Fate/ Series FanFiction Discussion

[RadiantBeam]

Originally Posted by Moczo

All right, here we go.

I'm actually nervous; this is the first chapter where Sakura gets some dialogue and development, and I know that if I didn't get her dead-on correct I will be harshly chastised.

Spoiler for Chaos Theory, Chapter Three:

Chapter 3: First Day, First Night


It was nearly morning by the time Shirou returned to his familiar home, Saber following closely behind him. Already the sky was beginning to brighten and the stars fade as the sun just barely began to hint at peeking over the horizon.

"Um..." Shirou said softly, looking at the girl in the armor and ugly raincoat. He'd been so pumped with adrenaline for most of the night that it hadn't really hit home until now that he wasn't really sure what to do with her. I mean, 'save the people endangered by the War' is all well and good to say, but I know only the basics here. I don't know anything about Saber at all, or what a Servant needs to survive. I know from Tohsaka that she needs mana, but what about food, water, sleep? Oh, man, where is she going to sleep? And what will she wear? That armor's not going to cut it. And I certainly need to find someplace to hide her during the times that Fuji-nee is here... Oh, god, he didn't even want to think about what Taiga would say. His unofficial guardian/big sister might not have been the best adult, but she could be a surprisingly serious teacher and she would not be happy to find a girl she'd never met staying over at his house unsupervised. He didn't think Sakura would be a problem, at least, but one bright spot among a sea of blackness was not a huge comfort to-

"Master?" The quiet girl asked, interrupting his reverie upon noticing that her summoner had begun to speak and then trailed off into oblivion without saying anything. "Are you, perhaps, ill? You went the night without sleep, and the weather is quite cool."

"Er, no. I was just thinking about what to do next." Shirou said in a slightly embarrassed tone. "Sorry, I wasn't trying to make you worry."

"That is perfectly all right. Strategy is important; my only complaint is that you should consult me as well, Master. We can spend a few hours now outlining a basic strategy for the early phases of the War and outlining what routes we'll patrol through the city tonight, rest through most of the day, and begin hunting the other Masters at nightfall. If you have a map of the city and nearby locations of interest, we can try to determine where other Masters have been active and..."

"Er... actually, I was more thinking things along the lines of 'would you like something to eat'?"

"Yes." Saber said, so quickly the word seemed to snap in and out of the air in an instant.

"... oh. I wasn't sure that Heroic Spirits," She's a Heroic Spirit? Really? "Actually ate food or not..."

"We do." Saber said, once again far too quickly. "In fact, with you unable to transfer mana to me, food will be a good way to maintain my strength, Master. Please provide meals often."

"Heh..." Shirou said. It was harder to really tell when she was being somber and serious, but when she was like this, clearly chomping at the bit for a simple breakfast and trying to disguise it, well... she was kind of adorable. "Well then, I guess I'll get cooking. We can have that strategy meeting you mentioned over an early breakfast, how does that sound?"

"Perfectly acceptable, Master." Saber said, clearly happier than she'd been since her summoning.

"Oh, and you don't have to call me 'Master'. I mean... I saw you against Lancer, last night. I would have died, and you saved me. There's no way I could win this War without you, so look at me as your partner, all right? Call me Shirou."

Saber blinked, briefly taken aback, before smiling softly. "Very well... I like the sound of that better, yes. Shirou."

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"We should have killed them." Archer said calmly.

"He saved my life, I saved his." Rin said stubbornly, brushing out her hair in front of the mirror in her bedroom. "We're even, now."

"So? Why exactly do we need to be even with him?" Archer asked.

"Because maybe you can just go around being in debt to people, but I can't tolerate that sort of thing." Rin said flatly. "If I'd killed him yesterday, I would have been in debt to him for the rest of my life with no way to pay it back. It would drive me crazy. Today, I owe him nothing and I can face him as a Master."

