A Twist of Fate (Fate Zero & Fate Stay/Night:UBW)

Sonnet 18: Chapter 3

Play soundtrack above before proceeding.

Warm light filtered through a window where Eritrea was recovering. She stirred, waking from her slumber and was greeted by the six faces of her dearest friends. Sitting up, she smiled at them, blissfully ignorant.

"Hello, my friends."
Rider inquired, "How are you feeling?"
"I feel different. I feel...recovered. Incredible."
"That's good." choked Saber, holding back her tears with a brave smile.
Lancer spoke, "Lass, there's something you should know-"

"Where's Diarmuid?" asked Eritrea, too eager at her improvement of health to bother with anything else.
Shirou approached her and place a hand on her shoulder.
"Eritrea. Your sanity... It came with a price..."

Eritrea? He addressed me by my first name.

She looked at them, puzzled. Then the truth hit her like a freight train.

"No, no..." she pleaded.

Eritrea searched each of their faces for even the slightest chance that this wasn't real. Pushing past her friends, she stumbled out the doors and into the church. Diarmuid should have been long gone, but he remained corporeal due to his incredible resolve alone.

"DIARMUID!"

Eritrea dropped to his side, "Help him... Help him!" she implored Pastor Alex.

But the priest could only stand to one side and watch. His body language told her that he desperately wanted to, but his eyes said that he couldn't. Eritrea looked back at Diarmuid, speaking frantically.

"Tell me what to do and I'll save you."
"Don't you see? You already have. Since the day I met you, the day you made your wish to the Grail and every day after that. You've rescued me over and over again. There's no other way I would rather die than to save the woman I love."
"Why did you do this?! We were going to find another way together!"

A tear streamed down the side of his upturned lips.

"I'm sorry, my love. But if I had to choose... I would always choose to save you."

Eritrea Yunani had always conveyed her opinions with eloquence. This time however, words failed her and only tears were able to say what she herself could not. He smiled calmly, caressing her face.

"Do you remember the day we got married? I thought I was in a beautiful dream. And when we exchanged our vows and I... French-dipped you before kissing your lips." he chuckled. "I realized that it was a beautiful dream that came true. I regret nothing. Especially not this. I love you, amour. In this lifetime and the next."

Eritrea did her best to steady her voice, saying her last words to him as she clasped his palm in one hand and stroked his cheek with the other.

"I loved you then. I love you still."

Diarmuid continued with her, the pair finishing each other's sentences.

"I always have. I always will."

She leaned down to kiss him one last time. The evening light shone on Diarmuid as he faded away in a blur of golden sparks. Eritrea's throat had closed up, making it difficult to breathe.

"Don't leave me..." she begged.

Though Eritrea was in the house of God, she felt no solace for her pain, no sanctuary within these hallowed halls.

"Don't go where I can't follow..."

Where her husband had laid moments ago, only the light that streamed in a window remained. Eritrea crouched beside someone who was no longer there, unable to move.