-Jeannes PoV-
-4:57pm, Ninth Day of the Grail War-
"You know?" Amelia said as she stirred the pot on the stovetop in Jeanne and Micheals kitchen. Jeanne looked up from what she was doing and watched as Amelia dipped a small saucer into what she was making to taste. She hummed appreciatively, "I may have to incorporate more Japanese cooking techniques and meal ideas into my own cooking."
Jeanne smiled and went back to chopping the veggies with a knife making sure to cut them as evenly as she could. It was like a game of sorts and helped her not focus on the myriad things bothering her right now.
"mhm. Micheal-" She paused long enough for Amelia to chuckle a bit. She pouted at the blonde, "Your son found a few cookbooks in english that I might be able to drag out and give you."
The other woman hummed a bit as they fell back into comfortable silence only broken by the sounds of cooking. After a few minutes she was done with the veggies and moved them all into small bowls before going to the pantry. As she opened the door the ground shook underneath her causing her to pause and look down,
"Its been happening all day…"
She muttered to herself before going back to the pantry. She pulled out some covered bread rolls that Micheal had made the day before and went back to the kitchen counter.
"So remind me what we are making again Amelia?"
"French onion soup with chicken and mushrooms in breadbowls. Should be a nice taste of home for Micheal and, hopefully, yourself as well."
Jeanne scoffed and rolled her eyes,
"I don't think I'd have anything to compare it to either in my own life in the Singularity or in Jeanne D'Arcs memories. Even if I did think of anything it wouldn't be…. Anything like this."
She said gesturing at the mess that they had made,
"It would have been 15th century Frankish army food."
Amelia frowned and turned down the heat on the pot before covering it. After washing and drying her hands she gently took Jeannes hand in her own and moved them to the kitchen table. Jeanne let herself be led over and sat down when Amelia motioned for her to do so,
"So…. This might be a rude question but…."
She paused, clearly hesitating as Jeanne sighed and tilted her head back to look at the ceiling,
"You're wondering what Jeanne D'Arcs life was truly like right?"
She closed her eyes as she heard the other woman hum a confirmation. After a few seconds she opened them and looked at her,
"I've mentioned that I wasn't born but was created correct?"
Amelia nodded,
"You said that you were created from the depraved wish of a…. Caster version of Gilles de Rais right?"
Jeanne hummed a yes,
"Since I was created from his wish that also means I don't have all of Jeanne D'Arcs memories. I… don't know where my memories start or where hers end… or even if what I do remember of her life is even true. I am, through and through, a copy and a fake of the real Jeanne D'Arc. Hey! Hey! I'm not talking badly about myself okay- I'm just… being as objective as I can be."
She said holding up her hands in surrender at Amelias pointed frown. She stared into Amelias eyes for a few seconds before the other woman nodded and motioned for her to continue,
"Given that my entire existence was created thats… something I've always struggled with. My memories I mean. Of the things that were… done to the real Jeanne D'Arc versus the stuff that was done to me. I know the stuff that was done to me… but…."
She trailed off and did her best to supress the memories of the times Gilles had experimented on her. The times when he had injected her with poisons that made her feel like she was melting from the inside out or….
Or the aphrodisiacs and what they did to her or made her feel.
She shook her head to physically clear her thoughts as she inhaled a shaky breath,
"Asking me on what Jeanne D'Arcs life was like is a gamble at best because the honest truth is I don't know. What I do know could be entirely fabricated or there could be things that happened that I don't know about because those memories were never given to me."
She sighed and stared down at the table,
"I swear to whoever might be listening. I hope you killed Caster Gilles De Rais in the most painful way possible for everything he did to you. Even the stuff you're not telling me."
She winced and avoided Amelias eyes for a few seconds,
"...I did kill him…. but I think the twisted bastard enjoyed it anyway since it was me doing it."
She frowned as she remembered the feeling of casting her Noble Phantasm at her tormentor when she had found his workshop under the castle. Chaldea had been harassing her the entire time and she came back extremely annoyed when something caught her eye. It was a splattering of blood on the stone floor. She immediately locked down the castle and had guards posted at every crossing before she did anything else.
