unhandme | Bloodstained Reunion (closed for boarrowedyourwife and maybe aheadofmyself)

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musebox

Bloodstained Reunion (closed for boarrowedyourwife and maybe aheadofmyself)

Sola-ui knew she had died. Even though she had no memories of how she had met her end, it was impossible for her not to know, what with her body being riddled with bullet holes and the unique feeling of knowing her heart has already stopped and her blood had congealed in her veins.

However, even so, her body did not rot. Nor did her consciousness disappear. She had no breath and no heartbeat. She needed no food nor water. Yet her body still moved and thought like one still alive. The bullet holes and the stump of an arm now seemed natural to her body. As if she had always borne them, even she was just born.

Perhaps, she is in hell. Certainly the dark, barren landscape would indicate that. As would the chronic burning pain and itch she would receive from her blood-caked wounds. But something else occupies her mind. And it is that something else which makes her feel like a damned soul.

Diarmuid is not here.

No matter how she searches, she can find neither hide nor hair of him. Nor can she find any trace of Kayneth (not that she cares). In life, she could only watch as the hero ignored her in favor of her ill-tempered fiancee. Had he gone back to the man he insisted was his true Master after her death? Now, in death, was she to be eternally deprived of her hero's presence?

Technically, she knows that it is a very plausible thing. She is but a normal human while he is a hero. They could never head into the same afterlife, if she even had one upon her soul returning to the Root.

But a miracle had occurred. She had continued to live this twisted life after death. What was it for, if not to meet him again? Surely, her love would not meet such an abrupt end.

"Diarmuid? Diarmuid? Where are you, Diarmuid? Come here. I love you..."

She chants with her cold, cracked lips, wandering through the dead landscape with tears flowing out of her eyes. She doesn't know how long she has kept at this, or how much longer she must continue to do this. Maybe she would search for an eternity. But she won't stop. Not when there's the slightest hope of them meeting again.

Since she is already dead, she can walk and walk and keep on walking day and night. Even if she doesn't know the difference since both look the same under the dark sky. She doesn't know how far she has walked, or if she has even left the place she "woke" in.

This day, however, the landscape changes. Where before, it had been completely barren, now it played host to a strange mansion pained in dark tones. It is constructed in the Victorian Gothic style, with pointed arches and steep gables The windows are nailed shut, but the door is ajar.

Since she is already dead, Sola-ui figures she has little to fear from whatever monsters may lurk its hallways. Thus, she steps inside with little hesitation.

The inside is as somber as the outside. Though it might have looked splendid once, right now its floors and furniture are covered in dust. The wall paper is peeling. The entranceway chandelier had fallen down and shattered into glass shards on the faded rug. It is a house as dead as the landscape outside it and the woman within it.

As she steps into the house, for the first time since her death, Sola-ui experiences fatigue. Her feet hurt. Her wounds itch. Her throat is sore. She wants to rest.

So she drags herself into a sofa and awaits whatever might come find her.

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Sola-ui collapses onto the ground. Partly because her support has been removed, and partly because of how emotionally devastated she is.

Why? Why does he still not love her? After she argued against Kayneth for his sake every time? After she took Kayneth's command seals so she could be connected to him? After she spent all this time looking and looking in hopes of seeing him again?

She gags twice, trying to speak, but it seems something has stolen the words from her mouth.

"...Nnn..."

She can only make a small, broken noise.

"N-no..."

The word comes out as a whisper.

"I-I love you!"

She reaches out at him with her remaining hand.

"You say you don't care but I love you!"

If he hears her declaration of love, he'll go back to how he was. He has to go back to how he was. He just has to.

Diarmuid just glares at her hand. Her pleas, her cries, her desperation... None of it reaches him. In fact, after a moment he moves forward slowly as if he is going to take her hand, only to knock it away as hard as he can caring not that the force of the blow might injure her.

She's already dead. What does one more injury matter?

Red and black swirls before his vision for a few moments and during that time Diarmuid feels a very strong urge just to snatch her up and rip her apart. She's dead. She shouldn't be moving. She shouldn't be speaking.

She shouldn't be making him feel ANYTHING.

His hand is halfway to her head, fingers flexed into deadly claws when he stops, rage suddenly flowing out of him. The emotional dissipation is so sudden, in fact, that a small whimper slips from his mouth, confusing filling his mind.

What is he doing? What is wrong with him? These thoughts...they aren't him.

Diarmuid's eyes fall to his hands and the marks on them. For the first time since he awoke again he can't help but worry about what they mean. It's all overwhelming him and with her whimpering there on the floor, he just can't take it.

He needs to run. He has to get away.

Before Diarmuid even realizes what he's doing he's turned and started toward the door of the house. He should never of come in here. Things would have been okay then.

He will just leave and things will be okay again.

She makes no move to defend herself from the claw descending on her head. In fact, she can't even feel any fear from the idea of having her head smashed to pieces.

That is because she is as good as dead already, knowing that she had been rejected by Diarmuid. All she wants is for it to end quickly.

But him turning and leaving shocks her out of her grief.

