Fate/Zero

Title: King of Conquerors: The Rise of a King by Xian-Kar

Synopsis:

Two years after the 4th Grail War, Waver Velvet makes a discovery that can change the course of history. His reunion with Rider doesn't go as expected. Instead of the King of Conquerors Heroic Spirit, he meets with an inexperienced young prince Alexander.

Genre-  Fantasy & Adventure

Rated: K+

Words: 64+

Status: In-Progress

Spoilers:

Prologue: The Summoning

The clock struck twelve and the tower vibrated to the sound of the bells. The hallway slowly became crowded with students' voices, echoing down the stairway. It was lunch time at the Clock Tower.

In the west wing, a young lecturer was finishing his class.

"If you have any questions you are welcome to discuss them with me after lunch. I will be available at the library between two and three this afternoon".

He erased the board leaving it ready for the next class. The words "History of Magic" faded one by one, as the first-year students closed their books and put away their notes. All except for one.

"Mr. Velvet", a young girl raised her hand.

"I've told you before, just call me Waver. I'm only a tutor and I'm almost your same age."

Waver Velvet put his books back in his bag and walked towards the door. The girl rushed to chase him, dropping some papers on her way, and quickly picking them up with clumsiness. Waver helped her.

"Excuse me, mist-, I mean, Waver?", she asked, collecting her notes from the floor. "I was just wondering if you needed some help with the experiment you are working on"

"I am OK for now, thank you. I will let you know if I need any help. I'll come to you first", he said as he helped her up.

He walked out of the classroom, followed by the girl.

"Umm…I am just curious. There are rumors. Rumors about you working with some sort of…dark magic."

Some eyes turned to them as she said these words. Waver did not seem surprised.

"But…of course I don't believe those rumors! Not from you! I mean, you are such an example for people like me."

Waver sighed.

"Then why are you asking me these questions?"

"I-I didn't mean to! I'm sorry. I will never doubt you! I believe in you."

It's not like I care if she does, Waver thought

One of the girls overhearing their conversation in the hallway approached him.

"Hey Velvet", she stood in front of him, blocking his way, arms crossed against her chest. "I've heard you are falling behind in your thesis. You better work on it, or our reputation as Student Council members will be affected negatively."

"Yes, president, whatever you say", he said ironically, taking out a cigarette from his pocket. With a simple spell he made a small flame to light it.

"And what's with this new habit of yours? Smoking is bad for your health, you know? Also, don't you think you need a hair cut?" She grabbed a lock of his thick, black hair and pulled it up, then slowly let it slip through her fingers until it fell again over Waver's shoulders. "What's gotten into you lately?"

Waver took a big puff from his cigarette.

"I don't know what it is about these things," he examined his cigarette, "but it helps me reduce the anxiety through the long nights of study. And my hair is perfectly fine, I like it this way better. I'm planning on growing it longer, actually." A massive cloud of smoke came out of his mouth as he spoke.

"Jeez…at least do it outside of the tower. You are supposed to set the example." The girl fanned away the smoke with her hand. Then took the cigarette away from him and put it out.

"I don't what you are trying to prove, Velvet, but I don't like this. I never particularly liked you before, but now I certainly don't. You may be popular among the first-year students, and you may be most professors' favorite, but I will never approve of you. Or any of…", she paused to scan Waver's pupil from her feet to her head before she continued. "…your kind."

She gave Waver one last look of disapproval, turned around and walked away from them.

"What does she mean?" Asked the girl.

"She comes from a well-known family of mages, so she naturally thinks of all other mages as mediocre, and therefore, unworthy of the Mage's Association"

"That is just stupid. I can't believe nowadays there's people who still think like that. She is not even top of her class. If family names mattered, then she would be a top student. That is just plain nonsense," she stomped her feet with anger, "if it wasn't for you and your initiative on the reform of the Mage's Association's policies, people like me would have never made it here."

"She is just childish. She is the stereotype of the rich girl, powerful family, unhappy life, parent issues, or whatever it is that makes her life miserable. You know how it goes."

Emily chuckled at his comment

"But she is actually not a bad person," Waver continued. "So, please don't mind her. Now back to a more important matter… I'm heading to the cafeteria to get some food. You are welcome to join me if you want"

"Absolutely!"