She had gone to the blood and scanned it, noticing that it was human in origin. She then had noticed several more splotches leading away from her down a hallway. She had followed them to what had seemed like a dead end only for her to hear a childs scream from somewhere nearby. She had blown through the walls until she found stairs leading down and as she went down them the screaming became louder until it finally cut off right as she hit the bottom of the stairs.
She continued on and eventually had found herself standing in front of an iron door that locked from the outside. She opened it….
And saw exactly how Caster performed his magecraft.
She had flooded the entire workshop with fire, leaving nothing but ashes as she had cast her Noble Phantasm for the first time, impaling Gilles de Ray on a dozen darkened lances, immolating him, and then making sure that not even ash remained of the twisted room. When she had come back up the stairs she had found one of her lieutenants waiting for her and she told them she had killed Gilles.
She pulled herself out of her memories and blew out her cheeks,
"It wasn't long after I killed him that I died actually. Maybe a month or two at most."
Amelia silently looked at her before nodding her head and standing up to move back to the stovetop,
"Assuming this isn't rude but I am curious as to how you even came across from your timeline to ours when Micheal summoned you."
Jeanne stood up but paused as she remembered something Micheal had said months ago,
"I wanted to summon you. Specifically the you that I met when I dreamwalked. I wouldn't have gone for anything or anyone else."
She felt her face heat,
"Thats…. A bit more involved so…."
Amelia looked back over her shoulder at her and grinned in that way that Jeanne found truly annoying as she teased her,
"As in it involves Micheal~? Well now I'm even more curious~"
Jeanne openly glared at the woman who just laughed as she came up to stand beside her. She busied herself helping with the rest of dinner right as the ground shook again. She frowned and looked over at Amelia who was also looking at the floor with a frown. She caught Jeanne's gaze and smiled at her uneasily before going back to the pot on the stove,
"Apparently the aftershocks can linger for a while assuming there was an earthquake earlier today that neither of us heard about," Amelia said uncertainty lacing her voice, "Regardless we should try and figure out where to evacuate if we need to do so."
Jeanne nodded and wrapped her fingers around the spoon she was going to use to turn the rolls into breadbowls. The repetitive motions helped calm her nerves as she felt a sense of peace wash over her. It also helped to distract her from thinking about Micheal a bit. Quick enough the bowls were made and she sighed, put down the spoon and glanced over her shoulder at the door to the kitchen,
"We have an evacuation route set. It came with the house," Jeanne said distractedly as the ground under them shook again, "but if there was an earthquake we would have heard over the radio by now… if anything the aftershocks, assuming thats what they are, seem to be getting worse as they go on…"
She looked at Amelia who had arched an eyebrow and was smiling a knowing smile. Jeanne immediately knew what the woman was thinking and felt her face warm as she flicked her eyes from Amelia to the door biting her lip,
"Go on. Get Micheal and figure out whats going on. If it comes down to it I'll evacuate with Sakura." Amelia said softly as she gave Jeanne a gentle push between her shoulder blades. Jeanne looked over at the woman who had turned into someone Jeanne knew she could rely on all within the past almost 72 hours. She closed her eyes and let out a slow breath. Opening them she took off her apron, hung it on its peg, and left the kitchen to find Micheal.
She wanted to keep their bond closed still given the state of her mind which meant finding him manually. She checked the living room and small dojo frowning as he wasn't in either. After checking a few more rooms, and skipping over his bedroom entirely because there was no way he was asleep, she went out back and began to walk towards his workshop. She got to the door, raising her hand to knock, but hesitated
Do I….Am I ready to be...alone in the same room as him again?
Jeanne lowered her hand as doubt flooded her mind causing her to hesitate. She bit her lip,
Come on you stupid Dragon Witch. You're a servant first and foremost. You know he doesn't think about you in that way but you still have a fucking job to do so get to it.
