The woman who was King

A young man had found a secluded section of England with the intention of summoning a long dead heroic spirit to the present. He had even managed to obtain an item required as the catalyst to summon the specific spirit in his mind. He pulled out a container that had the substance he would use to draw the circle in which the spirit would be summoned.. and after painstakingly drawing it over the length of an hour he had finished.

Thus he stood and began his incantation. He was but a mere human with no real power of his own..however this summon did not rely on his own power but the words he spoke and the item he had obtain.. The Holy Grail, the very item he summoned this spirit to help him obtain, was the power source for the actual summoning. He put a hand up and began speaking in a somewhat loud and somewhat hushed voice as he tried to be secretive with his actions.

"A base of silver and iron."
"A foundation of stone, and the Archduke of Contracts."
"A wall to block the falling wind the gates at the cardinal directions close. from the crown come forth and follow the forked road leading to the kingdom."
"Heed my words. My will creates your body, and your sword creates my destiny."
"If you heed the Grail's call and obey my will and reason, then answer me!"
"I hereby swear that I shall be all the good in the world. That I shall defeat all evil in the world."
"You, Seven Heavens, shrouded by the three great words of power, come forth from the circle of inhibition...".
"Guardian of the Scales!"

With it spoken a large blast of energy and light erupted upwards and outwards from the Circle.. when it faded the boy was stunned for what he saw was a woman clad in armor instead of a man. He didn't make any mistakes..which meant somehow..this..was King Arthur.. the legendary hero who wielded Excalibur..but..how?



She opened her eyes and realized exactly what was going on..due to being imparted "modern" knowledge by the Grail to prevent cultural shock and such.
"You who have summoned me forth.. I hereby answer your call and vow to help you in your quest."

Unfortunately.. the young man's antics did not go unnoticed.. such a large energy burst drew attention from someone.. though neither of them were currently aware of this.

"..You are...King Arthur?" the boy managed to say while still stunned at the fact he was talking to a woman. Not that he doubted her power or anything but.. King Arthur was a guy by the accounts of history.

"I am.. ...was.. King of Britain yes.. Though to hide my gender Merlin and my Father devised a plan to allow me to take the throne.. thus "Arthur" was created.. However.. to hide my identity and to keep Arthur as the name for the King of Britain.. you shall call me Saber.." She was pretty nice about it..though she was annoyed the boy kept staring at her with a stunned look on his face..she didn't let it show though.

"Thats kind of a surprise..not that that is a bad thing I mean." He said while rubbing the back of his head, "My name is Ryuuda Lanztel. I am indeed the one who summoned you.. but it seems something went wrong with the summoning.." He stated flatly as he looked at his now bare right hand, "Apparently the command seals i have are gone.. I feel their magic on you however.. I do not understand how this could have happened. But as long as you and I both seek the same thing you don't mind if I tag along do you?"

"I do not mind. It is because of you I have the chance to seek the Grail at this time." She changed her armored appearance to one of a tuxedo wearer in a flash of light and energy before continuing to speak, "Though this is not the first time I have tried for the Grail in this Era.. It is the first time I cannot sense other heroic spirits.. Do you happen to know why?"

Ryuuda looked a bit nervous when asked that question, "well..yes and no.. This is not a Holy Grail War.. there hasn't been one for over a hundred years.. But I tried the summoning to see if the Grail still existed and here you are.. proof that is does still exist somewhere in the world.." He rubbed the back of his head again and sighed, "Unfortunately not having other Heroic Spirits to fight will not make this any easier..there are plenty of people as strong as the heroic servants were nowadays.. and if they catch wind of what we seek they will probably try to get in the way for their own selfish wants."

"Hrm.. We will deal with anyone who proclaims themselves to be our foe in due time.. For now since there are no set rules to obtaining the Grail we should just look for it across the world.." Saber looked around and was suddenly very pleased.. The Grail had decided to be very very generous and create the Motorcycle Saber had used in the past during her summoning as it was sitting nearby. "But first.. I need to rest.. apparently more than just the command seals went wrong during my summoning.. I am low on energy..and I apparently generate my own instead of you supplying it.."

"Oh!" He ran to the makeshift altar nearby and grabbed Avalon from it, "Here this should help immensely. This is yours isn't it? It's how I was able to call for you specifically." and he handed it over.

