having to do anything together then just let me work on my own and pretend I don't exist."
He could still hear the door slamming in his mind along with the smell of burning wood. He knew she didn't mean to use her hellfire as an attack against him but regardless he kept the burns on the floor where they were as a reminder to himself every morning. A reminder to keep his distance from her for now. He fell backwards onto the bed and dug the heels of his palms into his eyes until he saw stars. He laid there for a few seconds before getting out of bed and going about his morning routine.
Avalon, given its utopian nature, adapted to its occupants which means that after the first night the house that he was staying in had magically upgraded itself to modern 20th century standards. He walked into the kitchen to make breakfast and after eating it all, as well as cleaning up, he left the house. He walked over to where he had been training this whole time with Vivian only to slow down when he heard the sounds of weapons clashing. He frowned, wondering what was going on, and then decided to try something Vivian had taught him how to do a few days before.
He focused on drawing mana into himself and felt his body respond as he felt physically lighter while at the same time he could feel his muscles fill with energy. He quickly channeled the energy, which in turn made it look like golden magical circuits on his body, and leapt onto the roof of a nearby three story house. It wasn't the tallest vantage point but it also was high enough that he could see-
"Jeanne?"
His eyes widened as he saw Jeanne Alter sparring with Merlin. He could feel her mana even from the distance he was at and watched as Merlin used his staff to redirect her punch and launch her behind him only for her to shoot hellfire out of her palms to slow her landing but didn't cut off the flames as she instead used them to hover in place. Micheal eyes widened as he saw her flames condense down into a jet plume not unlike a booster rocket for a space ship. He watched as she tried to control her flames only to be shot violently to one side as her control over one of the jets slipped. He winced as she crashed through two houses and landed in a third while the entire time Merlin stood there with his arms folded around his staff.
Darkened Lances shot out of the third house only for Merlin to quickly tap his staff on the ground turning them all into flower petals. Micheal tried to hide behind the roof as best he could as Jeanne blew apart the house she had crashed into and then stalked out of it as her rage visibly boiled off of her.
"She's trying her best." Came a voice to Micheals left. He turned to see Vivian peering over the top of the roof with him. She met his gaze and smiled,
"Have you two made up yet?"
Micheal shook his head as he felt his stomach tie itself into knots like it did every time he thought about the last time they had talked and now every time Vivian asked that same question. He turned to look for her and managed to catch sight of her as she walked into the woods bordering the town.
"You'll get there. Both of you will. I've had… plenty of arguments with Merlin and while we… aren't what I thought we would be, we are better now than where we were at the start." she said firmly as she gave him a knowing look before she stood up and held out her hand. Micheal stared at it and then stood up on his own as he narrowed his eyes at her,
"Not falling for that again."
Vivian laughed out loud at this and she gazed at him with clear mirth as he felt her activate her own faerie core. Her eyes sparkled with an almost manic edge as she moved almost faster than he could react only having the time to briefly reinforce himself as she kicked him clear across the town to land in a fountain with a massive crash. He groaned and rolled backwards out of the ruins of the fountain and billowing cloud of dirt as well as out of the follow up attack he knew was coming. He summoned d'Argent Noirci as Vivian crashed into the cobblestones where he had landed cratering the ground. She hopped out of the crater smiling that manic smile that Micheal had learned by now was the face she made when her battle lust was simmering.
"Better! You've learned to activate your core just enough to enhance your body-" She called out as she bounced on one foot before vanishing from his sight right before his combat sense screamed at him to dodge. He quickly moved under the spin kick that Vivian had started from behind him only for her to lift her other leg while in mid air and drive her heel towards his head. He quickly parried the blow using La rose d'Argent Noirci's handguard but felt the sting of the blow regardless as he was blown back again but managed to remain standing. He quickly drew in mana to fire off a crystal dart from the focus but had to redirect the mana into the blade to cut through a bench that she had thrown at him.
"Better~" She called out in a singsong voice, "What you're trying to do is difficult but not undoable. You just need better control over your own core, although it still puzzles me-"
She dashed forward blowing the cobblestones under her apart as she got close to him, slipped under his guard, and then sent a right cross directly into his sternum blowing him through several houses.