Archer sighed. Well, it wasn't like he hadn't been expecting this. He knew better than anyone how difficult Rin could be to reason with if she got weird ideas into her head. The same passion that made her excel in all aspects of her life also made her stick relentlessly with the ideas she latched onto, even when they made no sense. "I suppose you are the Master, so I'll obey you. But you'll need to be more ruthless than this if you want to win, you know."

"... I know. And if we face him again, I won't show any mercy." Rin said softly. She honestly had nothing against Emiya, really. But if he'd wanted a long, healthy life, he should have bowed out of the War when he'd had the chance. That said... "But I won't be actively hunting him down, either. I have more important concerns."

"The boundary field at the school." Archer said, anticipating her next statement.

"And the gas leaks." Rin agreed. "They're both Servants, though I don't think the same one. The 'gas leaks' haven't killed anyone yet, while that abomination at school will eat anyone inside it when it becomes active. They just seem too different to be the work of the same person."

"If I had to guess, I'd say the fake gas leaks are Caster's work. Drawing power from so many large groups of people in rapid succession would require a great magic, and a Servant qualified to be Caster could manage something along those lines." Archer said. "Though I'm not sure how. According to the news there was another last night, but I couldn't detect anything. She might be casting her spells from a distance, but in that case she shouldn't be making back enough energy to make it worthwhile. It's a puzzle." It wasn't a puzzle. Caster had constructed her Temple around the Leyline at Ryudou Temple to get around the energy cost. But he couldn't exactly let Rin know that he knew that without giving her far too many hints as to who he was; he would have to subtly direct her to that conclusion in such a manner that she believed she'd reached it on her own.

"I'm more worried about the school, anyway. People are at greater risk there. As long as Caster's Master holds their Servant back from actually killing anyone, they can be content to be Target #2."

Archer shrugged. "Whatever you decide, Master. Now, since it's Sunday, maybe you should get a little sleep? You were up all night."

"That was the idea." Rin agreed. "I'll catch a few hours of rest, and we can head out tonight to check out the situation around town, then head into school and drain however many sigils we can find for that boundary field. Tomorrow we start our hunt for the ones behind it in earnest."

"Very well. In that case, I'll go into spirit form so you can get some rest." Archer said, preparing to dematerialize.

"Archer?" Rin said, still looking into the mirror as she brushed out her long black locks in preparation for sleep.

"Yes, Rin?"

"How did you know Caster is a woman?"

Halfway through his dematerialization, Archer froze. "Excuse me?"

"You called Caster a 'she'. 'She might be casting her spells from a great distance'. What makes you think Caster is a woman? We've never encountered Caster or... her... Master." She sounded curious, but he had little doubt she was readying one of her remaining Command Seals. Just in case she didn't like his answer.

Dammit. Perceptive little thing, isn't she? Archer thought, a cold feeling in his gut. He hadn't meant to do that, and he couldn't exactly explain himself with, 'because I saw her the last time I went through this War. Talented Magus, very attractive woman, but unfortunately also kind of nuts'. If she knew he was someone involved in the current War, a hero from the future rather than the past, well, there were only so many people he could be. Fortunately, years of constant struggle had left him with the ability to stay cool under pressure. And perhaps more importantly, the ability to lie like a dog.

"It just slipped out that way, really. Hmmm... well, we don't know who I really am. Maybe Caster is someone I knew in my first life, and her magic sparked some subconscious reaction?" He said. There... enough truth to it that it sounded genuine without really telling Rin anything at all; Kotomine would be proud. He had known Caster in his first life, it just hadn't been Caster's first life. And her activities had sparked a memory, it was just that memory had been freely available beforehand and just happened to be 'Oh, I guess Caster's already gotten started on her soul-stealing. I guess she was summoned pretty early compared to most of the others, so that makes sense'.

"... oh. Okay, then." Rin said, apparently satisfied with this. "Well, if that's the case then maybe actually seeing her will jog your memory even more. I would like to know what Hero I'm partnered with eventually."