Jeanne glared at the door and knocked right as another vibration went through the ground under her. She paused and looked down furrowing her brow right as the door opened. She looked up and managed to catch a flurry of emotions on her Masters face as he saw her before he arranged it into a look of polite concern,
"Is this about the aftershocks?" He asked neutrally. Jeanne nodded and he waved her inside. She walked into the building and saw that her Master had been hard at work. There was a map overlaid onto the wall using the ink-water spell he had used before while what looked like an iron needle was stuck into concrete floor. The needle was then tied to a contraption that had a pen being dragged up and down along a length of paper.
The ground rumbled again and a fast scratching sound came from the machine as it drew more lines while the paper rolled under the pen tip. Micheal quickly tore off the freshly written length of paper and moved to pin it to the map on the wall. She went up to the map and after looking at it for a few seconds she realized it was of Fuyuki and the surrounding area including a few kilometers off the coast and into the ocean.
"You're mapping the aftershock points?" She asked after scrutinizing the map for a few more seconds. Her master hummed a yes but seemed distracted when she glanced over at him. He was bent over the gemcraft station and was in the middle of cutting what looked like a ruby only she noticed that his foot was bouncing up and down rapidly.
Given what little I know of gemcraft he's not going to be able to make any gems worth a damn if he's moving that much...
She looked from his foot up to the back of his head before deciding that was too dangerous if he turned around. She looked at his back instead and firmed her lips,
"Master."
He winced in his chair but turned to look at her and she could see the regret written plainly in his eyes. She sighed and decided to look somewhere else as she talked,
"I need to know I can rely on you for the rest of the Grail War. So lets just… pretend that what happened… didn't."
She refocused her gaze onto him as he firmed his lips,
"I'm your servant and you are my Master. I need to be able to trust that you'll help me or stop me if needed. So this…." Jeanne looked up a bit searching for the right word before folding her arms and glaring at the floor as she ignored the pain in her chest,
"We're a team and…-"
"I'm sorry."
Jeanne looked up at him as he cut her off while shame seemed to roll off of him in waves,
"I'm so sorry. I've been acting like an arrogant selfish bastard this entire time."
Jeanne tilted her head, confused. He looked at her with so much hurt in his eyes that she felt her stomach clench in response to it,
"Your wish is… to vanish right? To never have existed? Then my wish for the grail flies in the direct face of that…."
Jeanne furrowed her brow trying to remember when or if she ever told him that only for her eyes to widen as she flashed back almost an entire year to when he had found her in his uncles old room. She remembered what she had told him then.
He's…
Has he thought that that was my wish this entire time? Genuinely?
Jeanne frowned as she heard Sabers voice in her head,
Your wish went to bed several hours ago to rest his overworked eyes.
She groaned and ran a hand over her face wondering how she should clear this up right as a particularly violent shaking ripped through the ground. She stuck a foot out to stabilize herself and narrowed her eyes at the ground as for the briefest of moments she sensed mana under her different than the leylines. She looked up at Micheal and saw he had activated his eyes as he looked at the ground as well.
"….Its not natural."
He looked at her eyes wide,
"These aftershocks aren't natural! Somethings causing them!"
Jeanne felt a lead weight drop into her gut as they both ran from the workshop to the house. Micheal pulled out his phone and punched in a number, holding it up to his ear as they ran into the house. Jeanne ran past him into the kitchen to find Amelia already gone. Right as she was about to panic.
"Jeanne! We're in the entryway!"
Breathing a sigh of relief she ran to the entryway to find Amelia and Sakura with prepacked suitcases. Amelia looked her in the eyes,
"Change of plans. Somethings up and I want Sakura as far away from this as possible. I've booked a flight back to France and she's coming with me, Matous be damned. Will you and Micheal-"
"Go. Get going, We'll be fine." Jeanne said more sure than she felt as Amelia moved to her and gave her a hug,
"Its fine to be unsure about where you both stand. Don't rush it but try to repair it. You only have each other so take care of each other."
Jeanne hesitated and then returned the hug as Amelia squeezed her a bit,
"If I get back to France after the war… I'd like to go clothes shopping with you again, Ms. Lafaire."
Amelia undid her hug and held Jeanne out at arms length to smile at her,
"Of course. Now be sure both of you come back at the end of all this. Got it?"
