breaking the rules

Angra Mainyu looked all around. The mall was gone. New York was gone. Everything was gone.

He was standing on an endless white plane. He couldn't even really say he was standing there, there was no indication of a floor or walls or anything of the sort. Even compared to his time inside the Grail, there was an uneasiness to this 'place' that turned his stomach.

After a moment, he heard a sniffling. He looked over his shoulder. Where once there was more emptiness, there was a stool and a desk. On the desk was a computer. And on the stool was Gwen. She looked like she was crying.

Angra Mainyu tightened his grip on his weapons. Whatever trick this was, he wouldn't fall for it. It would take more than some artsy reality marble to throw him off. He took a step towards her, and she bolted upright. She dabbed at her eyes and blinked furiously.

"Uhhh... s-sorry, sorry. I didn't think you'd get here so quick. I was- was just setting things up."

"Setting what up? What the hell is this place? Am I inside your empty little head? This some new trick you learned after all those loops?"

She shook her head. "No, it's more like... this is my private space. This is where I can work, and figure things out."

Angra Mainyu raised an eyebrow. Her private space?

Gwen nodded. "Yeah, it's like... this is the area between panels. Well, no, I guess that's not exactly right this time. We're not in a comic so uhm... it's more like the land between the lines?"

"The land bet- wait, hold on, what the fuck? What the fuck do you mean are you in my head? Are you reading my mind, get the fuck out!"

Gwen put her arms up defensively as Angra Mainyu took another step towards her. "No, no wait hold on. I'm not... I'm not reading your mind, not really. In this place I can just see the story beats and I know how it goes. Wait!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Start making sense."

Gwen took a deep breath and wiped her eyes. "Okay, so, imagine if your whole life and everything that happened was a book, right? But every book needs an author. That's not me, I'm not a god. Especially not here, in this format. I'm more like the editor, and the proofreader. I can change things, but I can't make the impossible possible."

"So what," Angra Mainyu snorted. "You drag me into this place because you know you can't beat me, is that it? Just here to waste my time and laud over me with your 'super powers'?"

Gwen stood up and shook her head. "No. Angra Mainyu... I'm tired. I'm so tired. I know you are too. Every time. Every rewrite. Every do-over or loop, it's always you and me. Xanatos and Paul and Celty and Red, everyone else in this story, they don't have to experience it all. They don't have to live it. Most of the time, they don't even exist. Because they're not important."

"And yet, you're always there, aren't ya? You always get in my way. At the start, at the end... doesn't matter. I beat you, every time."

"And I have to see it, every time." Gwen clenched her fists. "That's the problem. You, your character, what you represent- I can't beat you. No matter what I try. No matter how hard I fight, you are designed to beat me. The ideal of your design is one who beats humans. And no matter what I do, in any sort of medium or situation... you will always beat me."

Angra Mainyu glared down at her. He was so close now. He could almost feel her shaking. "Yeah, I know. I was there. I've seen it happen. Why's that matter? We've done this dance, what, a thousand times? ten thousand? And how many times have I killed you? Less than ten. A fact I'm starting to regret. So just take your beating like a good little girl and let me move on."

"No!" She stomped her foot. Tears threatened to pour out once more, but she held them back. "No, I won't. I'm not going to let you win! I'm not going to let you take my place!"

Angra Mainyu paused. What the he- oh right. "What the hell are you going on about. I don't want 'your place'. I don't want to be you. For fuck's sake, I don't ever want to see you face again, stupid bitch."

"Not- That's not what I mean." Gwen took a deep breath. "I can't let you be the main character."

He stared down at her. Then he laughed. A cold, dry cackle that sounded like it hadn't been practiced in years. "You're fucking with me now, I know it. Just saying whatever dumb shit pops into your head. How about you try that one again, and make a little more fucking sense when you do."?

She looked down and sniffled. "No, I'm serious. I can't- I won't just be a side character."

"You're actually fucking insane, you know that?"

"That's... that's why I brought you here. Before we were, you know, constrained. By rules or deadlines or our roles in the story. But here I can talk to you. I can explain myself and maybe, maybe we don't have to keep doing this."

Angra Mainyu dropped his weapons. There was no clattering on the floor, they just vanished into nothing. "Alright, sure. I'll humour you. Let's hear it then, I'm not a stranger to the ramblings of crazy people."

"Okay, so, we're at a very important point in the st- in the loops. You know that. There's a lot of possibilities that branch off from here. The mall is the first of a bunch of places where the story can spiral off into another direction. Usually, you win, but sometimes, something happens. A miracle match-up or a mistake or something. Now you don't know this but... but in the timelines where this is where you die... I go on to be the main character. I get to take the lead. This whole thing becomes my story."

"Okay, sure. Let's say I believe a word of that. Why should I care? What's it matter to me if you're the 'main character' or not?"

"Because..." Gwen swallowed. "Because when you're the main character, I'm... I'm nothing."

"A real attention whore, huh?"

"Maybe I am. Maybe it's selfish, I don't know. But when I'm not the main character it's just... it's wrong. I get handled differently, I act differently. I just pop in for a funny throwaway line. I stand around in group shots for people to point to and say 'oh hey, there's Gwen, I really liked her'. Just a background character... worse than that. I'm just a joke."

"Yeah, I guess I did notice something like that," Angra Mainyu huffed. "In those loops where I beat you, you just kind of fucked off. Always kind of expected you to get in there and ruin the day again but... no. Not a thing."

"You see? People treat me different, people make me different when I'm not important. I just show up for a cameo, or a big team fight at the end, some fanservice for people who care. That's the rules of this story."

Angra Mainyu sighed. "Look, bitch-"

No.

"Little Girl-"

No.

"... Gwen."

She looked up at him, and he put his hand on her head. "I get it, alright? I get that you want to be you, that you want to matter, this and that and everything else. Fuck it, maybe it's this between the lines shit, or all that time stuck in Shirou's shitty head space, but I can almost sort of empathize with that. But I'm not gonna lay down and just let you get your spotlight. You had to know I was gonna say that, no one's that stupid."

Gwen took a deep breath. "... I know."

"Heh, maybe you're braver than I thought."

"I'm just written that way."

"Well then, you deserve a better story than this one. How's that sound?"

She gave a weak smile. "It sounds... like a fitting end for this run."

SHNNNNK

Gwen fell to her knees. One clean cut, that's all it took. No one could have done it quite as effectively, as efficiently, as painlessly as Angra Mainyu. Maybe that's why she'd brought him here.

He looked around once more. All that empty whiteness had begun to dim. Alone in darkness once again...

And he left the way he came.