Archer smiled. He really, really couldn't resist this sometimes... "All right, then, but we shouldn't be too confident. I mean, it could just as easily be that I saw how sadistic and vindictive this soul-stealing is and just subconsciously assumed that the one responsible must be a cold and bitter woman like my own Mast-"

The pain of her hairbrush smacking him between the eyes was completely worth it just to see Rin turn as red as her favorite shirt.


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He hadn't been sure what to make for Saber, so he'd gone simple. Western food, not his speciality but it was an easy dish: toast and sunny-side up eggs, two slices and two eggs for each of them.

She had inhaled it.

So, realizing he'd underestimated how hungry she was, he'd given her half of his own breakfast while he went to make more.

It was gone before he reached the kitchen.

Taking this as a challenge, he'd gotten into the fridge and broken out the big guns. Taking out the rice, some leftover tofu, cheese, spices, and his remaining eggs, he had constructed what could technically be called an 'omelet with fried rice' and could more realistically be called a 'breakfast monster'. Forget Saber; this would feed his entire family with enough left over to make lunches for himself and two friends of his choice. Fuji-nee could not finish this. He served himself a small portion, and gave Saber the rest of his ultimate weapon.

She demolished it. There was... maybe enough left for a small meal later, but she devoured the vast majority. Shirou wondered, vaguely, if his income was in any way enough to pay for having this walking black hole in his kitchen during mealtimes. Fuji-nee could put away enough for three people, and even Sakura ate more than her appearance would suggest, but he was pretty sure Saber had them both beat by a solid margin.

"Ah..." The petite (Petite? Try tiny!Where the Hell does all the food go?) blond sighed, smiling in satisfaction. "Wonderful. I was hoping for a passable meal at best considering the early hour, but you are an amazing chef, Shirou. I believe these living arrangements will be quite sufficient if the food continues to be of this quality."

The Holy Grail War is going to be murder on my bank account if she expects this much at every meal... Shirou thought dryly. Still, no cook would be completely unhappy to have such an appreciative audience, so he merely said, "I'm glad you liked it. I'll do my best to keep living up to your standards, though I'm sure I'm no match for whatever chefs an Epic Hero must have had..."

Saber shuddered and very pointedly did not look him in the eyes. "No, no... you are better. So, so much better..." She said in a haunted tone.

After a few moments of silence, Shirou decided to break the awkward chill that had fallen over the room, as if all the life had been sucked from the air. "So... we didn't actually get any strategy work done, did we?"

Saber's eyes widened, and she... god, she blushed. Not much, but a little, and she even smiled in a slightly goofy manner. "Er... yes, well... it is difficult to think when hungry, and the food was excellent so... I may have lost track of what we were doing..."

Adorable. She's totally adorable. This is completely unfair. Shirou thought, feeling his own cheeks redden slightly.

"That's all right. I'm used to not sleeping much, so we can plan for little bit before I turn in. Though really... when I say 'planning' I guess I really mean that I could use a crash course on all the little details. I mean, I don't know what hero you are, what capabilities you have, why you're after the Holy Grail, who that Lancer guy really was, how to spot other Masters..."

"Senpai! Are you awake? I know it's a little early but there's a new recipe I wanted to try!" Called a familiar, cheerful voice from the entrance.

"... where we're going to put you so that Sakura doesn't freak out on seeing a girl in armor sitting in my kitchen!" Shirou said, though no longer quite so calmly.

"Intruder?" Saber questioned. Wind seemed to pick up inside the kitchen as she prepared that invisible sword she'd used against Lancer.

"No! No, not intruder, don't kill!" Shirou said in just a tiny panic. "Er... look, we can't let her see you like this. Out the window, loop west around the building, climb into the guest room. Fuji-nee sometimes leaves a spare set of clothes for when she mooches off my charity, it will be too big for you but..."

In a soft rain of silver light, Saber armor and gauntlets dissolved to leave her in only the blue dress beneath them.