Jeanne nodded and Amelia pulled her in for one more quick hug before taking Sakuras hand and opening the front door. Sakura gave her a wave and then the door slid closed as Jeanne took a deep breath and then turned around to find her Master. She didn't have to search far as she found him in the living room staring at the map as his phone sat in his hand. He looked up as she entered and she saw he had activated his eyes,
"Whats wrong."
"Emiya isn't answering his phone. I was able to reach Waver. He and Rider are in the air looking for the cause of the aftershocks but haven't found anything yet. I'd place good money on this being Gilles."
Jeanne frowned and walked up next to him to look at the map,
"Have you tried Irisveils phone?"
Micheal shook his head,
"Everytime she called me it was using Emiyas phone."
Jeanne felt mana pulse off of him as he dialed Emiyas number again right as a small amount of Electricity shot into the phone. He leaned forward and placed it on the map as Jeanne watched it begin to vibrate around on top of it eventually settling on the mountain behind Ryudo Temple.
"He's there...or thats where his mana was last." Micheal said as the phone sparked and popped as it died, "It shouldn't take this long to get the rune so…."
"Lets go check it out." Jeanne said equipping her armor in a flash of embers. She looked at Micheal nervously, "They left to get the rune two days ago before noon. Something must have happened because Saber is too strong for it to take this long."
Micheal stood up from the table and nodded, "We need to move fast then if we're going to make time to check the temple on top of everything else. Come on."
Micheal began to walk towards a part of the house she'd never really been in before, pausing to make a stop in his room to get another phone from the several he had bought prior, and eventually opened a door into what she realized after a few seconds was a garage. She walked out into it and her eyes widened as Micheal took a fabric cover off the car that was sitting in the middle of the floor. Just looking at it exuded power and speed. It was a matte black convertible similar to the car his uncle had had and that she had ridden in earlier that summer. She walked around it as Micheal popped open one of the doors and slid into the drivers seat,
"Come on. We'll get there in no time with this." He said grinning at her as he pushed a button on the dashboard and the garage door began to open. Jeanne nodded and walked over to the passenger seat and got inside inside as Micheal turned the key in the ignition causing the car to start with an almost draconic roar that soon lowered into a low rumble. He shifted into reverse and slowly backed out onto the street before shifting into first gear as he revved the engine a few times. She looked at him as he settled himself behind the wheel and gripped it with one hand while the other rested on the gearshift. For the first time in days he looked like how he used to be,
Arrogant yet kind, full of himself but always thinking of others, and just a little bit of an ass.
This was the man she fell for.
Jeanne felt herself grin wickedly as Micheal shifted gears and the rear tires screeched on the pavement as the car shot forward roaring like a dragon in flight.
-Micheals PoV-
-7:48pm, Ninth Day of the Grail War-
Micheal glanced over at Jeanne as he accelerated, watching her tuck some hair behind her ear while smiling excitedly. He grinned a bit to himself and shifted into a higher gear feeling glad for the racing lessons Desmond had given him once he was able to drive. They whipped around the corners leading out of the residential area and got onto a side road that would eventually merge into the main road. Micheal leaned into a corner as he felt the g-forces tugging on him before exiting the corner and shooting ahead while glancing at the speedometer seeing that he was doing close to 150kmh as they roared through the streets and finally onto the main road.
Once on the main road he floored the car and shot down the road noticing that the road itself seemed to be fine structurally but it was completely empty. He frowned and shook his head before speeding up to get them to the temple as fast as possible. The house was on the other side of the city relative to where Ryudo Temple was which meant that they had had some distance to cover since the temple was in the mountain range a ways outside the city limits.
"This is awesome!" Jeanne yelled excitedly as Micheal soared down the motorway. He glanced over at her feeling butterflies in his stomach at her unguarded happy smile and then refocused on driving. Too soon for his liking he saw the sign listing the exit for the temple on the side of the road. He merged into the turn lane for the temple, slowed down, and started going up the switchbacks,
"When did you ever have the chance to learn to drive like that?"
Jeanne's eyes were wide and her smile was radiant as she looked at him.