"W-wait! Come back! Don't go!"

She drags her body after him, slithering on the floor like a snake.

"Don't leave me!"

Even if he's just here to kill her, she needs him by her side.

Diarmuid ignores her completely as he strides toward the open door. However, what he can't ignore is the invisible barrier at the door that refuses to let him cross back out of the house. He raises his hand, laying it flat against thin air.

Thin air that refuses to let him escape this place. Escape from the feelings that are swirling inside of him.

A growl starts low in his throat rising, growing louder, and finally becoming a full fledged snarl. His hands ball into fists and he beats against the invisible barrier. Red and black swirls across his vision again as he continues at his fruitless task, not even noticing that his hands are becoming bloodied from his repeated blows against what seems to be nothing.

Finally, with one last barrage of blows he turns away from the door, his eyes darting around the room trying to find a different way to leave the house. As Diarmuid does so, his eyes eventually fall on the spot where Sola-Ui is laying on the floor. Suddenly, his scattered rage and killing intent sharpens, focusing on her.

Only a few steps bring him back to her and he picks her up by the neck, shaking her like a doll, before shoving his face into hers. Slitted eyes meet hers and his voice drips with barely restrained violence, "You did this. You are keeping me here somehow. Release me! Do it now! I will not stay in your presence a moment longer!"

She watches in mute surprise as she sees Diarmuid punching at the barrier of the house. She had not sensed it when she had first walked in.

"How..."

Before she can finish speaking, his hand is locked around her throat. She quickly shakes her head in response to his demands. She set no barrier. In her dead state, she does not even know if she can set one.

Her attention is diverted from the matter of the forcefield when she notices the black blood flowing from his knuckles. She raises her remaining hand and gently caresses the hand choking her. She stares at him, as if to ask how much it hurts him.

"What did you do? Tell me why I can't leave!" Diarmuid shakes her again, but pauses in his tirade when he notices the attention she is paying his wounds. Seeing that his blood is black instead of red seems to throw him, and lets go of Sola-Ui suddenly, not caring that she will most likely be flung to the floor again by his actions. Instead, he focuses on his hand, drawing the fingers of his other hand through the blood.

"Why? Why is it black?" The questions are muttered almost to himself in a voice much different than the enraged one he had been yelling with not so long ago. This voice is an unsteady mix of curiosity, fear and confusion.

He looks at Sola-Ui, the expression on his face finally looking something more like what she would recognize as 'her' Diarmuid, "What is wrong with me? Why...why have I changed so much?"

Her body slams hard into the ground. Her vision blurs and swirls and it's not until after a while that she can answer.

"I-I don't know! Why you can't leave. Or why your blood is black! I don't know why you changed! But...but that's not important! What's important is that you have to go back!"

"How can I change back if I don't know what is wrong with me?" Diarmuid flings his hand out, not even noticing the blood that comes off it to splatter on a wall. Of course, considering all the blood that Sola-Ui has gotten on things already, it doesn't really stand out all that much.

If his question sounds angry that anger quickly drains away. In fact, Diarmuid suddenly feels a lot more tired than he has since he woke up. After a few moments, he actually drops rather hard to sit, cross-legged, on the floor.

"What do I do? How do I become me again? Do these things have something to do with it?" He runs his fingers over the markings on his hands. "These must have something to do with it. But what?"

She crawls over to him and, with her one good hand resting on his shoulder, pulls herself up just enough so she can draped herself over him.

"You could try to seek the same happiness you did before. No, something greater than that, even."

She leans her face close to him, so much their their noses almost touch. Then, quickly, she gives him a light kiss on the side of his mouth.

"Knights should be quick to become themselves again in the presence of their lady. If you need someone to calm you, then why not me?"

"What makes you think you are that lady?" Anger flashes in his eyes again as she has the audacity to not only lay on him, but also to kiss him. The kiss in particular makes his stomach twist and in the back of his mind, he can't help but wonder if he threw up, would the vomit be as black as his blood?

However, despite how much is makes him sick to have her so close, he doesn't shove her away. He moves his head backward away from hers, but he allows her to remain leaning on him.

"Why would I ever consider you my lady, Sola-Ui?" His voice is low and he looks her in the eyes as he speaks. "Why would I be calmed by the woman who was responsible for my death? He killed me because of you! He forced me to drive my own weapon through my chest because of you!"

"He did?"

She looks down at her stump of an arm and frowns. Had the command seals that she wanted to use to tie herself to Diarmuid been the cause of his death? She should be devastated at the news, but having Diarmuid by her side calms her somewhat. At least, it allows her to feel anger instead of panic.

"I have no love for him. Kayneth or any other man. If he hurt you because of me...then I'll just kill him for you! Tell me where he is!"

She might not be able to walk now, but when she can, she will hunt that man down.

"Of course, he did! You were there. You saw i..." Diarmuid's voice drops off as he forces himself to sort through the memories of that time. She had been there. He remembered that. But she....she had been hurt. Yes, he can remember that now. She had been being carried. Had she known after all?