"... or you could do that." The dress still did not look exactly like 'normal' clothes, it was much too elaborate, but it would be easier to explain away than full armor. Of course... "But you should still leave, since I can't really explain a girl without armor much better than one with it and she'll be here-"

Now. Crap.

"Oh, you are up early!" Sakura said warmly, poking her head into the kitchen. The room seemed to get sunnier with her smile; Sakura Matou just had that sort of effect on the world. The younger sister of his middle-school friend, Shinji, Sakura was his kohai at school and a sort of surrogate little sister at everything else. And while he and Shinji had drifted apart, he and Sakura had only gotten closer over the years as she stopped by to help around the house more and more often, slowly but surely making herself part of the family. He really couldn't imagine life without her stopping by every day anymore; she was as much family as Fuji-nee was, and he could honestly say that if the two of them hadn't stepped in following the death of his father, he probably wouldn't be alive today. "Aw, and you made breakfast already? I was looking forward... to..."

Sakura's voice trailed off as her eyes locked onto the girl in the fancy blue dress sitting at the table in front of the empty plates. Her smile disappeared. The sunniness went away. "S-senpai...?"

"Yes, Sakura?" He asked, as though nothing were odd about the situation at all. Maybe... maybe if he didn't say anything about Saber, Sakura wouldn't ask. Hey, it could happen!

"Senpai... there is a girl in the kitchen." Sakura said, softly. Her tone did not sound approving.

Oh, Hell. Shirou thought. "... er. Yes. That's true." Smooth, Emiya. Smooth.

"Why is she there, Senpai?"

"Well, she..."

"And why wasn't she here yesterday? I left with Fujimura-sensei fairly late in the evening. When, exactly, did she arrive, the middle of the night? Or were you out with her all night, without telling m- us?"

"Er... actually, y-"

"And does Fujimura-sensei know about this? As much as I cannot approve of this, she will disapprove even more." Sakura said firmly.

God, she's pissed, isn't she? Shirou thought painfully. She was far too polite and quiet to be anything but furious.

"Look, Sakura, it's not like that." He said, trying his hardest to salvage this somehow.

"Not like what, Senpai?"

"Not like whatever you're thinking!" Shirou said. "She's just a friend of Kiritsugu, that's all. She showed up last night to see him, and, well... you know. And I couldn't just leave her on her own after that!" Come on, Saber, play along... He thought. He'd made sure to call his dad by name, so that she could pretend to actually know him, but he couldn't be sure she'd pick up that she was supposed to in time...

Sakura did not look convinced. "She came to see him in the middle of the night?"

"I am from out of the country, as you could probably tell." Saber said calmly. "I am unused to travelling, and did not calculate my arrival time correctly. Shirou was quite helpful... I was shocked to hear of Kiritsugu's passing, and not sure where I would have stayed had he not offered me a room."

Good job, Saber! Shirou thought firmly.

"I... see." Sakura said. Her expression was still dark, but she seemed to have, if not agreed to Saber's presence, at least noted that she had no grounds to refuse it. "Well, I guess that... I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."

"Saber." Shirou said automatically, and immediately began kicking himself mentally. Just Saber? Really? Who would believe that was a person's name?

"... Saber?" Sakura said.

"It is a family name." Saber said in a perfect deadpan.

We're doomed. Shirou thought.

"... ah. Well... I... suppose I have no real cause to ask that you leave... Saber-san." Sakura said slowly.

... really? Shirou thought. That's... good! That's a good thing!

"So I'll wait here and see what Fujimura-sensei has to say. If she says that you can stay here, I guess that I can't really say anything." Sakura said.

Crap. Fuji-nee. Shirou thought blankly. He stood up.

"Shirou?" Saber asked. "What is wrong?"

"I need to make more breakfast." Shirou said. "Maybe if I distract her with food she won't think too hard."