He chuckled a bit, "Desmonds insistence. He said I should know how to race and so he took me to a bunch of race tracks after I learned to drive on the normal roads. Given how I can see five seconds ahead with my eyes that means that I can drive super fast and still be relatively safe. The cops were a pain in the ass though."
Micheal turned around the final switch back and rolled the car into the parking lot narrowing his eyes. He slowed to a stop and held up a hand to stop Jeanne from leaving as he looked around,
"Somethings wrong…" He said as his eyes landed on a familiar black sedan. The same sedan that Saber drove Irisveil around in. He eased the car into a parking spot on the opposite side and killed the engine tucking the keys into his pocket as he got out of the car. Jeanne for her part just swung her legs up and over her door and then walked up beside him sword already summoned and gripped in her gauntlet. He glanced at her and saw she was flicking her eyes everywhere before she took in a breath,
"There's something...in the air." She said as the ground shook under them again. He narrowed his eyes at the stairs,
"Whatever it is…. Odds are we need to go up the stairs to find it." Micheal said as he summoned Blessed Hellfire into his hand in its pistol form and began to walk to the stairs hearing Jeannes armored boots crunching into the gravel as she followed him.
They reached the top of the stairs in short order and stopped outside the gate as though something was warning them to not enter and go back. Micheal narrowed his eyes and sent out a pulse of mana sensing that no one alive was in the temple. Suddenly Jeanne grabbed his arm and pointed at the mountain. He followed her finger and his eyes widened as he saw part of the top of the mountain cave in on itself followed by a rumbling crash a few seconds later. They both stared at the dust cloud only for his sixth sense to start blaring at him. He quickly held Blessed Hellfire in both hands as Jeanne sensed the change in his bearing.
He turned around in place eyes flicking everywhere and then felt a chill run down his spine. The same chill from the dreamwalk where he had seen and spoken with Death. Out of the corner of his eye he saw movement inbetween the standing bamboo and whirled, leaning into a shooting position as a woman with skin darker than night and a skull mask appeared out of thin air. She held up a hand and spoke as though she hadn't used her voice for a long time,
"Cease please. I am not here to kill you, I wish to offer you assistance on behalf of my master."
It sounded like she ate nothing but sand but Micheal didn't get out of his stance. He only backed up a few steps so that Jeanne could put herself between him and the enemy servant while still having a clean line of fire,
"Awfully kind of your Master to send help after the damn mountain caved in and all the rest of this shit." Jeanne drawled out. The woman flinched a bit and then refocused on Micheal as another aftershock ripped through the ground.
"These aftershocks are not normal. They-"
"Yeah we noticed that already given that they have mana in them. Get to the fucking point." Jeanne ground out through her teeth as she let out a bit of mana.
"Caster will finish his ritual in just over three hours. We will need help defeating him in order for the war to continue."
Micheal blinked at this new information and then narrowed his eyes at the enemy servant,
"How do you know when his ritual will be finished. If you know that much than you also know where he is. Which means you could have killed him. Why didn't you." Jeanne spat as Micheal noticed the mana beginning to roll off of her in waves.
"To assault a caster in their own domain is a fools errand." the woman scoffed and folded her arms to glare at Jeanne, "Go to the bridge over the Mion river. My master has foreseen that Caster will surface where the river and ocean meet. I will provide assistance when able."
"Why tell us all this. Whats the endgoal here?" Micheal said neutrally, slightly lowering Blessed Hellfire but still pointing at the woman, "and why come to us. I'm assuming we are the only ones who you've spoken with so far."
The woman nodded and seemed to grin behind her mask as she looked between him and Jeanne,
"Because as the Master of Avenger you present an…. option that wouldn't be normally available."
Micheal kept his best poker face on hearing this and glanced at Jeanne as she clenched her gauntlet hard enough around her sword to make the metal creak and warp,
"I'm assuming that your Master figured it out. Given that there is an eighth servant which means they'd have to be an extra class since all the other slots are filled."
The woman nodded, turned on her heel, and began to walk away into the darkness,
"Mion river in three hours. Bring any help you are able."
Then Micheal couldn't sense her anymore. He looked around checking his corners before dropping out of the shooting stance he had been in. He glanced at his servant who still seemed to be fuming at being found out. He sighed,
"Jeanne."
