-Amelias PoV-
-Seventh Day of the Grail War, 4:53am-
Amelia sucked in a breath through her teeth and immediately had a billion questions in her mind. All of which vanished upon seeing the girl in front of her shrinking into her shoulders in fear like she was going to be struck. Amelia frowned and reached out to touch Jeannes shoulder only for her to violently flinch away. Amelia pursed her lips and pulled her hand back,
"...Would you like me to call you Jeanne or Alter?"
Jeanne D'Arc Alter looked at her bewildered, opening and closing her mouth. Amelia tilted her head to the side and smiled,
"I need to call you something don't I?"
"...Either one." She mumbled as she flicked her golden eyes away from Amelia who nodded,
"Jeanne then."
They sat there for a minute or two as Amelia let the girl collect her thoughts. She eventually inhaled a shaky breath,
"This…. is going to take a bit to explain and…. its going to all sound like bullshi- nonsense… but I swear its true."
Amelia smiled a bit wider noticing Jeannes self correction and gestured for her to start. What followed sounded like pure and utter delusional fantasy but she sat there and listened, content to wait to ask her questions until the servant had finished talking. Eventually Jeanne finished with how she died looking up at her son and then the next thing she knew she was standing in the wheat field behind the Lafaire manor facing the same man she had just met.
"..I am so sorry." Amelia whispered hoarsely causing Jeanne to give her a look of bewilderment, "I'm over here talking about what I did and have gone through when what you went through was…. so much worse. Jeanne, I am so sorry."
Amelia felt her heart break for the woman sitting beside her as tears began to fall from her eyes.
"You're so strong…" Amelia said wiping her eyes only for Jeanne to scoff and fold her arms as she looked away.
"No. I'm not. I'm… I shouldn't even exist. I-"
"No. You are not allowed to say another word." Amelia said sternly causing Jeanne to look at her clearly confused, "I won't let you say crap like that. Not after what you've gone through. Not after what you've been doing. After what you managed to do."
"But- I failed! I was tossed aside like trash! I failed at the one thing I was literally created to do!So-"
"Yet despite all of that you still managed to be summoned by Micheal."
Amelia tilted her head at Jeannes reaction to hearing her sons name. Her face flashed between angry, sad, and hurt before eventually settling on what she probably thought was a neutral face but Amelia knew better. She could see the raw pain in the back of her golden eyes,
"He probably regrets ever summoning me then." Jeanne said bitterly as she stared at her gauntleted hands.
Amelia pursed her lips unsure of how to ask her next question eventually sighing and wrapping an arm around Jeannes shoulders again pulling her into a one armed hug as the servant tensed up. She weighed what she wanted to say but decided to just go for the heart of the matter,
"You love him. don't you."
Jeanne froze in Amelias arms and began to shake as she turned fully into Amelias chest and clutched her shirt in her hands as she buried her face into the fabric. She wrapped her other arm around the girls shoulders as she felt her nod while crying fresh tears,
"You've loved him for a while."
She nodded again, still shaking.
"yet something happened between the two of you that hurt you."
A more hesitant nod and then,
"It hurts… it hurts so much…. Why does it hurt so much…."
Amelia hugged Jeanne tighter and gently kissed the top of her head like she used to do before Micheal got too tall,
"Because you love him and you're worried he doesn't love you back."
Jeanne's sobs intensified and Amelia contented herself to just hold the servant in her arms while she debated confronting Micheal about what might have happened. It was clear from the moment Amelia had met her that Jeanne loved Micheal even if she hadn't realized it at the time. As they got to know each other it became obvious to her that it wasn't just infatuation or lust either.
No.
Jeanne D'Arc Alter had fallen -heart, body, and soul- for her son completely.
"He can't know. He can't-"
Amelia looked down at Jeanne as she tried to talk through the tears,
"He can't know I feel this way. I- I don't want him to know. He deserves better than me and- I don't want to drag him down with me."
Amelia pursed her lips and gently wrapped her fingers around Jeannes shoulders to lift and hold her in place so she was facing her. The servant let her do this and soon Amelia was looking into a pair of golden eyes, tears still falling from them. She wanted desperately to correct what Jeanne had just said but bit it back and said instead,
"Your secret is safe with me but at some point you will need to tell him yourself. Will whatever happened earlier affect your ability to win this thing?"
Jeanne shook her head and wiped her eyes with her hands. Amelia smiled and hugged Jeanne properly this time,
"If you ever decide to tell him, then I want you to know you have my full blessing. I'd love to have you as a daughter-in-law Jeanne Alter."