It turned out, shortly, that food was not in fact enough to completely distract Taiga from a girl in the room, though it took her nearly seventeen minutes to notice. Luckily, however, Fuji-nee wasn't as good at arguing as Sakura, so if Sakura hadn't been able to find a real reason to deny Saber a room...

"ABSOLUTELY NOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!" Taiga roared.

... Fuji-nee would just deny her without a reason.

It was possible that this would be a long day.


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Oh, God.

Oh, God.

Why? Why? Why? Why?

The girl. The beautiful one he'd called his 'father's friend'.

Fujimura-sensei, in the end, had not turned the girl away. Sakura had never really expected her to do so, though a small part of her had hoped she would; leave it to Fujimura-sensei to base her room-and-board decisions on a shinai duel... of course, the same thing that made Taiga accept Saber into the household was merely one more sign to Sakura how dangerous the girl truly was.

She was lucky that Senpai had merely thought her dislike of the girl to be jealousy. The truth was, after all, worse... even if her display of swordsmanship against Taiga had not been far too skilled to be truly human, Sakura could still taste the true nature of the girl. She certainly felt closer to human than the other Servant Sakura had met in person, but the aura of power would have been unmistakable even if Senpai hadn't been so foolish as to introduce her as 'Saber'.

In spite of herself, Sakura smiled fondly through her worry. Oh, Senpai, you really do have no talent for these things at all, do you? Sakura herself would have taken care, if she couldn't astallize the Servant as he apparently could not, to only feed her in a side-room, place some kind of visual obstacles in the path to make it appear the wing she was staying in was under renovations, and on the off-chance someone did encounter her, give her a convincing pseudonym to go by. And to be frank, that was still pretty pathetic by Magus standards; it didn't even do anything about the girl's unusual dress (She decided then to loan Saber some clothing, in an effort to keep the girl and Senpai even slightly more off-the-radar. It wasn't much, but it was the most she could do on short notice). Yet Senpai had never even thought to take such simple precautions.

She liked that. Senpai's honesty was... cute. His sincerity shone like the sun. Particularly when he was trying not to be sincere and doing so very, very badly.

Unfortunately, her brief good mood faded as she recalled what Senpai was badly lying to her about. A Servant. The girl with him was a Servant and that made Senpai a Master. He was involved in that awful war and he could... he...

She couldn't even bring her mind to form the grim thought, and settled for 'he was in serious danger'. He was no Magus, not like the other competitors. At the least grandfather had told her that he wouldn't be getting involved in the current war; Senpai would have no chance against Zouken Matou. And her own brother was... he did not have Senpai's presence, to put it mildly. Her first impressions of Saber were limited, but she did not think Rider could beat her with Shinji in possession of her contract.

But the other Masters were monsters, enough to make even Grandfather, the most powerful and horrifying person she knew, decide to avoid getting involved.

And he'd said, almost as an afterthought, that the favorite to win this time was the Heir of Tohsaka. At the time it had only made Sakura feel slightly... off. She wasn't sure what to call the emotion, honestly. Now? It just made her feel terrified.

Of course... why wouldn't she be the top ranked Master? She's more talented than anyone. Sakura thought. Of course she's going to win. And if she fights Senpai to do it...

Sakura's training had not been traditional by any means, but she knew that Masters in the Holy Grail War were not known for showing mercy to one another.

For just the briefest of moments, something dark flashed behind the young girl's violet eyes as a tiny burst... less than a second... of something cold and vicious ran through her mind at the thought of the shining, perfect girl who she'd always watched from a distance, and who might very well be killing the man she loved. And of the polite, angelic blond Servant who had put him in a position to be hurt so in the first place...


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In his crypt, Zouken smiled. The worms throughout the chamber increased their repulsive writhing in sensitivity to his emotions, continuing to slither towards him and burrow into his ankles and legs.