She flinched and turned her head to look at him out of the corner of her eye. He looked into her golden eyes and saw fire in them. He held up his right hand and made his command spells glow a bit. She turned around to face him properly and he stared into her eyes,
"When its time to kill him, I'm going to give you a command spell. So make sure you atomize the bastard. Understood?"
Jeanne nodded and grinned evilly as she walked down the stairs,
"Good. Come on, We need to figure out choke points to funnel enemies. If he's anything like the Gilles from my life in the Orleans Singularity his Noble phantasm will be spawning sea demons faster than we can kill them."
Micheal nodded and jogged down the stairs after her.
###
-The Present, Ninth Day of the Grail War-
-Jeannes PoV-
Jeanne stared from her spot on top of the Mion river at the giant city sized monster, growling out its name as she stoked her flames with her hatred,
"Prelati…"
Even now the name made her want to wash her mouth out with soap. It represented everything she hated about Gilles, about France, and about herself. She closed her eyes and breathed in gathering more mana to herself and checked her reserves.
About 70%….I want to be above 110% before I cast my Noble Phantasm due to how much mana it costs. I need to be able to help mop up the rest of these slimy fucks.
Faintly she heard Iskandars laugh followed by the sound of thunder. She focused in on the emotions she planned to use as fuel for her flames. Avengers were unlike other servants in that their explosive power came from their battle lust and emotions. The more potent the emotion, the more powerful the attack. She frowned as she continued gathering mana realizing that she had two sources of almost equally potent fuel.
One, naturally, was her hatred for Gilles and all he represented to her as well as her hatred for France as a whole. He created her as the version of Jeanne D'Arc that he wanted and then once she had been borne he had tossed her aside. Jeanne D'Arc was abandoned by France at the moment she needed them most. Even now she could feel the flames that both burned her to death and created her slowly being stoked to burn hotter, scorch further, and reduce even more to ash.
That is the point of being an Avenger up to a certain point after all, She mused, We exist to reduce our enemies to ash and dust. In order to do that we need to contain tremendous power… its also why we burn out as quickly as we do since we burn ourselves just as much as we burn our enemies. Similar to shooting stars in a tragic way.
As if in response to this thought she felt a line of sweat run down her back from how physically hot she was getting.
Warming in time with my flames…. I wonder if I were to truly set everything ablaze with no regards to my own life… What would be left? Of the area around me? ...of myself?
She shook her head clear of the thoughts and breathed in deeply making sure to hold it for a few seconds before slowly letting the air out noticing that the air was hotter as it passed her lips.
I was created by Gilles to deliver vengeance upon a France that didn't care that Jeanne D'Arc died. I slaughtered millions, burned thousands of homes and villages, and managed to expand my destruction into the neighboring Kingdoms after I melted Charles VII to his golden throne. I did not try to rule for there would be nothing left to rule in the first place once I was done.
...At least that was the idea.
She frowned and glanced to her right upon feeling her Masters mana,
I was under the impression that Mages were creatures of violence and pride. They would do anything, sacrifice anyone, kill whoever they needed to, in order to fulfill their goals. The Gilles that created me informed me of such and when I found his workshop it all but confirmed that all mages were soulless bastards.
That Mages couldn't be kind since being kind meant being human.
And being human meant being weak.
Her frown deepened as she then thought of the pink haired girl and the man with the brown hair that had arrived into her Singularity,
The man with the brown hair was a Mage through and through. From what I saw while observing him he didn't care about the people he encountered. The girl with the pink hair did more to help people than he did. He commanded the Servants he had gathered with ruthless efficiency as well, not afraid of collateral damage in his quest to kill me and resolve the Singularity.
She closed her eyes,
Its strange…
What is it about Micheal that makes him so different than a normal Mage. Where did his kindness come from?
Why would anyone do any of what he did for a tool?
The Brown haired mage knew that. He left Marie behind to die fighting Sanson and the dragons I had given him. He didn't even look back or consider her feelings on it. He viewed her as a tool to get the job done and not more than that.