He snapped open his eyes as he came back from being briefly unconscious with a gasp and coughed up blood as he levered him self onto his elbows to see Vivian leisurely walking towards him. She was tossing something in her hand that looked like part of one of the houses he had been blown through that she caught in one hand and then crushed in one smooth movement as she knelt down next to him tilting her head like a curious bird,
"Why do you want to remain even slightly human? If you just used your Faerie core like its meant to be used then-"
"I was born a human and I will die a human." Micheal managed to say as he felt Avalon heal his injuries, "Even if that death comes thousands of years from now I will make sure some part of me remains human."
Vivian scoffed and gave him a flat look,
"and yet you also want to use Faerie Witchcraft. You can't have both."
He grinned, feeling the blood in his teeth slowly vanish as he was fully healed by paradise, and his grin turned into a smirk,
"I've performed a capital 'M' Miracle before now. Mastering Faerie Witchcraft and remaining Human in the process is nothing compared to that."
Her smile was all teeth as she stood up and pulled her leg back,
"Good Answer! Then I look forward to seeing you do it Micheal Lafaire!"
She kicked and launched him a hundred meters into the air.
-Jeannes PoV-
Jeanne stalked through the forest and ground her teeth together as she remembered Merlins stupid smile. She yelled in rage and swung her right fist turning a nearby tree into splinters. She stood there breathing hard as she felt her flames burn in response to her anger and then turned on her heel to go in a different direction. She followed the same path as usual and eventually walked out of the forest into a giant clearing full of flowers. In the middle of all of this was a simple stone plinth with gold and blue silk draped over it on top of which was a girl who seemed to be sleeping.
She walked forward and sat down in her usual spot next to the resting place of Artoria Pendragon. Her discovering this area was, in her mind, a complete accident. About a week after she had had her argument with Micheal she had left her own house on the opposite side of the town and felt like someone was calling out to her. She didn't have any training with Merlin that day since it was one where he couldn't manifest a flower clone and so she decided to follow this feeling.
As she left the town she heard the usual series of explosions that signaled that Vivian had started training Micheal but ignored it as she walked into the woods where she had found King Arthur not quite sleeping but not quite dead in the middle of the field on top of a stone plinth with her hands clasped over her chest. She had walked up next to her and looked down at Artorias small smile before turning on the spot and sitting down to lean back onto the cool stone. She had stayed there until 'night' came where she sighed and stood up to leave only to hear "Its nice to see you again." from behind her.
She still didn't know if it really was Artoria who had said that at the time and no amount of poking the sleeping king had garnered a response but ever since then whenever she needed space or time to think she would come here to talk into the empty air. She knew that as much as Merlin infuriated her she understood that, like how Vivian was to Micheal, he was her best sparring partner.
He relied on illusions and what she had been told was "pure magic" in that it was more directing mana with intent than it was channeling it into a spell. Based on what Vivian and Merlin had both said her Dragon Witchcraft was identical in that it was a form of mana that she used with intent.
It also explained why she couldn't use any normal magecraft because her mana was fundamentally incapable of being used that way. Merlin said he couldn't cast proper magecraft because he would always get tongue tied however Jeanne had a feeling that he could perform Magecraft but chose not to because he just never felt like exerting the effort to do so.
"Which is another reason why he pisses me off." She muttered as she leaned her head back against the fabric on the plinth, "He has all that talent and he just never bothers to use any of it. I had to work on my Dragon Witchcraft. I had to bend Fafnir to my will and even after I did that it still took so much effort and time to get it all right… meanwhile that bastard Incubus just…. exists and does all of that without ever having to try or study or train."
She closed her eyes and in her minds eye imagined Artoria sitting next to her,
"Yeah he wasn't much better when I was alive. The amount of times I'd send for him for something and the messenger would find him in a brothel doing…. brothel things is more times than I'd care to count."
Jeanne turned her head and opened her eyes to look at Artoria who was leaning back against the plinth with her eyes closed,
"Yet… you let him train you. Not just with Excalibur but Rhongomyniad and Carnwennen as well. So clearly there's something about him that makes it worth dealing with him and his bullshit."
The Blonde opened her eyes and angled her head to look at Jeanne with a frown,
"If I'm being completely honest and take all my biases out of the equation: Merlin is the best teacher and sparring partner because he will focus in on your weakest point and will just keep hammering away at it until its your best point. Then he moves onto your second weakest point and so on and so forth. I mastered the sword, spear, and dagger, fully partnered with Excalibur and managed to get both Rhongomyniad and Carnwennen to not only allow me to use them but obey me as well. All by the time I was twenty-four and that was only possible because Merlin was teaching me."