He had made the decision to become involved in the War the previous day, and immediately told Sakura the exact opposite. For all her talk of the Emiya boy's lack of skill at deception, it never occurred to her that perhaps she was also being deceived. And why would it? For starters, Zouken did not commonly lie to her: he didn't need to. Zouken forced her to do what he wanted her to do, and therefore had no reason to resort to deception. If he'd wanted her to enter the War as a Master, he could simply make her, and the fact that he had not done so was sufficient proof to her that he was honest about not getting personally involved.

Silly girl. He wondered how long it would be before she realized that she had a far, far greater destiny than to act as a mere Master. And he wondered even more how long it would be before she realized that it had been the second half of their brief conversation that had actually been important. The few statements carefully calculated to drive her thoughts... and animosity... just slightly in the direction of the Tohsaka girl.

The thing about the girl was that as broken as she might seem to anyone who saw her in the midst of 'training', she really wasn't. Not deep down, not on the most fundamental level, not broken how he needed her to break. As ragged and shattered as her surface personality was, there still existed some core essence that simply would not falter and would brook no intrusion into the territory of her mind and soul. While impressive, and what allowed her to withstand the training and alterations needed for her ultimate purpose, it also made her basically useless to him unless he could circumvent it in time. And unfortunately, a decade of the most heinous methods he could imagine had not pierced this final bastion of inner strength, and he could devise some truly, deeply heinous methods.

So he had tried another venue. If it would not break to external attack, make her break it herself from within.

Hope was one weakness, which the Emiya boy had so kindly instilled. Jealousy was another, which Rin Tohsaka had inspired and Zouken himself had inflamed. And now the source of the jealousy was leading her to fear for the source of the hope, that terror becoming a third weakness all of her own creation.

Not much of a reaction, really. The tiniest, most imperceptible of cracks in the armor. But he could work with that.

Now, perhaps it was time he looked up that Summoning ritual again and became directly involved in events for the first time in centuries. All Seven cards had already been pulled, of course, but there were always loopholes. He'd be sure to thank Caster later for creating such a huge one for him to exploit.

She'd be dead, so he doubted she'd appreciate the thanks, but it never hurt to be polite.


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Shirou and Saber walked through the night, mostly in silence.

It had been a long day, but they had eventually managed to come to a reasonable term for their living arrangements. Saber would be staying in the guest room, much to her annoyance, but Sakura and especially Fuji-nee had been painfully insistent. And so Shirou found himself hosting a slumber party.

Still, at least Taiga and Sakura were apparently both deep sleepers, because according to Saber they had not reacted in the slightest when she had gotten up and left the room to find Shirou. (She was half-right... Taiga had indeed just kept on snoring. Sakura had winced and bitten her lip so hard she nearly drew blood at the implications of the Servant leaving in the middle of the night).

Shirou cast his new Servant a sideways glance. Rather than wear her armor, which she claimed she could materialize as easily as she dematerialized it, she had elected to wear the simple clothing Sakura had provided her after stating that her normal dress was too nice for everyday wear; a white sweater and a deep purple skirt that reached slightly past her knees. It was a plain, elegant outfit that suited her well, though for some reason Shirou couldn't help but think she looked better in blue.

And he also noticed that it was slightly too big for her and disguised her body almost completely. He'd noticed that Sakura didn't really seem to like Saber and wondered if perhaps this was done on purpose, but couldn't see why. If if had inconvenienced her in some way, that would be one thing. But all it did was hide her figure fr...

Oh. Oh.

Taking his realization of one possible reason that Sakura wouldn't want him looking at another girl's body and repressing the Hell out of it, Shirou picked up his pace slightly so Saber could not see him blush. Girls were complicated.

