Fate/Stay Royal

"You think being ambushed is the risk?" Caster's voice snapped Bazett out of her thoughts. "Perhaps that is how Magi work, but I'd be more worried about a second opponent."

"Right, the Master." Bazett muttered. "I've got it. Let's find out what we're up against. I'd rather not pick a fight too fast."

"Know thy enemy. Merlin was fond of that one." Caster mused. "I'm not sure any of us were very good at it." Bazett filed that information away for later. If the Knights of the Round Table were bad at planning, then that was something to keep in mind for later. At least Caster's instincts seemed quite good.

"Think you can make a familiar?"

"You can't?"

"No, it's not an area I've gone too far down." Bazett admitted. "This is the first time I couldn't solve a problem by writing a hunt rune." Caster nodded in understanding.

"Pass me your knife. I see a bird I can use." Her hand reached out, and Bazett drew the runic knife without a second thought. After a few mutterings under her breath, Caster slit open her index finger, lifting it to the air and letting a drop of blood fall into the air, manipulating it through the air with the tip of the knife. "You need to re-carve your rune. It's wearing down." The knife was soon returned, clean, as a small bird fluttered down and landed on Caster's arm.

"Noted. I'll do that once I have some time." There were probably a few runes that'd need re-scribing. Her shoes, for example. "Did it work?"

"Like a charm. You know how to share vision?"

"Not without a rune. That a issue?"

"It's a bit obvious. Hand on my shoulder, I'll bridge the gap." Bazett nodded, her hand resting on Caster's shoulder and her eyes closing. The feel of magic, overwhelming like a huge tornado, wrapping around her and working on her was almost unnerving. Caster was anything except subtle. It was hard to believe that anyone wouldn't notice her casting magic sometimes.

"Wow, it is small." The vision of the bird was clear in Bazett's mind. "And it see's pretty far."

"Just be careful how hard you push on it's mind. The bird isn't too strong." Caster retorted.

"You're going to release it?"

"Why would I kill it? We're just freeloading." That response almost surprised Bazett. Almost. Maybe she should have expected it. Still, that Caster seemed to value the lives of animals more than humans might be something worth noting later, or it might have just been nothing.

The bird stretched its wings as Caster whistled to it, passing along her will, before it fluttered down into the city of steel. The boxes were not in the greatest shape, Bazett realised. Fuyuki's harbour had a large amount of salt from the sea, and the steel was already beginning to rust heavily. Some of the containers didn't look like they'd been moved in years, and-

"Is that a person shaped dent?" Caster asked. It definitely was, of someone in the low five foot range if Bazett was to guess. One of the containers had several holes, a rip in the side as if they'd been slashed, and a dent shaped very much in the shape of a person.

"A fight?"

"An old fight." Caster clarified. "No magical energy in the air, so it wasn't recent. The edges of the gash have had time to rust, so its been years. If I was to hazard a guess, this happened in the last war." That it had never been tidied up almost surprised Bazett, but then again, Fuyuki seemed to be built on top of a crumbling foundation in several places. Shinto was perhaps the greatest example of that.

The bird fluttered its wings as it continued to hop and flit from container to container, seeking the source of the tangle of magical energy. It did not take long to make an educated guess of what it was.

"In that container." Bazett muttered. One of the containers had it's side ripped away entirely, and what looked like the flicker of a fire emanated from within. The bird settled down on the ground, peering in and revealing those inside.

Within the container were two figures. The most obvious was a man in a long tunic, thin and pale, his hair a long, flowing green. Beside him, sleeping in a blanket near the fire, was a girl, her face pale and flushed and her brown hair messy. The green haired man, the obvious Servant, glanced over at the bird for a very long moment, before reaching out his hand. The bird traveled to his hand immediately with a happy chirp, his pale lavender eyes peering into its.

Bazett knew, immediately, he was staring at her.

"Speak to me, feathered one." His voice was like a soft song. "What do they seek? War? Safety?" The bird tweeted and twirped back, bouncing and hopping in a way that Bazett hoped got the point across. "Ah, knowledge and companionship? You are a wise little one." The Archer's lips twisted into something resembling content, as he allowed the bird to settle onto his shoulder. "If that is all, than I ask you wait a few minutes. I will meet you at the site of the old battle."

Bazett knew better then to argue. They'd get nowhere trying to negotiate through a familiar if Archer could simply talk to animals.

"That went better than expected." Caster noted. "I should go alone."

"No. If I send you alone he'll assume we aren't acting in good faith. I know of his master." Bazett spoke up. "I'm going down there."

"You know his Master?"

"Kishinami Hakuno, one of Lord El-Melloi's graduates. She'd go far if not for what I assume is a degenerative magic disease." Bazett answered dryly. "I remember her asking if I knew any spiritual surgeons at one point."

"Then in terms of normal magecraft she would be your senior?"

"She is much better at the crafts Lord El-Melloi introduced us to than I am." Bazett confirmed. "In a fight, well, I'd call it maybe fifty-fifty before Gods-Holder." Bazett patted the orbs in the tube at her hip. "She's not the most physically fit, from memory."

"She looked terrible, so I'd be surprised." Caster hummed. "Alright, arm around me. I'm going to jump." Bazett nodded, wrapping her arm around Caster's shoulders as she leapt down to the ground. "Any idea's as to the Servant?"