He pushes at her, but again it's not really hard enough to force her away. Instead, he laughs bitterly, "If the condition you are in is any indication, he is probably as dead as you are.

"Actually, hopefully he's more dead than you. Even more than you, I do not wish anything to do with him ever again."

"Was I? The last thing I remember was that woman interrogating me about you."

She smiles at him.

"But I didn't tell him anything. I only thought of protecting you."

She looks down at his hands pushing her.

"And I tell you I don't want anything to do with him either. So stop thinking of me as belonging to him."

"That woman? What woman?" For the moment, curiosity overrides his disgust at having her so close to him, and Diarmuid actually warps an arm around her, pulling her to sit in his lap facing him so he can talk to her face to face. "Do you mean Saber and her master? Or was it someone else? Do you remember meeting a man with dark hair and dead eyes after you were taken?"

That man. Just the thought of him makes the rage rekindle inside of Diarmuid. That man had been the one to offer his master the deal. Diarmuid might not have had much time to realize that during his last few moments of life, but it doesn't take a lot of thought to realize it now.

A low growl vibrates in his throat. What he wouldn't give to be able to have some time alone with that man. He would kill him slowly. Tear him apart limb by limb...

She giggles when he pulls her over. Maybe he's finally started to reciprocate her affection.

"It was someone else, but she was standing with the man you mentioned. She was a very strange woman, all dressed in black. And the way she acted--she was barely even human."

She looks up into his eyes.

"And how do you know of that...vagrant?"

"It was him," there is a snarl in Diarmuid's words, but for once it's not direct at her. In fact, he hardly seems to be aware of her now--his eyes focused on something distant, a memory perhaps.

That memory.

"He was the one who did it. He was the one who offered the deal that couldn't be refused. I didn't see that woman anywhere, but he was there. With you. With...Kayneth. He is just as responsible as the rest of you!" He suddenly shoves her out of his lap, standing to pace the room like the caged animal he currently is.

"I want to rip them apart. I want to hear them scream. I want them to feel my pain! Let my agony be their own!"

"I'll help you!"

She has regained a little strength by now, so she climbs to her knees.

"I can rip them into however many pieces you want. Extract as many screams from them as possible. We can have our revenge together."

Diarmuid tilts his head back at her, gaze amused, "Do you really think I need your help claiming my vengeance? You who can barely stand on her own? Focus on learning to walk again, babe, before you make any grand plans. In the meantime, I will find my own way," he lets his head drop back, at the same time stretching his arms out at his sides and rolling his shoulders. "My body is still whole, after all, if changed..."

His voice falls silent. Diarmuid lifts his hand up in front of his face and looks at it again, tracing the lines that cover it, "What are you? What have you turned me into?" The questions are asked mostly to himself and he expects no answers. Still, it is something he does want an answer to. He just doesn't know where to start looking for that answer.

"Give me a little time."

She cannot be weak forever. Already, she is recovering some energy.

"Something...something must have blessed both of us. Why else would we and nobody else be here?"

"Find a way to break the spell keeping us in this house or find a way around the barrier."

Diarmuid ignores her words on being blessed by the situation. In fact, his statement is a challenge that is clear from the look in his eyes, "You have the time it takes to find that. However, do not think to extend your time by not looking at your full capacity because I will be looking as well, and if I find a way before you do, I will leave you here without a second thought. You have my word on that, and a knight never lies."

She quickly nods and crawls over to the door as quickly as she can. She raises a hand to feel the barrier. It's indeed a firm one. It feels like a glass door just placed in front of the entranceway. She next observes the sides of the door. There are no marks to indicate the placements of any spells.

"Can you try your Noble Phantasm? It should be able to repel the magic, if it is magic."

How odd it is that she thought of that before he did. After all, Diarmuid's weapons are a part of him like an arm or a leg, but even so, he had not thought of it.

Perhaps deep down, he knows it won't be that easy?

Without a sound, the spear appears in Diarmuid's hands. If he notices that its metal seems dulled and cracked, he doesn't show any sign. Instead, he merely unseals its abilities and brings the spear's head in contact with the barrier.

Nothing happens.

The bitter laughter that slips from his lips shows how completely unsurprised by this he is.

She shakes her head when she sees that it has no effect.

"Impossible. Or...is this magic just too strong?"

She crawls over to another wall of the room. Nothing to indicate any origin for the barrier either.

"Maybe we will just have to search every room..."

Diarmuid does not answer her at first. Instead, he unsummons his spear and just watches her. It doesn't make any sense to him. Why does she try so hard, struggle so much, when he has been nothing but cruel to her? When he has said she means nothing to him?

"Why are you doing this? Why help me when I have spurned you so? Your efforts make no sense to me. What is so special about me that you will do so much to have the chance to posses it even for a little while?"

"Because I love you."

To the extent that she would do anything to keep him at her side. No matter how cruel he was to her, she would only remember him as the Diarmuid who had stood at her side during the Grail War. As long as she could keep him by her, there was a chance that she could get him to love her.

Bloodstained Reunion (closed for boarrowedyourwife and maybe aheadofmyself)

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