The duo had decided to be proactive in this Holy Grail War... Saber had informed him that nearly all of the odd incidents on the news, the gas leaks and murders alike, had most likely been the doing of other Masters. Shirou had decided that their strategy for at least the early parts of the War should be to let the other Masters deal with each other however they liked, while he and Saber focused on hunting down and defeating the ones who were hurting innocent people. He'd been expecting her to take the pragmatic approach, and encourage him to go after any Master who made themselves an easy target... but she had smiled warmly and said she approved of this tactic, and appreciated his confidence in her. He wasn't sure how she could think he wouldn't have confidence in her, having seen her both drive off an enemy who had effortlessly defeated Shirou himself and shrug off a spear through the chest in literally seconds, but Shirou found her approval reassuring. Particularly in the face of the things Kotomine had said to him the previous night about his wish...

It's nothing like that. It's not a wish for people to be in danger. It's a wish for nobody to ever be in danger. To be the kind of hero who can create a world that doesn't need heroes. Impossible in the end, but I can keep pursuing it because I know it to be a pure wish...

... because if it wasn't, this holy girl with a presence like wind over clear water would not have smiled at me.

"Shirou?" Saber asked curiously. "Is something wrong? Your pace has slowed considerably."

"Eh? No, just thinking."

"Focus on the task at hand, Shirou." Saber chided him. "An enemy could be around any corner. Planning ahead is good, but not if you lose sight of your surroundings in the process."

Shirou chuckled, wondering vaguely how she'd react if he told her that he had actually not been thinking about their patrol at all. Would she "Well, at this point I almost hope so. We've been walking for a long time and so far..."

A blood-curdling sound pierced the still of the night; a woman's scream, a shriek of pure terror. And then, just as suddenly as it had emerged, it stopped, cut off mid-cry.

Shirou knew it was impossible considering how far away the scream had been, but he felt he could smell blood on the air, and something else sickeningly sweet, like rotting honey...

This was... this was it. This was the moment. The moment where he either finally lived up to his ideals, or not. A real danger, a real life at stake. Someone needed his protection.

God, he was scared, but the thought that someone else might die if he did nothing was so, so much worse than the though that he might be killed himself...!

In a flash of silver, Saber stood armed and armored. "That was very near, Shirou! Follow m-"

She blinked in confusion at the realization that Shirou had already begun sprinting in the direction of the scream, leaving her behind in a mad rush. Luckily, she was much faster than him, so it didn't matter much, but she would have to talk to him later. His tendency to run out in front of her was simply not good tactics.
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Shinji Matou, blood heir of the most noble line of Matou magi, smiled in satisfaction and closed the book.

His Servant was a pretty thing, but he hadn't been certain she was really all they were supposed to be. Certainly, she was stronger than a normal person, but not to the degree he'd been expecting. But now, seeing her like this... dark against the darkness, her violet hair thrashing almost of its own accord as she clamped onto the dying, futilely struggling figure in her arms? She was exactly the sort of monster he'd wanted.

The girl was nothing, a nobody, a random person too stupid to stay inside at night while a murderer was roaming the streets. Young, a student most likely, though not one Shinji recognized. It made sense... kids always thought they were immortal until someone proved otherwise. Rider had stalked her for some time until she'd made the mistake of cutting through this secluded area. When the Servant had made her move, it had been both simultaneously thrilling and somehow almost too easy. The kid had time for one scream before Rider's fangs sank into her throat and began to extract blood... and with it, something far more precious.

Shinji watched in delight as the girl's struggles ceased. No, more than ceased... her eyes rolled back in her head, her arms wrapped around Rider's waist and she began to gasp softly in time to Rider's drawing on her lifeblood. He almost laughed out loud... Rider was eating her soul, and she was enjoying it! How entertaining. If having this much power over the life and death of one insignificant little insect was so empowering, he could only imagine what it would be like when the surprise he had planned at his school was finally ready...

Rider dropped the woman to the ground like so much garbage and leaped backwards to stand directly in front of him. "Company, Shinji."

He was briefly annoyed at the interruption... he had been enjoying the show, thank you very much!... but his good mood was quickly restored by the sight of who it was coming to see him. A girl in silver armor, veeeerrrrrry pretty, and...

