2. The void-talk
<<Nowhen, The expanse of Void under the branch>>
Angélique sat down on nothing in nowhere, playing with her dull gray hair. Her eyes of the same color scanned the immediate surroundings for anyone, but no one was to be seen. The tanned girl then lay down and stretched her tired joints with a satisfying crack.
She was waiting. For what?, you might ask.
Let's start from the beginning. The moment her soul was supposed to enter the beautiful golden gates of the throne, dazzling foods, drinks, and crowds of heroes feasting together just on the other side of that beautiful entrance, as the world already knew her story would be remembered for generations to come– a sinkhole appeared under her feet and swallowed her whole.
The collective unconsciousness of humanity, known also as Alaya, or the Counter-Force was, in the opinion of her minions, the most malevolent entity that has ever existed. The bitch worked anyone she tricked into a contract to their deaths and more, as, perhaps for her own amusement, as, unlike normal Heroic Spirits, they kept all of their memories intact between summonings.
Angie was the unlucky one, as she was considered by the counterforce as useful enough not to get rid of. It was also the only reason she managed to live through the seventeen years she had. Alaya wanted her spirit.
That wouldn't be a problem, really. Angélique knew she was an outsider in this world and was thankful for even these seventeen years she got. The problem was that it was purely non-consensual and forceful. Every other full-time guardian has, in one way or another, signed a contract with the nigh-unstoppable force, but she herself was just kidnapped and under threats of erasure (though she hoped the God with capital G would not let her perish like that), forced to work.
Right now, she tried to sleep, as that was one of the only things one could do to relax here, her mind wandering to the small barn behind an even smaller house in the middle of nowhere, mainly speaking, France, where she spent most of her childhood.
The piles of golden hay intended for the cattle, lying in bulk there, warm and nice.
Giggles of the kids playing around, the innocent smile of Jeanne– 'No. N'y pense pas,1 Angie, that was in the past.' with a tired sight she turned on her left side and opened her eyes. Silver meeting dull brown, as another counter spirit made their way back to the void.
"Mornin' Emiya." She greeted, not really bothered by the white ethereal spirit that eternally clinged to his arms. She was used to it, just like any other guardian, although the man in question seemed to not be even remotely aware of its presence.
There was no response from the crouched man, as he just seemed to look past her, into the void. Usual reaction of his. None of them really knew when he got contracted, but it was so long ago that there was nothing more left of him than a killing machine.
The hypothetical possibility of the man that knew no love always just stood there, in the back, everyone semi-used to his unnaturality.
Behind him stood his hypothetical son, another Emiya, this time Shirou, he greeted her with a wave of his hand and also laid down. He was a broken man, full of sarcasm to help himself cope with his fleeting emotions.
He was the man that observed her for the most of her life, he saw her grow, kill and cry. He fought her, he lost (she was able to fend him off for long enough, at the cost of her arm), he fled. And was the closest thing to a friend, in the counterforce of course, as no one is even remotely close to surpassing Jeanne, as between the counter-guardians despite the mostly light-hearted atmosphere, was a barrier of sorts, with no one really wanting to open up about themselves and their lives, so a connection like theirs was rather refreshing.
"What was the mission this time?" Angie asked with a tint of curiosity in her tone of voice. It had been a long time since she herself was summoned and she was jealous of the man who regularly was stuck in a time-loop. It was better than eternal void at least.
"Otherworlder." Emiya said, a hit of mockery in his voice "The opposite of you. The man thought that chaldea is his playground." there was a simple nod from Kiritsugu, a rare reaction from him piqued the girl's curiosity even more "And? What happened?"
The Nameless smirked, but it faded rather quickly "Died to Tiamat." a venomous amount of sarcasm dripped from his next words "Who would've thought that rizzing Beast II is not the best idea? But noooo, her mommy milkers were irresistible. His words, not mine."
Angie stiffed a giggle. There were many very strange situations and missions, most of them made for amazing stories, but once every century or so there happened a person such as this, who really didn't know their place.
"Why not kill him instantly?" She finally asked, "Alaya doesn't really like people like him."
"Funny story." Emiya chuckled, "If he were to clear the Order and Lostbelts, he would be our colleague."
"Sans blague!2 Why did she even accept the contract?" Angélique was rather dumbfounded. Her experience with the counter-force was not good, and because of that she knew how untrusting it could sometimes be. There was no way that an anomaly would be accepted without first proving themselves or proving that they don't have any ill-intent, like she herself did.
Emiya shook his head "I don't know either. But seeing that assassin was on a standby with me, it seemed that she was only waiting for him to prove himself worthy."
