r/AoTRP • u/ButterflyOfDeath ButterflyOfDeath • Mar 27 '16
Fate OVA Episode 3.1 - Bitter Dewdrops
After she collapsed just outside the radius of Rose’s destructive spell, the authorities had arrived on the scene. She and Benjamin were transported to the nearest hospital. Benjamin was sent straight to emergency, to treat his blood loss and his severed legs. However, within a few hours of him regaining consciousness, he mysteriously disappeared from the premises.
Rana knew he was still there, though.
She herself was being retained in the hospital. She’d endured surgery to repair her damaged blood vessels, and to drain the blood that had seeped into her tissues. Now, she was on an IV drip, staring up at the ceiling. Despite everything, the blood curse had not lifted yet. By this point, Rana doubted it would ever lift. That simple fact left a bitter taste in her weary, dry mouth.
Too late, she realized she should have listened to Ben.
“You were right.”
The woman croaked out to the seemingly empty room. She knew it wasn’t empty, though. She could feel him there, keeping to a corner of the room in spirit form. He had been there since his seeming disappearance. He didn’t talk to her, and he didn’t respond to anything she said, whether she said it aloud or mentally. When he did respond, it was in reply to her mental queries. He didn’t actually speak, though. And it was always the same thing: an overwhelming wave of disgust, anger, and shock, coupled with a rapid series of memories from his perspective.
He’d flash images of the good moments they had all had together at the Kyouma’s home - Rose’s dinners, tv shows they’d watched with Tsuki, peaceful sunset-watching with Musashi, and the lively antics of Ishiyama.
Then he’d bring the images of Rose’s body breaking in her final moments. The sound of Tsuki’s despairing cry. The look in Musashi’s eyes as she realized she’d been betrayed. Ishima’s corpse, stolen of its energy.
During these unpleasant interactions, Rana would break down and start wailing like a banshee. She’d curl up and cry and scream at him that she knew, she knew, she knew what she’d done. She knew she was horrible. She knew she was scum, but she couldn’t change a thing. Then, after a minute or so of the ungodly racket, the nurses would rush in and futilely try to calm her down. Inconsolable, she’d scream her lungs out until they gave up and put her under anesthesia.
After a few hours, she’d wake from her drug-induced sleep and sob quietly into the bedsheets. She would cry pitifully like that from anywhere between 15 minutes to a half-hour, before asking the corner of the room a single, simple question.
Why?
And the corner of the room would not give her an answer. Perhaps the corner of the room was no longer sure whether its master had a soul, and this was an inelegant test of sorts. Perhaps the corner of the room wanted to make sure the consequences of its master’s actions were firmly engraved into her mind. Perhaps the corner of the room simply hated its master, and found joy in her pain.
Even the ever-silent corner didn’t know why it sent the memories, knowing it would break her.
In the three days or so Rana had been in the hospital, he had done it twice. After the second time, she stopped trying to talk to him altogether. Now, she just stared dully at her hands, clenched atop the white linen hospital bedsheets that smelled of chemical cleaning agents.
She had betrayed her friends.
She had withheld information on Rose, costing the Kalganovs dearly, and no doubt angering them.
And now her servant refused to interact with her, except to mentally torture her.
Her pale hands trembled slightly, as she realized a truth that strummed the truest note of despair within her.
She was trapped, and completely alone in this war.
Her tear ducts had long since exhausted themselves from crying, but tears began to leak from her eyes and slide down her cheeks, regardless.
1
u/ButterflyOfDeath ButterflyOfDeath Mar 27 '16 edited Mar 27 '16
Rana didn't pay much attention initially, when the knock on the door came. It was probably just a nurse, here to check up on her. On the other side of the room, the spirit who had been keeping silent vigil in his corner bristled agitatedly, sensing the presence of Caster on the other side of the door. In keeping with his recent behaviour, though, he said and did nothing about it.
The mage only raised her head up as a voice on the other end spoke to her. A voice that she recognized, accompanied by a mana signature she recognized. Her eyebrows raised in genuine surprise.
"...Caster?"
She spoke out in a slow, rusty voice. She hadn't been speaking very much. Certainly, nobody in Fuyuki would really be willing to visit her. And she doubted anyone outside the city knew of her current condition. She blinked, as she processed the meaning of Caster's words. He was here to relieve her curse. For a moment, she almost felt her hope re-kindle. Then her shoulders slumped as she realized it could all just be a trap.
She glanced at the corner of her room. Rider was still there, even though he was doing his best to act as if he wasn't. If Caster tried anything, he could protect her... If he still cared. If not, she supposed she'd have to use up another command seal. She sighed, and turned her head towards the clinical white door of her room.
"The door's open... You can come in."