So why…
Why did Micheal stay with me when I was dying?
Why did he promise we'd meet again?
Why does he treat me like a person and not a tool?
If he doesn't love me then…
why is he so kind to me?
Because he is a kind and stupid fool yet you are more stupid for letting him affect you to the degree that you have.
Because the best way to make you fight is to pretend you're a team.
To convince you you're not alone so you'll fight that much harder to protect him.
He is just as bad as the rest of the Magi. He's shown you a light you'll never have for yourself because you will vanish at the end of the war.
and then you will be alone.
Again.
She grit her teeth and opened her eyes to glare down the river at Prelati,
Micheal wouldnt do that. He's not like the other Magi.
After all unlike Gilles…
Unlike that brown haired mage…
He cares.
Even if its all a lie.
Even if he doesn't actually care and never has.
It doesn't change the fact that right now he needs me.
She went back to stoking her flames as her thoughts drifted to how Gilles rarely needed her for anything, seemingly content to just let her raze and burn the Europe to the ground. When he did need her for anything it always involved testing something on her but she went to him anyway. She let him do all of that to her… because she wanted to be needed by someone. To know someone relied on her. To be useful.
When the God that had given Gilles the grail told her he was moving on she felt afraid due to being left alone.
God had abandoned her and left her to die.
That fear of being alone was as core a part of her as her flames were.
And yet something changed within His plan. Something he didn't plan for.
Because I didn't die alone.
Micheal had held her as she laid there, tried his best to keep her alive, and when it was evident that he couldn't had promised her they'd meet again.
And in spite of it all she did see him again. She met him again, had seen and experienced so many new things purely because he wanted her to experience them. To know what living was like. To know the simple things in life from music to good food to the starry night sky.
At the end of which… as she had walked along the street that was her end and beginning, hand in hand with him, she knew what she felt for him. The feeling that even now she knew was more trouble than it was worth but couldn't get rid of.
The feeling that she had fallen for Micheal Lafaire.
His arrogance in the face of danger, his kindness in making sure she was okay, his intelligence and quick thinking when it came to his magecraft, and the fact that while she was with him….
She felt some semblance of peace.
But more than that…
She felt happy.
Happy to have been created, Happy to exist at the same time as him, Happy they got to meet a second time, happy that when she woke up from her nightmares one of the first things she saw in the morning was him.
She closed her eyes and inhaled a shaky breath.
But it wasn't meant to be.
She was, at the end of the day, a Servant. Her job was to fight in a Holy Grail War, win the Grail, make her wish, and then vanish leaving nothing behind.
Micheal Lafaire is just as cruel as the other Magi in this damned world. He showed you light, showed you what could be but never will.
And yet you fell for him.
Like the fool you are…
She bit her lip as the Other filled her head with facts that even she couldn't argue her way out of
That she was a tool to win the grail war.
That you don't love tools.
You don't cherish them.
You take care of them, you maintain them, but when they stop working they get tossed aside.
And what better way to make a damaged tool work than to care for it. To try and fix it.
Except you're unfixable and unloveable.
You have too much baggage.
You'd only drag him down with you.
And yet even knowing that…..
She had still hoped that he would love her back.
That she might, one day, hear him say those three words that she wouldn't even dare to dream him saying to her.
Only for reality to come crashing back into her life.
As she knew now that he didn't love her back.
And he likely never did.
Jeanne blinked open her eyes to see her vision was blurry and gently touched a finger to her cheek. She looked at her fingertip and saw it was damp. She shook her head, trying to shake away her tears, and refocused on gathering mana as she heard Blessed Hellfire: Fusil firing on fully automatic in the distance,
Just below 90%….. Just a little bit more.
It was fine. She knew inspite of what her heart said that he wouldn't care about her beyond her use as a tool. She was there to help him win the war,
...Is it wrong to want him to care?
As if anyone could ever truly care about you.
Jeanne grimaced and shut her eyes as hard as she could while she tried to stifle her sob. She then glared at Prelati and decided to use these emotions. To use this heartbreak, This confusion as to what she was supposed to feel as fuel for her Noble Phantasm in place of her hatred and rage. It wouldn't get rid of it. Just like how using her hatred for Gilles as fuel for her Noble Phantasm that she then used to kill him never got rid of it.