Angie hummed in agreement.
"And you? No new missions?" the Archer asked with a hint of… something in his voice. He knew how it felt to be the only one without a mission for a long time, but he at least had a rather peaceful reality marble to immerse himself in. The girl in front of him was rather reluctant to enter hers. He would be too, actually, if he was her.
"Oui."3 A tired sigh left her lips "Alaya just hates me, there is no other way. And they always summon me as a Saber. Like excuse me, but I was known for using many weapons! Not only a sword! And-"
"I know." The man cut her off before she began another rant of hers, "Just wait. All contracts have an end date, just wait a bit more."
She scoffed "Et que vas-tu me dire ensuite ? Que ton contrat en a un aussi ? Ou peut-être que c'est moi qui me trompe en pensant que le mien aussi n'a probablement pas de date de fin ?"4
"Stop, stop! You are going french again." he clasped a hand on her mouth to stop her "You need to work on your self control more, you know? That's a habit you have from your childhood." There was a hint of real worry in his voice that rarely happened.
Her brown cheeks blushed lightly as she swatted his hand.
Nameless took the moment during which she composed herself to examine her once again.
She didn't age even a moment from the moment he saw her burn, being allowed to return only after her corpse shriveled and charred, to the point that her remains were unrecognizable.
Her still full cheeks were now pouting, as her childish face looked away from him. A flash of the hollow burnt face always appeared when he looked at her, he got used to it with time.
Angélique's dazzling silver hair was now of dull gray color, losing its lush from the overuse of her circuits, along with the permanent tint of brown all over her skin other than her left hand, where there were none. He knew exactly why. It was two months before her final battle when they crossed their swords. The girl planned how to overcome the challenge which was Orleans, and he was supposed to not let her do that. The hand was just a warning, although he would cut more if not for the French soldiers coming, alarmed by the sounds of battle.
Although Alaya could and normally would tamper with something like that to have her guardians at 100% of their capability, this part of her being was so rooted in the human history, for some inexplicable reason, that changing it would mean more than just repairing her hand, possibly damaging her spirit core and making her useless.
The once golden-brown eyes were now of gray color, another change caused by the overuse of magical circuits, this time to correct her vision.
The only thing that really discerned her from other guardians was that her spirit core was exactly the same as normal Heroic Spirits, not a fabricated one, as was the case with his and Kiritsugu's, or a modified one like Okita's and Ryoma's.
This also meant that her experiences would never change the core of who she was when alive, although it was reaching the limits of its flexibility with all these changes to her body. He was jealous, really, but if it were to be him, he would still pursue that impossible dream till this day, so maybe it was for the better.
All of their pondering was cut off by a beam of light appearing from nowhere and slowly swallowing Angie.
They knew what it meant, a mission, all of them gazed upwards, if that was even possible in a place where there was nothing like a direction, to see a blue orb with two rings of the exact same color orbiting around. A manifestation of Alaya, the not human one, as there theoretically existed one, Okita insisting that she has met her.
It was not responsive, but it was there, to see how they were doing perhaps, or perhaps not, none of them really knew the purpose of its appearance.
"Enfin!"5 Angélique smiled from ear to ear. Missions could be hard, tiring or even traumatizing, but they were still better than endless boredom "See you all when I'm back, guys!" she waved her hand and disappeared along the beam of light.
Moments later a young man in his mid-twenties appeared in the void, looking around. Seemingly not finding what he sought, a frown creased his face "Where is Angie?" he asked the other guardians present.
"You just missed her. She's off on a mission." Emiya replied, a nod from his hypothetical father serving as a confirmation of his words.
"Oh maaaan." Sakamoto lamented, "And I had such a great story to share!"
"You can tell us now and tell her later." The Archer suggested, now too interested in the tale.
"Alright guys, so listen to this–
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Hi there! Author here.
The second chapter is out, and I'm proud to say that the measly 348 words from the original were expanded to a whopping 1817!
I want to extend a huge thank you to balthazar_lee for an idea that was a life saver, really, as I had no idea how to explain her missing hand.
I tried to have the personalities of the counter-guardians somehow fleshed out, as I will try to have them cameo in the later chapters.
I am not a French speaker, so please let all the frustration on errors in translation out on the three translators I use, mainly google, chat-gpt and a x-to-french dictionary.
I aim to have the third chapter ready by Sunday.
And so... it's all for today- I think- If you have any awesome suggestions or corrections, maybe I did something that in fact has no place in the Nasu lore and you are that type of the person, then feel free to comment!
It's currently 2:00 as I'm writing this, so I hope you have a great night/day/afternoon, and see you around!
Author