animus_network

[Now that the Shadows were gone, Lancer had taken up exploring the Tower again. When he made it to the fifth floor, he though it would just be like the other floors. If anything, he had expected monsters like the Shadows, and not what he actually saw.]

[Looking through the viewing scope, he found nothing but shifting scenes of a wasteland. He had dismissed it at first, but one of the scenes grabbed his attention. It was a dead land like the other images, but he thought he could recognize the remains of the buildings. As if to mock him, the image slowly zoomed in on a place that was the ruins of Fuyuki. As the image got closer, he started feeling dizzy and empty--the feeling of a Servant whose Master had just died.]

[But that was impossible. The last time he had left her, Ayaka was still alive. Then, why...?]

[The viewing scope first showed him Misaya, finally having found her peace in death, lying there as he had left her. And then it showed him the Grail, even more still and dead than it should have been. Lying there among the corruption was a little girl, one who he had met during the summer festival. The next image was the perverted priest, and the one after that was of Misaya's various classmates. They were all dead. Not just the humans, but the animals and plants as well. Of the Servants there were no trace, but Servants never left more than dust behind.]

[At this point he just wants to pull away and stop looking, but the sight draws him in. There's still one person he cares about left behind in his world. One girl who he had sworn to protect until she could retrieve her Servant. Even though the rest of this world is dead, he hopes that she, at least, is still alive.]

[When he finally sees her, he realizes why he's been getting this feeling. He no longer has a Master, not even a temporary one. Ayaka Sajyou is as dead as the rest of her world.]

[She was lying still, her eyes closed, a faint smile on her lips. Her face is turned to the side and one of her hands is extended horizontally, as if to reach to grasp something. It's only when he notices the pool of black mud next to her that he realizes she must have spent her last minutes with Saber. At least...she could spend her last minutes with that guy.]

[It's at this point that he finally pull back. He takes several deep breaths before heading to a networking console. It took a while for Lancer, even with the updates he had received from the Grail when he was first summoned, to find the audio function. However, there was no way he would show anyone his embarrassing emotional state on video.]

Hey.

[His words come out as a whisper.]

What the fuck is the fifth floor all about?

[It seems obvious enough, but it could possibly be an illusion. He hopes that the other tower residents could confirm this guess.]

[voice]

[text]