She held Jeanne in front of her again and watched as her eyes widened further than she thought possible. She tried to speak only for a choking sound to come out and Amelia smiled making sure to look into the Servants eyes as she blushed crimson,
"I mean it. Every word."
"...you're just as much of an idiot as he is." Jeanne grumbled her face still a brilliant red as she looked away. Amelia pulled her in for one final hug and then let her go deciding to change topics,
"So. About the kid you both brought back."
Jeanne groaned and held her face in her hands,
"Its not ours."
"I figured that much," Amelia scoffed, "If you haven't even told him you love him then you sure as hell haven't had sex yet."
Amelia smirked as Jeanne leveled a glare at her teasing,
"I looked her over while putting her to bed," Amelia said, slipping into her doctor mode, "There are clear signs of her being healed but it didn't fix everything. She still has some scars from whatever was done to her. To say nothing of any lingering psychological damage she may have. What… Happened to her? Who would do all of that to a child?"
"Ah. Okay so, that ties into the Grail war. Micheal and I stormed the Matou manor trying to find an amplifier that Caster was going to use to make his Noble Phantasm stronger. The Matous main magic is one involving insects and the like… We found that girl in a literal ocean of Crest Worms."
Amelias eyes shot wide and she grit her teeth as for the first time in a long time she had the urge to kill someone. Jeanne clearly picked up on this because she looked up at her and narrowed her eyes,
"That's…. a lot of killing intent for a doctor. Whatever happened to 'do no harm'?"
She clenched her hand into a fist tightly enough that she felt her nails partially pierce into her palm,
"That doesn't apply to monsters who would do this to an innocent girl," she spat, "I hope you turned every last one of those horrors to ash."
"Micheal's the one who did that. Which I bet your wondering at his… appearance change."
Amelia nodded, making an effort to dial back her emotions, "I saw what he looks like now but he wouldn't tell me anything when I asked him earlier. He just seemed shell shocked for lack of a better word. He barely said anything in response to me and just went to bed."
"Shellshocked?"
Amelia hummed an affirmative and then looked at Jeanne expectantly, "What did he even do?"
"Did Desmond ever tell you about Blessed Hellfire?"
"Thats the Divine Construct you both survived forging correct? Which I have plenty of questions about on my own mind you but that can wait. How does it tie into this?"
Jeanne nodded and held out her hand. A moment later a black and red pistol appeared in her hand in a flash of blackened flame. Amelia stared at it feeling the coiled almost oppressive power coming off of it.
"This is what it looks like when I hold it. It looks different when Micheal holds it." Jeanne said bitterly with a mixed expression on her face, "As for what caused Micheal's appearance to change…. he activated it."
Amelia looked up sharply at Jeannes words,
"What do you mean 'activated it'. As in he shot it?"
"No. Right as we saw the girl something about him… changed. When he spoke it was as if he had two more of himself speaking at the same time layering their voices with his. Then he said what I can only assume is the activation chant for the pistol. What happened next was…. terrifying in its power. When he finished the chant a ball of what felt like a mix of holy energy, mana, and something similar to my flames formed in front of the barrel. It then expanded into hundreds of thousands of microscopic lances that turned every crest worm to white ash on top of bleaching the entire room into a featureless white cube."
Amelia watched as Jeanne shook her head and stared at the weapon in her hand, "The entire time a black halo was floating above his head. When he finished the chant and the light finally faded along with everything else, his hair and eyes had changed to what they are now."
Amelia blew out her cheeks and leaned back into the sofa staring at the pistol herself, "What was the chant? If you don't mind me asking?"
Amelia listened as Jeanne repeated the chant and fell silent as her mind whirled with questions. She knew that Noble Phantasm and Divine Construct chants were different at least in theory with one being the summation of the legend of whatever life the servant had led while the activation chant for a Divine Construct usually entails aspects of the construct itself. The chant that Jeanne had repeated to her was neither one of those which meant that it was likely about Micheals life or rather… his future. She bit her lip and shook her head,
"I can think about what the chant means later. Jeanne," Golden eyes turned to her, "I won't ask you to be in the same room as Micheal right now-"
Jeanne flinched and looked guilty. Amelia smiled and continued, "I know you said that whatever happened won't affect your ability to win the grail war either but I also don't want you to be miserable if I can help it. I've booked a hotel room in a nearby city. Would you want to stay with me?"
Amelia watched as Jeanne wavered and smiled when she shook her head to give her a look of determination,
"No. I need to be here to protect him. How I feel about him… doesn't factor into the fact that I am here to help him win the war."
Amelia nodded, content with that answer, and glanced at the clock seeing it was after 8am. She stood up and stretched, "How about I make you all breakfast while I'm here? Ever since Micheal learned to cook I've never had the chance to."