"Avalon.. This will make things much easier.. Thank you. I will still need time to regain my energy though.. So we will wait here for now.." She took it..summoned excalibur in her hand..sheathed it..and both disappeared from sight and sensing until she would call for them again but remained as if they were still on her person.

"I don't think we should stay here too long.. I'm sure the summoning caught alot of attention.."

"Very well.. I only need a few minutes..we can leave as soon as I've recovered a bit more.."

A young man was walking down the streets of England. He wore a black Italian style formal suit with a yellow dress shirt and black tie. He wore a fedora on his head with a bright yellow ribbon wrapped around. The man let out a small sigh. “Why did I have to be sent here” he mumbled to himself, a raspy hush sound replied. “yea yea” he shook his head, a thick Italian accent still prominent even though he spent years in American under the coalition. He never agreed to much with their methods, he didn't care about Hollow, Bount, Arrancar, Shinigami. They were all living to him, what did it matter their race. The world these days was filled with racism to everyone it was annoying.

It was a foggy night on England, as it always is. The damp air filled the air around them as an explosion was heard from a distance the suited man twisted around at break neck speed, he had the normal reaction to an odd explosion in the distance. However the sword on his back had a completely different reaction, well odd enough for a sword to react as well, but it began to tremble on the gentleman's back. “Hey, everything alright back there?” he looked over his shoulder, a thick black like smoke began to rise from the sword. “Guess we really should check this out.” the man said and with that ran towards the explosion site.


When he got about ten feet from the building. The sword on his back couldn't take the tension anymore. It flung off the mans back into the window of the building fuming black smoke. However when it hit through the other side it was no longer just a sword. A full sized man suited in pitch black armor with glowing red eyes crashed onto the ground and didn't stop moving. It busted through the wall where the two people were in the room and completely ignored the boy sitting there. It stared directly at the Female there breathing heavily with rage.

Back at the entrance the man was getting up from being used as a springboard. “Holy shit” he muttered as he hopped in through the same hole his weapon broke through. He heard a roar from the iron suit “Lancelot what the hell are you doing!!” he shouted and rushed into the room. The Knight already had two weapons materialized in his hands, two lances to be exact, they had a red aura to it smoking from the lance's entirety, he then rushed in swinging one lance with great speed and power at the female, filled with raw killing intent.

“Lancelot cut it out!” he shouted. It was odd, this was the first time the knight as ever done this, he didn't even have to call Ziege Dich to call him out, it was as if he were acting completely on his own.

As soon as the wall was breached Saber was up and Excalibur was in her hand though concealed by her invisible air ability. However what she saw was so shocking to her she almost let go of her sword. Lancelot? Again...? but.. the boy had said this was not a Holy Grail War so..how? Did another call forth his tormented soul in the same manner as she? It brought tears to her eyes..

"Lancelot do you truely hate me so..?" She cried out as she began expertly parrying his lance attacks with her sword.. it wasn't exactly easy..but she managed to do it thanks to the added bonus' granted by Invisible Air, "Even now?!?" She more heavily began bashing her sword against his spear attacks. Since he was using one hand on each weapon and she was using two on Excalibur their strength difference had closed immensely. She could tell he was far stronger now then the last time she fought him however..and she was not yet fully recovered from the many problems that had occured for some reason during her summoning. If he was still using a weapon with both hands..she would have been forced to use Excalibur to it's fullest already just to survive.. She could not hope to win against him right now..She was too weakened due to her summoning.

"Saber!" Ryuuda shouted as pulled out a set of vibro-knives from thin air and hurled them at the thing attacking her. despite being a regular human these things acted like dagger sized scheele schnieder that the quincy use just on a weaker level. Even with him being a regular human..those things would at least sting a spiritually powerful creature like that.. ...he hoped. Regardless he tackled into Saber once he saw a big enough opening, "Time Accel!" he thought and suddenly the human was on the other side of the small building with Saber who was panting for breath and staring at her arms which had nearly began to feel numb.

"I can't win like this.. I'm far too weakened to beat him this time.." She said with an almost pathetic cringe in her voice while standing up from her kneeling position and getting ready to fight again if he burst through the last wall currently in the way. She would fight him to the death if thats what it came to and she would die with honor..but she was still saddened that Lancelot was so entangled within Madness that even after defeating him last time..he was still trapped within the cage of insanity..