Jeanne frowned thoughtfully herself and looked out into the field of flowers,
"So based on that, the fact that the first thing he's focusing on is my hellfire first over anything else means its my weakest point then."
She watched Artoria wince out of the corner of her eye and sighed,
"If nothing else you are right on one thing. I've learned to better control my flames thanks to sparring with him. I actually came up with this one trick I can do with them…."
~~~~~~~
"-Yet he keeps wiping the floor with me anyway!" Jeanne shouted in halfbaked anger as Artoria laughed. She pouted at the Saber who just looked at her with an apologetic smile,
"Sorry, Sorry, Just…. Its odd seeing this from the outside is all. I'm pretty sure I've said what you just got done yelling hundreds of times during my training under the man."
Jeanne stuck out her tongue and pulled her legs up to rest her chin on her knees. They sat in silence for a while,
"I think you're the first person I could call a friend without any qualifications Artoria."
"Likewise… though…."
Artoria stared at her hands for a few seconds,
"When I was king I….was often called inhuman due to how I suppressed my emotions. I just thought that if I was to be the best king. The most noble. The most kind and generous… then I wouldn't be able to stay human because being human…" She trailed off thinking,
"Is messy." Jeanne finished as Artoria nodded fervently.
"I guess in that regard I am envious of your own rule over France, Jeanne Alter."
She looked sharply at Artoria who smiled softly at her,
"You were able to express your emotions while being its ruler."
"I wasn't any ruler." Jeanne said bitterly, "If I wanted to rule France I went about doing it in the worst possible way."
"Oh?" Artoria asked curious, "Then how would you have ruled it. Not as the Dragon Witch of Orleans but as say….. The Dragon Queen of France."
Jeanne fell silent as she rolled the question over in her head. Artoria fell back into silence herself and after several minutes,
"I would have….. I don't actually know." She blinked, "I've never thought of myself as being a leader. Yeah I have the knowledge of how to lead an army thanks to who I am but I… don't even know if I can lead anything like a country. Everything I did in Orleans was meant to burn everything to the ground. I would think to be a countries leader I'd need to… not... Do that."
She turned to Artoria who had her eyes closed but was wearing a small smile,
"In order to lead you need to be able to see both the bigger and smaller picture at the same time. You need to understand that no matter what you do someone will hate you for it. The trick is to balance who hates you at what time and how much."
Jeanne scoffed causing Artoria to glare at her,
"I was expecting something a bit more flowery than that to be honest with you."
"You want flowery you go to Lancelot or Merlin. You want practical answers that you can act on, you come to me."
They stared at each other only to both start laughing,
"How strange…. To think that only after my death I would have someone I could call my friend. The world is truly strange."
Jeanne hummed an agreement as they fell into silence and stared into the flower field surrounding the plinth.
"Artoria?"
"hm?"
"I'm not sure….. how much or if you remember the 4th Grail War but…."
She turned to look at Artoria and for a split second saw the Darkened Artoria sitting there. Then she blinked and the normal Artoria was back looking guilty,
"I… How do I even explain this." She said leaning her head back against the plinth to stare into the open sky. After a bit of silence she blew out her cheeks,
"I think I'll take a page out of your book on this Alter."
"How so?"
"By just charging the issue head on: Yes. I remember the Fourth Grail War we both took part in. I remember every version of the Fourth War. I also know about a 5th Grail War and everything that took place in that one. For… whatever reason I have…. completely different sets of memories that are both entirely on their own but also overlap with each other."
Jeanne stared as the Saber servant clutched her head with her hand and grimaced,
"There's a version of the 4th war where I'm taken out by an Heir to the Pendragons who was wielding Rhongomyniad better than I could ever hope to. There is a version of the 5th war were I am darkened by the Grail and slaughter everyone in Fuyuki…."
"...Do you ever get your wish granted in any version of any war?"
"No. Not once. Even then… I'm not sure if my wish would ever be allowed to happen in the first place."
Artoria slumped forward and hung her head as Jeanne tried to think of something, anything to comfort her friend.
"Were….. there any bright points in any of those timelines at least?"
Artoria's face broke into a smile that took Jeanne off guard at the warmth and happiness it contained as she lifted her head and stared into the sky. She briefly wondered if she had ever smiled like that around Micheal but quickly smothered the thought as the other woman spoke,
"Yes. In one timeline in the 5th Grail War…. I fell in love with someone who loved me back just as much but… I wasn't able to stay with him. Its bizarre…," She frowned and narrowed her eyes as if trying to focus, "I… can't remember his face or name but…. I remember his voice."