The afternoon ran smoothly. Waver left the tower at 5, with the intention of working on his thesis. He hated to admit it, but the President of the council was right. He couldn't put it off anymore, he needed to show results in order to graduate, and he was running out of time. He was thinking about this on his way home, when he heard an unusual sound. The sound of horseshoes hitting the pavement with fury, running faster and faster towards him.

A horse in the downtown of London? Could it be…?

He turned, and his eyes were filled with disappointment right away. A carriage passed by, carrying a couple of newly weds. They waved at him. He waved back. He sighed and continued walking.

By the time Waver got home it was dark already. He turned the lights on. His apartment was clean and tidy. And dull and empty and lonely, as usual.

Two years had passed since the fourth Holy Grail war. Although he was used to being by himself, he oddly enjoyed living with the old married couple who took him in as their grandson back in Japan. To think that he used to be annoyed by all that noise and distractions at the beginning, and now there he was, missing them.

"I should write to them," he thought out loud, placing his bag on the table and checking the mail, which was all bills, "It's been almost a month since I last did."

He went to his room. Everything was in the exact same spot as he left it that morning. He undressed and decided to leave his clothes wherever they landed on the floor. When he was removing his pants, they got stuck in the edge of the bed. He kept pulling them, harder and harder until they ripped, making him fall on his back with the same strength he was pulling. He hit the wardrobe, it wobbled and fell. He had to roll to the side to dodge it. The wardrobe's doors opened wide against the floor, and the clothes spread all around the floor.

"For fuck's sake!" Waver yelled as he hit the floor with his fist, then immediately regretted that.

"Ouch!" he complained, rolling over and rubbing his sore hand. He finally got up, and stared at the mess for a few minutes before he made up his mind to clean it up.

One by one he picked the clothes and folded them, separating them in piles. Sweaters, pants, shirts and finally T-shirts.

"This is…"

He held a white T-shirt with a brownish world map design, and the Japanese characters for "admirable" on it. Waver's eyes became watery.

"That idiot…why did he even leave this with my stuff", he said as he threw it on his bed. He sat there and stared at it. After hesitating for a brief moment, he put the T-shirt on.

He looked into the mirror and checked himself out from different angles. Surprisingly, it was not as loose as he thought it would be. In fact, he almost liked how he looked in it. He made a fist to pop out his biceps, but his arm barely grew a few millimeters. He suddenly remembered how that T-shirt stretched over its original owner's thick muscles, and he felt stupid. He took it off and left it on the floor under his bed.

"Whatever…" he said to himself, and left the room to take a shower.

It was nearly midnight. Countless books, research notes, and a cup of coffee sitting on Waver's desk for hours. A cigarette was left to consume itself next to the other cigarette butts in the ashtray, while Waver rested his forehead on the desk. Unable to think, unable to sleep. His back was sore from sitting in the same position. He only moved when his alarm went off. He looked for it in between his papers. Gems and other artifacts fell from the desk as he did, leaving a mess on the floor.

11.45 already!

He set off the alarm.

Oh no, I'm supposed to crack this out before 2 am when my powers are stronger. He thought, staring at his clock with concern.

He opened his laptop, and a document popped up with the title "Theories of modern magic: time magic and it's uses"

He held his head between his hands and thought: this is worth nothing if I don't have empiric evidence! I need proof. I need to finish this experiment...

He gave himself a little slap on his cheeks, determined to carry on with his work. He looked through his books and read the tittles and introductions:

"Time Traveling: a true story"

"Hidden Mysteries: The Science Behind"

"The Enigma of Time"

Waver put the books away, disappointed.

All of this crap is just mystical, unproved bullshit! None of this is serious. He thought.

The next title was "Magic and War". He checked the index and stopped his finger at "Time magic". He read the introduction, and the basic spells for altering time. It somehow seemed familiar to him, and he realized this was the kind of magic Emiya Kiritsugu used during the Grail War.

He finished the chapter and closed the book, frowning at its cover.

This is some dangerous business, the thought, I don't want to make a war weapon. I must be careful, I don't want this to end up in the wrong hands.

He moved to the next one.

"Crafting Magical Artifacts: A Guide to Magecraft"

He made some progress with this one. Although nothing new, it was practical for his experiment. He gathered some materials and organized them. Then took another look at the clock. It was already 12:45. He decided to take a 5 minutes break for coffee.

He grabbed his cup from the desk and dropped a book. It landed opened facing up on the floor.

"Alchemy of Time", he read the title of the chapter.