"None. I don't recognise anything about him at all." Bazett admitted. "You?"

"Nothing but guesses. He isn't human." Caster noted. "He's also a walking nexus of leylines. They get tangled in with his body as he moves through them. Even if the magical energy in the land was flowing, it'd be useless to the rest of us if he just requisitions it as he comes through." Bazett blinked, her lips forming a frown. That was a high level ability spoken of only in terms of monsters like the great Lernaean Hydra, beasts that had long since left the world. That a Servant possessed it.

"If push came to shove..."

"I might be able to take him." Caster's words seemed more like an admission. "I might not. There's too much in the air."

"He scares you?"

"... No." That wasn't the emotion on Caster's face, as she let Bazett down. It was something else entirely. Did she feel a kinship with him?

Maybe that was a question for later.

As he said he would be, Archer was in the small section of containers that had been the sight of a battle in the last war. He was taller then Bazett had thought, and his body simply radiated power.

"You did come. I was expecting you to betray us." The Archer noted dryly. Bazett could feel the coldness from his voice. His hatred of human beings was something he made no attempt in the slightest to disguise. "There are only two of you. Where is the rest of your faction?"

"We fight on the faction of White. We have no allies." Caster answered.

"And you seek to split us from our faction."

"Well, when you put it like that..." Bazett muttered, taking a few steps forward. "Yes. You can't tell me all of the Red Faction get along."

"You would not be incorrect. Humans are fickle beings who betray and murder each other." And it was unquestionable that Archer had already experienced that. "A Caster and a Master with a single arm. What a pathetic duo."

"An Archer and a diseased Master." Caster shot back in mimicry. "What a pathetic duo." Archer stared for the very longest moment, before his lips cracked into a pathetic smile.

"I suppose I earned that one." He admitted. "Alas, it seems you have me at a disadvantage. You know of my Master but I know naught of you."

"Then a show of good faith. I am Bazett Fraga McRemitz, Enforcer of the Association and Gods-Holder of Lugh." Bazett declared. "I know your Master, Kishinami Hakuno. We learned under the same teacher. If that is not enough for you to understand we share some kinship, then I will happily wait for your Master to awaken."

"That isn't necessary. She's with him now." Caster spoke up. "That is an interesting trick. Now tell her to go to sleep before she starts hurting herself." Archer flinched.

"You can tell?"

"Spirits are my speciality. I'm guessing that's a trait of her illness." Caster answered, taking several steps forward. "She's dying, Archer. Send her back to her body before you do harm."

"That is our decision, not yours." That Archer was pushing back wasn't a surprise to Bazett. Indeed, it probably wasn't Archer speaking then, but Hakuno. She was always stubborn. "If you are alone, then you are an easy target. Why shouldn't we attack and get one step closer to the Grail?"

"Because of the fifteen other Servants." Bazett retorted. "I doubt you can win the entire war alone. Without help, Hakuno won't last long enough to make a wish at the end." Her lips twisted ever so slightly. "Was that your plan, Kishinami? Pick off Servants until you had access to the Grail? Sorry, but that's not going to work. Even if you knew where the Grail was going to form, you have to contend with the founders."

"And what, exactly, do you propose?" Archer asked. "We are on the Red Faction, you White. If we do not fight-"

"The grail only cares that fights happen. Don't give its systems too much credit for intelligence." Caster retorted. "Tch. Hakuno, I'm only going to say it one more time. Untangle yourself from your Servant or I'll do it for you." Bazett could believe, if only for a moment, that Caster could actually do that. Archer sighed, closing his eyes for a long moment. When they opened again, the purple in his eyes were far deeper.

"You've proven yourself far more dangerous to us then the oni(Bandit of Mount Oe). I should remove you now." He declared. "No one else knows of my Masters illness. I'd rather keep it that way."

"I've got bad news for you then. Kotomine knows. If Black finds out she's in the war, then you might as well consider it public knowledge." Bazett retorted. "She's seen him in his capacity as a spiritual surgeon." Archer paused, as Bazett slipped a iron ball out of her tube. "If you want to do this, well, let's get started." What needed to happen was obvious. Answerer was the best way to fight someone like an Archer. If he lived, then the fact his Master was on deaths door would not hinder him at all. The class had access to Independent Action, after all.

"Oh stop waving your bigger dicks about you two." Caster finally snipped, stepping forward and slapping Bazett's head. "Take me to Hakuno. I probably can't fix her, but I can alleviate the symptoms."

"What, Caster!?"

"You woul-" Archer's gaze hardened. "No, you're just like other humans. I won't fall for it a se-"

"I'm not human you dolt." Caster growled. "So shut up. Keep throwing me in with the humans and I'll start acting like one." Her glare then fell on Bazett. "What, going to try and stop me, Master?"

Bazett swallowed deeply. On some level, she knew why Caster had made the offer. The stupid knight had already cottoned on to this not being a fight that Bazett wanted to have in the first place. Her peace offering might well be enough to gain them the alliance they so direly needed.

It also might be enough for Archer to turn on them and kill them without worry...

[ ] Let Caster help Hakuno.
[ ] Attack Archer.