Jeanne fell silent at this and clearly Artoria noticed her discomfort because she bumped her shoulder against hers,
"I'm not mad at you for being able to stay by the way. I guess I should congratulate you as well."
"For… what?"
"You and Micheal won the 4th Grail War."
Jeanne grimaced and glowered out at the field feeling a sudden urge to set it all on fire. She opted instead for just seething for a few seconds,
"You…. did win right? You and Micheal got to make your respective wishes?"
"Yes. For all the good it did Micheal. My wish…. He came back a cripple because of it and I'm starting to think the only reason he is able to see or do anything with mana is due to your sister somehow. Which means she could take it away just as easily."
Artoria scoffed as Jeanne glared at her. She quickly raised her hands as she explained,
"I'm not scoffing at your concerns. I'm laughing at the idea that my Sister would even do such a thing to him in the first place. Wherever she is she needs him perfectly intact."
Jeannes simmering anger turned into confusion,
"Why would she do all of that?"
"Because I would bet good odds that she is planning on turning Micheal into a souless puppet for her to insert herself into to rule the modern day." She said with a frown, "You said while I was merged with Alison that she specifically referred to Micheal as her "Heir" correct when your 'memory' of what you saw in the water mirror turned out to be more than that right?"
She nodded and felt her stomach twist into knots at Artoria looked at her with grim determination,
"Then forget about betting. Thats exactly what she is going to do."
She looked Jeanne in the eyes as she felt a chill run down her spine,
"Her goal is to have Micheal turn into an Arch-Fae and then take him over after killing his soul."
-Micheals PoV-
--four Months later--
Micheal staggered into his house feeling as though he had been worked over by a roadroller.
He managed to sit down at the table in his kitchen before his legs gave out on him and he laid his forehead down as he just let himself fully rest for the first time in four days. Earlier that week Vivian and Merlin had told both him and Jeanne that from now on they would be working together to better support each other but first both of them had them spar.
It was the first time in six months he had properly stood in front of Jeanne Alter and he had to admit that her training had worked for her in spades. She was able to control her hellfire to the point where she could generate jetplumes allowing her to move at outrageous speeds and then when she swapped where the plume is coming from she could adjust her angle of attack using 3d space. She had done as much to get around one of Micheals attacks as she had charged him head on, shot a plume out from her hip to dodge to the right, immediately followed that by using another plume under her heels to go over and behind him, and then jumped and spun to drive her armored heel between his shoulder blades knocking him directly into a house.
"Even with my old eyes and everything else I don't think I could have done much against her now that she's like this…" Micheal said remembering how she had started their next spar. She had ignited a jetplume under the heel of each boot and then had one come out from behind her elbow as she launched herself forward to slug him. The next thing he knew he was flying through house after house until finally he landed in a street. He had managed to stand up and summoned La rose d'Argent Noirci as he tried desperately to fight back. They had continued their "spar" and while Micheal got in some good hits it was very clear how one sided it was.
This had continued over the next four days with them only resting to let themselves heal a bit. She hadn't tried to outright kill him even though she had hadn't ever summoned her sword or flagspear. She also never summoned Blessed Hellfire either. She just kept beating on him and it was starting to get to him. Not her beating him up, he knew he deserved that much after their argument but it was more that,
"She never looked like she was having fun at all during any of the sparring. When we'd spar back in the training room at the house she was all feral grins and yells. Now she's just frowning and… well not quiet but quieter. She usually enjoys fighting. Did something… else happen?"
He turned his head to look at his right hand as he felt his bones complain to stare at the lingering marks of the command seals that were still etched into the back of it. He frowned and pulsed his hand with mana. As expected nothing happened but he closed his eyes and checked the part of him where the master servant bond was anyway for the first time in over a year and a half. He stiffened in his chair as he checked and rechecked it, not quite believing what he was sensing,
"The bond…. Its still active. Which explains why I've been seeing her memories and dreams still- SHIT. The Master-Servant bond was never cut after the grail war!"
He stood up suddenly, pain forgotten, and yanked open his door. He quickly ran to the area of town where Jeanne was supposedly living and right as he was about knock on a random door he sensed someone behind him and he turned around just in time to see a woman made of blue crystal reach out and touch his chest over his heart with ice cold fingers followed by the entire world flipping upside down as his vision narrowed to a single point of light and then went out.
