"It's good to see you're willing to negotiate." Lelouch's smile turned devilish. "As for the specifics… well, let's see. How do you using up all your Command Seals to order Saber's suicide sounds?"
Kiritsugu's teeth grit. 'When did he—?!'
"What? Surprised I figured it out? I will admit, you really pulled the wool over my eyes, but after some thinking, I started to wonder." Lelouch started to pace around Maiya's seat, keeping his gun trained on her. "Why is it that King Arthur, the noble knight who stands for chivalry and righteousness, ally herself with the child murderer, Gilles de Rais, at the last second of their fight? Why was Lady Irisviel, the only person from the Einzbern camp that should know about Lesser Grail, always stood dangerously close to her Servant, being near the fight more often than not? Not to mention, she spent hours here in our care, and yet not once did she try to call on her Servant to save her as soon as she awoke. Even when Avenger caught her and your little assistant at your new base, Saber was nowhere to be found. And that was despite the immediate danger. Why is that?"
The boy goaded him with a smile and Maiya with the barrel of his gun. Neither made to refute his claims, but neither could get a word in edgewise to deny anything.
"Why risk her life like this when she has two mercenaries who could be of use instead?" Lelouch continued. "Why cooperate with a monster of a man when she doesn't seem like the type to hurt a fly? And that's when I had to change my point of view."
The stare he gave the brat hid apprehension. Kiritsugu was beyond wary of him now. More so with the following assertions.
"What if she wasn't Saber's Master? What if it was someone else? Someone who is not only famed to be more ruthless in his tactics but also wasn't present when the Lady Einzbern was kidnapped, hence being unable to call upon Saber to protect his employer?" Lelouch Lamperouge was beyond guessing. The sureness of his expression already expressed his confidence in his conjecture. "Well? Was my guesswork sufficient, Mister Magus Killer? Or do I need to provide more evidence, Emiya Kiritsugu, Master of the Einzbern camp?"
"Are you done?" The found-out Master didn't flinch nor did he make to save face. Instead of trying to lie his way with a poker face, he faced the arrogant boy down. His gun found itself being aimed at the boy once more.
The utilitarian mindset of his thought about using Command Seals before Lelouch could react. But once again, the brat was one step ahead of him.
"I wouldn't try anything if I were you, Mister Emiya. Not only will I be able to call on Avenger faster than you, the room in which I've hidden Lady Irisviel has been rigged to blow. Alongside the rest of this entire floor as well."
Lelouch's hand pulled aside his coat. There, on his person just above his heart, a small radio device was strapped with tape and had a line tied to its trigger. No doubt, it was a detonator ready to be triggered should something untoward happen to him. How sensitive it was rigged to be was up to debate, but Kiritsugu couldn't rule out anything.
He hadn't noticed any bombs through the hallway or in the floor directly beneath this one, but the boy had proven to be skilled in hiding traps too deadly even for him. One wrong move, not only did he risk losing Iri and Maiya, he'd have lost the war entirely. He gritted his teeth, frustrated at meeting a professional suicide bomber.
"While I'm still uncertain as to whether or not you care for your assistant, I'm very sure neither of you nor I, wish to die alongside Lady Irisviel for nothing, yes?"
"What more could you possibly want that's worth risking your life?" Kiritsugu couldn't help but snap back.
"I still need to know where the Lesser Grail is located after all, and something tells me you may know the answer to it." That the boy's smirk widened was a testament to having noted the shifting on Kiritsugu's anxious expression. "Here's your ultimatum. You can either give me the Lesser Grail's location or order your Servant to kill herself."
In either case, the boy won. Kiritsugu would lose. Try as he might think of a way around this, he'd been backed into a corner by a brat. And said brat likely didn't understand the real reason as to how he did it!
The Magus Killer was placed into a hard position. He needed to find a way out. But he also needed to kill Lelouch. In any case, he needed to buy time.
"This deal doesn't sound fair to me." With that in mind, he made to speak while restraining himself and his stressed emotions. With difficulty, of course. "What is there to gain should I accept anything you say?"
"Hm… Fairness has always been absent in wars, don't you agree? Should you obey my demands, I will allow you, Lady Irisviel and your 'assistant' over here to leave alive."
"You mean to let us scot-free after denying our chance at victory?" Kiritsugu couldn't help himself. "Well, aren't you a benevolent psychopath?"
"A psychopath wouldn't give a damn about anyone and have their way with or without your consent." The boy smiled wryly as if he was doing them a favour. "Take it from me. You, all of the other Masters and their Servants, had already lost this war the moment it began. Though, not by your fault alone. It is only due to my intervention that you will be allowed to leave with your lives."
Kiritsugu narrowed his eyes, feeling his emotions escape. "And what? Leave Grail to someone like you? Don't make me laugh, boy. Be it you or Avenger, nothing is getting in the way of my achieving our wish! A bastard like you won't get in the way of our dream!"
His gun was truly levelled and unshaking as it aimed at the boy's head. If he used his Time Altar, he might be able to fire two shots, pierce the glass wall, and kill the boy in barely an instant.
But he was caught off guard by the boy's chuckling.
"What are you laughing at?" he asked.
"Heheh… Dreams, huh? Good, old wishful thinking." Lelouch Lamperouge's guard didn't drop, but the air about him changed. It was as if, to Kiritsugu's eyes, the boy's expression aged slightly. Like years had passed him by in the blink of an eye. "Everyone has them but not everyone can achieve them. A fact an adult like yourself that seeks the Grail knows all too well."