It only made it more potent and she knew that using all of these conflicting emotions as fuel would only make it worse for her later on.
But I need to kill Prelati and Gilles in one blow….
To her right she heard Micheals voice cut through her thoughts as he used his first command spell of the war. She felt the mana she had gathered triple and explode off of her as she felt, for the first time since she had died, as powerful as she had been as the Dragon Witch. She grinned through her tears and drew her sword as the water under her boots was blown away all the way to the bottom of the river. Power emanated through her, filling every cell in her body with more mana than she knew what to do with. She used it to float in place and began her chant causing the air to quickly turn thick with ash and dust. Her voice rang clearly above everything else as the world seemed to pause,
If I am to be an unloveable monster-
"The sword is my hatred-"
To only be a weapon and a tool.
"The Dragon my vengeance-"
To never be loved.
"and the flames my retribution!"
Then fine. I accept that.
"I'LL SKEWER THEM ALL!"
I'll accept that he'll never love me like I love him.
"LA GRONDEMENT DU HAINE!"
Jeanne felt her flames ignite as lances of shadow roared out from in front of her down the Mion river as it briefly turned from water into hatred forged lances and hellfire. They continued to spread down the river until finally they reached the sea and encircled Prelati which screamed as hellfire began to burn its way across his flesh and seared its soul. The fire spread up either side of the river, avoiding Micheal and Waver along with his servant, burning everything to ash using the cells of the sea demons themselves as kindling for their own fire.
Prelati shrieked as hundreds of lances a meter across shot out of the burning water to impale the monster. They continued to pierce him until he was fully enveloped in a cocoon of cursed steel and even then his screaming didn't stop. Jeanne twisted her sword causing the cocoon to collapse and twist in on itself making the lances shatter into shards of cursed steel which further tore Prelati and Gilles to shreds.
Eventually Prelati's screams were cut off and then as if to make sure that nothing would remain the fire surged up and enveloped the remnants of the steel cocoon burning all of it to ash. She maintained her Noble Phantasm until she was sure he was well and truly dead,
Its over….
Jeanne staggered a bit as it finally ended. She glanced to her right and saw that Micheal was standing in a perfect circle within the ashes from her flames. Her vision blurred again as she felt her mana levels stabilize and shook her head as the water crashed back into place under her. She jumped from her spot to the shore and landed with a small explosion of ash and dust. Waving a hand in front of her face to clear the air she caught Micheal staring at her mouth agape. She closed her eyes, counted to five, and then turned to look at him putting a hand on her hip,
"What."
Her master seemed to snap out of whatever thought he was in and he grinned at her taking a step forward.
"You did it. You got your revenge."
Jeanne blinked and plastered on an evil grin as she looked up at her Master as she felt the emotions she had used cut through her heart like a knife,
"I did. He won't be bothering us anymore. Lets go home."
Jeanne turned around to leave when she heard a whumph from behind her. She glanced over her shoulder to see that Micheal had fallen face forward into the ashen grass.
"Micheal?"
She turned around and walked back to him,
"Micheal!?"
She felt herself panic as she ran over to him and fell to her knees to turn him over. She couldn't see anything wrong with him but he was burning up when she put her hand on his forehead. She noticed something on his skin peeking out from one of the holes in his shirt from where a sea demon had gotten too close. She tore his shirt off to see he was covered in red marks across his torso,
"No. NO NO NO NO.…"
Jeanne knew what those marks were. She knew them as well as she knew her own face. She reached out to touch one right as Micheal coughed up blood. She felt her stomach twist into knots as she saw the marks seem to glow from within as she stared at them.
"I MADE SURE TO PROTECT YOU. YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE GOTTEN BURNED. MICHEAL!?!"
She reached into Micheals pocket and grabbed his new phone, pulling it out, and frantically pressing the button for Amelia as she slung Micheal over her shoulder and began to run using mana to move faster, not caring who saw her, as the phone rang….
and rang...
….and rang….