"I'd… love some food. Thanks."
"I thought Servants didn't need to eat?" Amelia teased as Jeanne's face reddened.
"Your son convinced me to eat purely for the joy of eating… it also helps that he makes really good food."
"Sounds like I need to break out the big guns then." Amelia smirked and tapped the heel of her shoe on the floor causing the bounded field to break down, "Can't have my own offspring one upping me given that I'm the one that taught him, now can I?"
-Micheals PoV-
Micheal felt himself wake up but didn't open his eyes. He didn't want to see the morning sun. He didn't deserve to see it. He pulled the blankets over his head and immersed himself in darkness as he once again remembered how he fucked up the night before. Remembering the feeling from Jeannes end of their bond right before she closed it on him. How even though she was trying to hide it it still slipped through.
The way he felt her heart break.
He desperately wanted to correct everything. Wanted to let her know that-…. Micheal shook his head
Let her know what? That I wanted to have sex with her? Come the fuck on Micheal. You're shallow sure but not that shallow. If she didn't want to be seen near a place like that with you before she sure as fuck doesn't want to now….
As he laid there he remembered what Saint Jeanne had told him not even two days prior,
"I can see why she likes you."
"She cares for you."
"Take care of her for me."
"Some master I turned out to be…" Micheal muttered to himself as he glanced down at his command seals and his face turned into a glare, "She deserves better than me."
He allowed himself to wallow in self pity for a bit until his need to do something useful overgrew his desire to let himself feel like shit. He sat up in his bed as he glanced to the spot where Jeanne had been the previous time he woke up. He felt his heart hurt and gingerly touched the spot over it with his hand before he sighed and got out of bed to put on a t-shirt since he was already wearing pajama pants.
I need to just keep myself busy for now. If I don't I'm just going to perseverate on…. everything that happened.
"Do I go for a run?" Micheal wondered out loud to himself as he opened the door to his bedroom and walked out into the hall pausing as he smelled food, "...Breakfast first. Then a run."
He walked towards the kitchen and the smell of food got stronger as he reached the door and hesitated hearing voices on the other side. He stood there as he heard his mom and Jeanne talk. He frowned and stared at the handle to pull open the door as he wavered on whether to open it or not. He sighed and ran a hand over his face turning away from the kitchen and walking to the door to the back yard deciding he'll get something to eat later. He put on his shoes and slipped out the back door, walking across the yard to the workshop. He thumbed the lock and entered it closing the door behind him.
"I just need to distract myself…" He muttered to himself as his eyes landed on the forge in the center of the room as he shivered slightly from the early morning cold. He walked over to the stack of fuel sitting nearby and pulled out several logs examining them for signs of degradation. Finding none he put them into the burner of the forge and ignited them with match.
As the forge warmed the air in the workshop he walked over to a shelf where he kept ingots and reactive elements wondering what he should make. As if on queue he felt his first gate open on its own and Blessed Hellfire fell into his hand causing him to panic trying to catch it. He caught it and breathed a sigh of relief as he felt the gate close while he looked at the pistol.
"You feel heavier than usual…" He muttered as if expecting the weapon to respond. He shook his head and glanced back at the forge thinking to himself. He had read up on divine constructs as best as he was able to do so after Blessed Hellfire was forged but after talking with Artoria he had a hunch that he should narrow his search to the Arthurian legend.
After he had read enough King Arthur to make his French ancestors sob he had managed to piece enough together to get the idea that some Divine Constructs, such as Rhongomyniad, could change shape while others could not. The idea being that the construct would react with its contractors will to adapt as needed.
"I wonder…." Micheal muttered as he walked past the forge to a weapon bench and disassembled the weapon laying all of its pieces out and staring at them for several minutes as the room warmed in time with the forge, "I'm fucking flying blind here…."
He had a guess that the part he'd need to focus on would be whatever the core of Blessed Hellfire would be. The question is what part would be considered the core.
"It could be the firing pin, the barrel, hell even the trigger mechanism…. Its not like a firearm has one core part-" Micheals eyes widened as he suddenly had an idea, "So I fired off 'Shot Longinus: Holy Gamma' last night….Since its called 'Holy Gamma' that would mean that there are other shots right?"
Micheal quickly reassembled the pistol and set up a target dummy in the range he had made. He aimed the pistol and focused on the feeling that had caused him to be able to fire off what he now knew was likely Blessed Hellfires Noble Phantasm. He closed his eyes and mentally went bacl to the feeling of the pure rage he had felt seeing the girl. As he did so he once again felt two more of himself layer over his sense of self. He opened his eyes and looked down at his free hand expecting to see two more of his hands superimposed over his arm only to see nothing. He frowned and began the chant making sure to make note of everything he felt.