"What's your point?" he pressed, mind distracted from going through his plan and pulling the trigger.
"Do you know what the other Masters in this war wanted? What did they seek the Grail for? What about the Servants? You and I both knew they were lying from the start." Lelouch glared at him." Be honest with me, Magus Killer. No. Emiya Kiritsugu. You and your mistress knew about the true role of Servants from the start. Come now, there's no need to deny it. I've confirmed it with her myself. No Servant would ever live to get their wishes granted as they are needed as a sacrifice still, like all their fallen foes. I'm sure you've been saving your Command Seals especially to order Saber into ending her own life by war's end. Were you not?"
He knew far too much to be a simple accidental participant. Kiritsugu was hired by the Einzbern clan but was only told some parts of the true ritual. It was when Irisviel who made everything clear to him that he came to the same realizations as the boy had.
Servants would die out of necessity, but they needed to use one to do just that. Moreover, they needed something to get rid of their Servant when all was said and done. The fact that Servants couldn't fully resist their Master's Command Seals served to avert a Master's would-be downfall by a betrayal gone wrong.
After all, comparing a present-day magus to a hero of old, the power gap was too severe. So why not upend that by betraying the hero at the very end, all the while keeping the illusion that they too would get what they wanted?
Such cold-hearted thinking mattered little to Emiya Kiritsugu. Heroic Spirits were just that. Spirits. Ghosts. They were, all of them, already dead. Being cursed by one, or seven, or eight, for betrayal and lies was worth it for the wish he had in mind. They were heroes. They'd understand it was for the right reasons.
But it was also one of the reasons why he avoided Saber. Though he was called callous and praised by even his foes for his practical mindset, to command her to commit suicide was going to be difficult no matter the outcome. Saying 'what's another death for the sake of many'… though common for him, it was far too painful to say in the face of a child whose people forced her to carry the burden of kingship.
Emiya Kiritsugu didn't hate Arturia Pendragon. But he hated the circumstances of how she was raised and the role the child was forced to play.
"… How do you know about all this?" With his grip on his gun tightening, he repeated. "Why in the hell does a brat only in it for entertainment know about the truth?"
"Does it matter?" Lelouch shrugged. "You who lied to the perfect ideal of a knight, a chivalrous comrade who defended you and your own all by her lonesome, seek moral justification as to my own knowledge?" The boy's smirk returned, taunting him. "How I know is none of your concern. However, I will let you in on a little secret. It's what I plan to do with what I know."
Looking at the camera, he made a face that sought to tear into both Iri and himself as he spoke.
"I, Lelouch vi Britannia, seek to dismantle your sham of a war! To remove it from the face of the Earth as it is but a bore to the world!" He made to bow as if he swore to it. "At first, I considered it entertaining. But after a while, I learned of its intricacies and realized the faultiness of it all, as well as the malicious designs its creators would place upon my Servant." The Master of Avenger wanted to make Irisviel feel guilty while dangling his victory in their faces. So he said, "Therefore, as the winner of this war, I have decided to shatter the trophy I've won and declare it an insult, both to its creators who seek its fulfilment as well as those who would demand I sacrifice a friend for such a thing as an impossible dream!"
Kiritsugu clenching his teeth, his wife was the kindest person he ever knew. She already suffered over holding the truth from his servant. She was suffering day and night the longer this war went and Kiritsugu hated that he was part of the reason. His wife was going to such lengths so he could achieve it all. His impossible dream.
But… more than that, he hated that there was yet another absurdity more daunting than reality getting in his way.
"What do you know, boy?" he asked with venom. To find a foe who was not only assured of their win but also magnanimously proclaiming dismantling his one and only goal… his only way out… it enraged the normally jaded man. "Why in the hell do you think we went through with this? Did you think we were the same as you? That we freely carried out what we did… as though it were some sort of sick game?!"
"Truthfully, no." The boy retained his condescending smile as he faced a man seething and at the end of his patience. "Even as a mere outsider, I could see that you all fought tooth and nail for the cup. A brave attempt for a chance of the impossible. But it is why I can only pity you fools who know nought of the fall that awaits you. Just like the Servants, you, my fellow Masters, have lost before the games had even begun."
'What in the hell did that even mean?' Kiritsugu didn't know. But he was beyond caring at this point. His favoured gun didn't waver. His finger hovered over the trigger. "I've not lost yet. Even if a brat like you gets in my way, I will do whatever it takes to achieve my wish."
"Ho? Such passion. And what, pray to tell, does such a wish entail? What does the infamous Magus Killer dream for that he is very willing to bathe in the blood of both children and fallen heroes?"
Kiritsugu didn't know what possessed him to answer. He didn't understand why he hadn't fired yet. But a brief moment of silence passed.
It was just a blink, but as soon as he momentarily shut his eyes, he remembered someone. He saw her.
Not his wife or partner. It wasn't even his daughter. No. It was someone he held most dear. A girl, innocent of all wrong, earnestly seeking out the future despite the reality of it all a mere impossibility to a child. One like him who naively dreamed of a better world.
A girl who was most likely his first love. But she was also the first to die because of him. The first among many.
It was in the briefest of moments that he was compelled to answer the brat who knew nothing. The boy who held nothing and seemingly waved power to do his whims without the care or concern for others.
"My wish…" he held his breath as his emotions consumed him. "My wish… is for the salvation of this world. To save all peoples from all walks of life from wars and conflict. From death and destruction. I… would ask for the Grail to make the world a better place."