++++++++++++++
The first thing Micheal noticed upon regaining consciousness is that he couldn't open his eyes to see where he was despite physically opening them only to see a black void. He panicked, trying to sense where he was but couldn't sense anything with any of his five senses or magical ones. He paused, frowning, as he pulsed and did a scan of himself.
I have circuits again!? ...No these aren't circuits… its more like…
He froze as he recognized what this feeling was. It was as if his Faerie core had grown to the point where encompassed his body and took the place of circuits. Beginning to panic more he tried to move his arms and legs but they felt like they were trapped in a thick jello. He tried again to open his eyes and eventually as a last ditch effort decided to send mana to them.
Immediately the world clicked into view and he blinked, his eyes widening, and felt the earlier panic accelerate into a full blown panic attack. He was floating in a giant tube of blue-green liquid in what was clearly a mages workshop of some kind. He remembered what his mother had told him would happen to him if Mages ever got a hold of him and he finally activated his core as a last resort. Immediately he felt his limbs flood themselves with mana as he drew in more of the stuff through the tube he was trapped in. He noticed that once he had activated his core his limbs moved more fluidly and right as he was about to start trying to break out of the tank the room lit up.
A door slid open and his eyes widened as a tall woman wearing white robes with white-blue hair held in a ponytail with a black bow walked leisurely into the room. She saw him and the only thing she did was furrow her brow and walk over to a desk. She opened a drawer, pulled out a notebook, grabbed a pen, and walked over to the tank to stand in front of it. She stared at him and he felt as though he had seen her before but it was like his memories had been cut out and only the holes remained. He stared at the woman,
"Well?" The woman asked in a slightly irritated British accent, "Go ahead. Break the tank and see if you can get out. I need to record the data."
Micheal frowned at the woman and lowered his arms as he opened his mouth to try and talk. He blinked and tried speaking again. He quickly felt his throat as he realized that he couldn't speak. The woman chuckled drawing his attention back to her,
"You're about…. 25 years too early. I haven't put in vocal chords yet. Currently you are 67.39% complete…. Micheal Lafaire."
He went completely still in the tank which she noticed and arched an eyebrow,
"Clearly the delayed implantation wasn't done properly by my Proper Human History self." She sighed and walked around the tank folding her arms as she looked at him with what he could call at best detached interest, "She also didn't give me much to work with in terms of creating your body either given that you blew yourself apart previously at the age of six trying to activate the faerie core that she cloned and gave you."
Micheal watched her look him over as her gaze morphed into one of academic interest and he looked down for the first time to see he was fully nude. He quickly covered himself as the woman laughed,
"Oh don't worry. No one cares and frankly I don't think anyone besides me and my daughter even care about sex. Even then," She said as she put a hand on her hip and smiled a sultry smile at him, "Neither I nor Her would let you act on anything you might feel upon seeing us."
Micheal felt his face heat and looked away as the woman clearly chuckled at his expense,
"I simply made you as accurate to your previous life as possible. Nothing more, Nothing less. Now then."
She gestured at the tank and took a step back as he looked back at her. He had a sinking feeling he knew who this woman was as his faerie core repaired his memories but more than that he wondered what she meant by 'blowing himself apart in a previous life'. He ran a hand over his face and made a gesture for writing causing the womans eyebrows to raise,
"Thats acceptable." She said after thinking for a bit, "But first you'll need to, again, break out on your own. Don't make me ask again."
Micheal felt a chill run down his spine at the deadly intent that she laced that last sentence with and then focused on the tank. He punched it only for nothing to happen noticing that the woman was writing something down.
I am not some god damned science project. You want me to break out? Fine.
He activated his faerie core as he reinforced his arms, noticing that the reinforcment lines running along his arms were gold, and then he punched the tank again causing a boom to echo out from it. He grinned and threw a punch with his other hand then followed that up with punch after punch. He kept hammering away at the tank and his efforts were rewarded when a small crack appeared. He focused on that crack causing it to quickly spiderweb out and then he spun in place and lashed out with his leg to drive his knee into the glass, blowing it apart completely. He was quickly washed out and onto the stone floor where he laid there breathing in air that felt wrong.
"Intriguing. You went for martial might instead of using magic despite your core being an exact copy of mine."
A set of blue-black heels entered his vision from where he was laying as his memories came back in full and looked up at Morgan le Fay who just smirked at him,
"I think you'll get along wonderfully with the rest of my knights…. Tam Lin Mordred."