The same ball of crackling light gathered on the end of the barrel as he stopped just short of finishing the chant. He stared at the ball and then focused on himself as he felt his mana and holy energy acting in sync with each other...alongside a third source of energy. He closed his eyes and focused on this third energy trying to trace it. He knew his mana was in his circuits and his holy energy was in his soul but this was the first time he had truly felt this third energy.
As he mentally traced it he felt himself get warmer. Not in the same way that his Holy energy made him feel which was the feeling of an internal warmth across his entire body but this was more like he was standing just inside the outer edge of a bonfire. He continued tracing the energy as he focused on the mental image of walking towards the bonfire which caused the feeling of heat to get stronger and stronger.
He stopped just short of stepping into the fire itself and let the feeling linger wondering what this third source could be as he opened his eyes and saw that smoke was coming off of his skin. He panicked and mentally backed away from the fire as fast as he could causing the feeling to quickly vanish and he watched as the smoke stopped at the same time the feeling did. He lowered Blessed hellfire and let the ball of light vanish with a pop as he held up his free hand flexing his fingers as he narrowed his eyes,
"...okay. What the hell was that." He muttered to himself, "What did I just do…."
He shook his head and refocused on the pistol in his hand looking at it. He turned it over in his hand, pointed it at the target dummy again, and pulled the trigger. A single beam of white light shot out and pierced clean through the center of the chest guard mystic code. He frowned and pulled the trigger again trying to sense the core of the weapon. As he peppered the mystic code he began to sense not one but at least five places in the weapon that he thought he could call the core. He stared at the mystic code as it smoked from the many holes he had put into it and then moved back to the weapon bench.
He took apart the pistol and found three parts that lined up with what he had sensed out of the five as the other two consisted of more than one part.
"So its the internal hammer, the top slide, and...the barrel?" He said holding up the hammer to examine it more closely. Not seeing anything he activated his eyes on a hunch and looked at the hammer noticing that symbols seemed to be engraved into it. He turned off his eyes and the symbols vanished. He blinked and turned on his eyes again seeing the symbols.
Frowning, Micheal blinked off his eyes and went to get a notepad and a pencil. He got them and came back to the bench, picked up the hammer, activated his eyes to see the symbols, and began to copy what he saw onto the note pad. After several minutes of copying he turned off his eyes and shook away the usual minor headache as he looked at what he had written. He narrowed his eyes and looked at the symbols not recognizing any of them and yet….
"...They look like a mix of welsh and celtic runes, latin, and…. something else." He got a water bottle from nearby and lifted the symbols off the page to place them on an open wall. He stared at them, rearranging them several times, and after a few minutes felt his stomach growl,
"Right… I need to eat something."
He canceled the spell holding the runes against the wall and channeled the water back into the bottle making sure to mark it as non-potable. He glanced at the forge and closed the air intake so that it didn't burn down his workshop but continued to warm the room, then he went back to the house trying his best to sense where his mother and Jeanne were. Sensing they were in the living room he quietly made his way to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator to find a covered plate with scrambled eggs, hashbrowns mixed with diced peppers, turkey bacon, and some sausages. On top of this was a note with Jeannes handwriting. He gingerly plucked the note off the saran wrap and read it,
Morning Master,
Amelia helped me make this for you but you never showed up for breakfast. I won't say we-
Several scratched out words followed this until finally it picked back up,
-Amelia already knew I was a servant if last night didn't tip her off.
I'm going to be keeping myself distant outside of what we need to do to win the war. Thank you for everything you've done to help me but please just-
Several more scratched out words followed until
-We just need to win the grail war so I can make my wish.
Then we can go our separate ways.
Enjoy your food,
Jeanne Alter
Micheal stared at the note rereading it as he felt his heart hurt again. He flashed back several months to when she said what her wish was to vanish which made his heart hurt more.
Have I-
Have I been causing her pain? If she wants to disappear then my wish for the grail-
...I am such an arrogant selfish bastard.
Micheal gently folded the note and put it into the pocket of his pajama pants as he took the food out of the refrigerator. He put it into the microwave and sat there staring at the rotating plate as he felt shame and guilt slam into him from all sides. He glanced down at his command seals and briefly had the urge to just rip them off of his hand completely.
Eventually the microwave dinged and he took the food out of it walking over to the table he had shared with his Servant for the entire time they had been here. He looked at her normal seat and then at his food as he got some of it onto a fork and put it into his mouth.
It tasted like ash.