Lancelot's mind went into a frenzy as a bunch of knives through at him, tendrils shot out from his back as he continued to roar and whipped them to knock the knives off course, he then held back the lances. Gauge knew what was going to happened and ducked behind Lancelot. He held the tips together in the air as dark energy began to form between them, he then pulled back and struck forward causing a large black energy blast to shoot out the top towards the other side of the building in the direction saber was to him. The energy was as powerful as a Gran rey and would blast through the building and even the next couple of ones, if he missed the building would surely begin to collapse. He spotted the two through the rubble of the slowly crumbling building and both lance's began to glow, one changed shape into a shield on his right arm, while the other turned into a Falchion sword, an odd aura began to radiate from his body it began to make his body wave around as if he were in the desert with hot air everywhere.

Gauge had no idea what to do now, this is the first time Lancelot had so much hate, Lancelot dashed over to the duo and disappeared reappearing right in front of them swinging his blade down. At the same time, the tendrils on his back flung around all aimed at Saber, completely ignoring the boy. He followed through with the swing and warped behind them, only to be interrupted by disappearing again. Instead of Lancelot who was no behind them, it was Gauge, using Spacial Swap to swap there positions. “ I have no idea why Lancelot is acting like this or why he is attacking you but you two need to get out of here NOW!” he shouted. He could take Lancelot on if really needed however it would be a brutal match that he wants to avoid. He didn't care about the duo's at this time either, they needed to get out.

She felt it coming due to the shift in the air around them long before the wall got blasted, she couldn't sense energy but that didn't mean she didn't have battle instincts. She released Invisible Air from Excalibur and instant charged her power up to counter the about to happen fatal blow. She gripped her sword tightly and rose it above her head almost in sync with Lancelot even though she couldn't see him or even know he had done just that same thing.

"Excalibur~~~!!" She said as she ripped her blade down releasing a huge torrential blast of planetary energy that appears as golden light around the sword and her and extended up to one mile and is, in a cone formation, 5 feet wide at the tip of her sword and 30 feet wide five feet from her sword and steadily maxing at 225 feet wide for the rest of the blast with power on par to two cero oscuras. Using what little control of it she could..she managed to make it tilt upwards after making it to Lancelot's location. That wouldn't keep it from hitting him but it would at the very least make most of the blast go into the sky and minimize the damage as much as possible.. Luckily they were in a secluded area so nothing was outside past Lancelot except open space..Damage would be minimal unlike behind Saber where there were more houses..

However Saber dropped to her knee's after that.. Her weakened body couldn't handle using full power right now, "Saber thats enough we need to go. Whats the point of trying to find it if we can't survive the first day right!?" He grabbed her, fired an RPG with one hand before dropping it, and tossed three reiatsu grenades and three smoke bombs throughout the remains of the building. "Time..Accel!" He said as he ran off with Saber. He did this again each time it wore off for 8 more uses before stopping and coughing a bit of blood and feeling dizzy about six blocks away.

"Are you alright?!?" "Shuddap I'm concentrating.." "Time....Accel!!" nine more uses and they were completely gone. with Ryuuda passed completely out in the new hidden location the two were in. Saber in her panic for the well being of Ryuuda's health used Avalon to heal him before continuing to use it's powers to slowly repair her and her weakened power supply.

"I shall defeat him again and free him from that madness..someday.." She said before she too ended up passing out due to fatigue. It was funny. They had both gotten their butts kicked but both of them had passed out with a silly grin on their faces.

Gauge was happy that the two made it out, however there still was a matter of his own partner. He turned around to see Lancelot standing up from the rubble. He blocked most of the attack with the shield he held however still was staggering, blood seeping through the joints of his however he still stood up as if it hardly hindered him. Gauge let out a sigh however that wasn't about to stop Lancelot as he began to rush in the direction. “I'm sorry to do this to ya buddy” he frowned and held his hand out mustering his spiritual pressure and forming an invisible grip on Lancelot. He gripped tighter and Lancelot roared out strong enough to tremble the area. Smoke from the grenades bursted out as the Knight's form slowly dissolved into a single sword. Gauge picked up the sword and latched it back onto his back. Gauge looked around at the remains of the building, that kid totaled the place. The battle definitely wasn't supposed to go on this long, in fact it wasn't supposed to happen at all. “Guess I better apologize” he murmured, this may not be the best thing to do since the duo were still on the defensive.