He put his cup down and picked up the book. It called his attention that it was written in ancient Greek -he felt particularly confident and proud about his ancient Greek after two years of studying thoroughly, and was always looking for an opportunity to give it some use-

He sat on the floor and read the introduction of the book. There was a note from the translator

"This manuscript is one of the oldest written records of alchemy, originally written in Farsi in 290 BC, and translated into Greek. It has been brought into the western cultures during the times of Alexander the Great."

Than name echoed in Waver's head. It was still hard to believe he got to know such a historical and famous figure. He could not believe it himself sometimes. He had read hundreds of books about Alexander the Great, yet he still felt like the person from the books was someone else.

He turned a couple of pages and observed the images. Symbols of eyes everywhere. The transmutation circles present throughout the book.

"The all-seeing-eye, the eye of Buddha, the 108 Snail Martyrs, Hamsa, The eye of Fatimah, The hand of Miriam, The eye of Horus"

He read out loud as he turned the pages and wondered how so many cultures from different eras and places could share the same symbols. Then something occurred to him.

Wait, how could they possibly know all of this back then?

He turned to the next page and observed in astonishment the image of what seemed like a priest in a black, hooded cloak, holding some sort of relic with the shape of an hourglass, and an eye in the middle. On his left side, a landscape with creatures and plants of Jurassic scale. On his right, a scenery where infinite buildings raised resembling the ones of modern cities.

"This can't be. It's impossible!", he said as he went back to the beginning check the date of the book. The "290 BC" was still there.

This is wrong. The date is wrong. This must be a joke

He left the book on the desk and went on his computer. He googled the title, and compared multiple results, all of them matching:

"…Most copies where lost after the destruction of the Library of Alexandria. There are currently two known copies left of this manuscript. The original, which remains under the protection of the Estate of Iran, and a Greek translation, which is said to be hidden somewhere in the British Museum."

Everything pointed to the same thing: he was in possession of this ancient lost manuscript, which was hiding in the library of the Clock Tower in London this hole time.

Once he realized this, he freaked out and closed his computer abruptly. He remained seated there staring at the book for a few minutes, taking deep breaths to calm himself down. He tried to remember where he found the book, and wondered why nobody had reviewed such an important thing before. He recalled the "mystical" section, the most unpopular between young mages nowadays. Nobody would have taken the book seriously.

He hesitated for another moment. He had no evidence for his hypothesis. He wanted to create an artifact to prove that time could be altered with magic. He was running out of time, and this might have been his only shot.

He took a deep breath, opened the book, and begun to gather the materials for the experiment.

It's now or never, he thought as he drew a circle on the floor, followed by multiple symbols. The last one was an eye in the middle, where he placed different kinds of magical gems.

He read the instructions one more time, just to make sure he was not missing anything.

This should be enough…, he thought, and looked at the clock one more time.

"01:54"

He took another deep breath and recited an enchantment.

The air in the room begun to spin around him, faster with every second. Red lightnings emanated erratically from the circle. The shape of an eye begun to materialize in the middle.

Then all of a sudden the wind became weaker. The sparks vanished in a second, and the lines on the floor begun to fade.

"no…no, no, no!" Waver yelled "I did everything it said! Everything! Where did I go wrong?"

He turned to the book which was still opened on his desk, and quickly went through the steps again.

"…a powerful catalyst". He read out loud, then turned to the gems in the middle. They had all merged into one big, solid crystal.

"It's not enough…"

Determined, he picked a knife, and made a deep cut in the palm of his hand. The blood burst immediately out of his skin.

Even if my magical circuit is week, even if I don't come from a big family of mages, I need to try…

He flipped his palm facing down. The blood poured onto the center of the circle, completely covering the crystal in the middle.

The wind raised again. This time fiercely. The whole room swirled around the circle, and a magnetic force dragged Waver to the floor in the middle. He felt like he was being pulled from every limb in different directions, like he was going to rip at any time. He yelled but the wind was so loud he could not hear his own voice. He tried to move but the magnetic force immobilized him. The force begun to tear his skin apart.

All Waver could pray for in that moment was to pass out of pain before he died.

He opened his eyes, with trouble, and faced the bed. The white t-shirt was still under it.

"Rider…", he whispered

A sudden fear took over him. He panicked. His tears were immediately carried away by the strong gust every time they came out of his eyes. He could no longer keep them opened. The pain slowly begun to fade, and his body became numb.

"I don't want to die", he cried, "Rider…please, I don't want to die. I'm scared. Rider…"

A/N:

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