He sensed them from far away. “Damn they know how to book it” and held down his hat as he dashed at a high speed towards them. He kept himself on guard as well knowing full well what they are capable of, but after a blast like that, his own restu was feeling low for having to supply Lancelot. After awhile of traveling he finally caught up with the two of them, “hey I come in peace” he lifted his hands in the air to make sure they wouldn't attack right away. “ I truly am sorry about what just happened, but I am also curious. You seem to know about Lancelot” he looked over at the female. “Even know its taking energy to hold him back, why does he have this much rage for you?”

Saber had luckily woke up when she heard the footsteps of someone entering the area Ryuuda had taken her to. She immediately formed Excalibur while using Invisible Air and pointed it, even though it wasn't really visible at the moment but obvious she had something in her hand, at the man as he approached..slowly lowering it as he said he wasn't here to fight. Somehow Ryuuda had managed to grab her motorcycle during his many Time Accels..so it was nearby.. ..she really liked that vehicle... but she had to answer his question first.

"..If that is the same Lancelot I know.. which it must be because he looks the same and has the same maddening rage as before.. It is because I failed as King.." While this wasn't actually true she herself wasn't aware of that. The true reason he had gone mad was because he had loved Arturia's wife in life and "King Arthur" never raised a hand to Lancelot in punishment for his betrayal against his king. She had been happy that after semi-forcing her wife into such a life and hiding her secret that Lancelot could love her.. But this haunted Lancelot in death and drove him to madness..for he never found out that his King was a woman.. which makes sense considering history forever described the legend of Excalibur and King Arthur.. not a woman in disguise.

Ryuuda groaned but he did not wake.. Whatever magic he had used to get them away had apparently taken a huge toll on him. Saber placed Avalon on his back, since he was laying on his stomach, and supplied her energy to it so it's effects of healing would work on Ryuuda. After a little bit of that she reclaimed the sheathe and stared at the man who claimed to have power over Lancelot.

"How did you acquire his soul in such a manner? I've never seen a heroic spirit bound to an object like that before.. Such a thing shouldn't even be possible as far as I am aware.."

Gauge sat down cross legged and stabbed the sword into the ground next to him, he kept a strong hold of energy on Lancelot, it takes a lot to supply him so gauge had plenty control, he didn't want to cut him off either, side effects would be bad. “i met him in england long ago, it seems it took his appearance in sealed for as a sword with the same name as yours. However I am unsure of how he became in this state, and I surely don't know what a Heroic Spirit is, all I know is I myself am a bount, and he has become what we call a Doll. It may seem a little unjust to call them such, but with each bount and doll comes a pact, mine was to complete him with a mind and heart, both of which he lacks, in return he stays loyal to me, which is why I'm surprised at the outburst he just preformed” he spoke alittle sad at the fact his partner did not listen to him.

He shook his head a bit and lifted with a smile. “Well I really am sorry we got off on the wrong foot, I rather wish not to be an enemy, since he seem like a really nice person. I hope that besides Lancelot, we still have a chance as friends, By the way, my names Gauge Jackson. OH” he thought of something and pulled out a number. “i hope I don't come off to disrespectful but Lancelot at this day and age has more power than you...I have a way you can speak to him in a correct conversation, but I'm not sure how he will react seeing you with a heart and mind in place, Iplease give me a call when you get stronger, I am just as curious as you, however I don't want either life to be in threat...” he held the number for awhile, if she were to not take it he would set it on the ground between them.

"That would be very nice.. But I don't think it will do any good.. This is the second time I have seen him like this.. I cannot change the history that has been set down." Saber said as she started feeling better slowly and stood up, "I don't mind being friends but I won't be able to talk with Lancelot." She brushed herself off from the earlier smoke grenades and other bombs and sighed a bit glancing Ryuuda, "He will be much harder to take care of than I first thought.. I didn't realize he was being serious. I thought he was underestimating my strength like my previous Master."

"I am grateful that you were not my enemy. It means I don't have to fight him again.. It was painful enough the first time do not make me go through it again." She lightly nudged Ryuuda with her foot as her entire attire changed into a well mannered black tuxedo, "Ryuudya wake up it's time for us to go." He groaned a bit and slowly pushed himself up to his knees, "I couldn't have slept til he left?" he complained a bit before standing up on his own, "Well I guess we'll be leaving to my house then. Come on Saber" He said as he walked off to leave the building.

"Sorry but we will have to talk another time," Saber said to gauge before following Ryuuda and disappearing on purpose.

...thread end..?