"Emiya! Hey, man, nice to see you. Nice night for a walk, am I right?" Shinji said jovially, as if they'd run into each other while out on a jog rather than meeting over a soon-to-be corpse.

"Sh... Shinji?" Emiya gasped, his eyes wide in shock. Shinji tried and failed to suppress a chuckle. The big doof was clueless as always. "That woman is..."

"Oh, you mean Rider?" Shinji said, still with the same air of casual cheerfulness. "Yeah, she's mine. And I guess that's yours, huh? Man, who'd have thought that you of all people would in the War with me? This must be fate, us meeting like this."

Emiya's eyes narrowed. "Shinji... this girl, her soul... almost all of it has been drained out. She's dying, and your Servant did it?"

"Eh? Oh, yeah, Rider needed food, and souls are the best energy source for a Servant. It's no big deal, all the Masters do it. If you think this is bad, you should see what the Witch up on the mountain has been pulling! But knowing you, I guess even this little thing is going to make you go all crazy?" Shinji said, sighing in annoyance. "It's a shame you saw this... I might have been willing to work with you for a little bit, but I don't think that will be happening now."

"Saber." Emiya said. "Deal with the Servant. If I get that girl out of here she might still survive, so..."

"Understood, Master." Saber said without the slightest hesitation. "I will cover your retreat... and cut down your enemy."

Rider, who had been standing silently as a statue throughout the entire exchange, wiped the last drops of blood from her lips and crouched like a snake about to strike. "Shinji?"

"Well, this is good in a way, I guess. I wanted to see what you could really do." Shinji said, his easy smile going cold and ugly. "Kill them both, Rider."


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Shirou made a flying leap to the prone girl, wrapping her in his arms and dragging her from the battlefield as quickly as he possibly could. He was running on adrenaline, righteous anger as Shinji, and pure shrieking terror for his life, and it let her basically just pick the girl up bodily and simply sprint her out of the line of fire.

It turned out he didn't really have to bother, when he deposited her in the nearest cover he could find (thank god they were in a park, trees were better than nothing); neither Servant had been paying him the slightest bit of attention.

Rider was fast, impossibly so; she was darting through the park like a black shooting star, so quickly his eyes could barely follow her. She would attack, retreat, and attack again from a different angle all in the space of a heartbeat. To make matters worse, her weapon was truly insane, a bizarre whip of some... no, two nails attached by a length of chain that whirled around her madly with only slight motions of her arms to attack from unpredictable angles and then be drawn almost instantly back to her hands.

But that only made Saber all the more impressive. Unable to match her opponent in agility, she had planted her feet and was repelling each and every one of those wild strikes as if she could see the future and simple knew where they would fall. Rider darted around her, mixing strikes from distance melee, yet Saber met each and every attack and pushed it back, her sword repelling the chain with seemingly no more effort than it took Rider to make the flicks of her wrist needed to send it whirling.

Shirou and Shinji both watched spellbound when they really should have been doing something productive. It was hard to blame them, really. Neither had that much experience with anything so dangerously beautiful as the almost dancelike grace of the two women as they fought. Which, of course, just made the end a greater shock.

Saber, with a single smooth motion, used her sword to tap the whirling chain so that the nail aimed for her throat instead impaled itself in the ground. Before Rider could pull it free, she stomped onto it with her armored boot and used the impact to lunge. Rider, temporarily halted in mid-dash by the sudden pressure on her weapon, was caught flat-footed.

It became obvious to Shirou, then, what had actually happened. The effortless grace with which Saber had executed her counterattack told him that this had never even been a fight: Saber had been taking Rider's measure and found it wanting. The black-clad Servant had failed to kill her in these many attacks, and now the first counter would also be Saber's last offensive of the duel.

Or rather, it should have been...


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It all came back to yesterday night.

Just a few differences, really. Archer had escaped his confrontation with Saber unharmed thanks to Shirou's own heroic instincts working against him; expending a Command Seal to save Rin.

And thanks to Shirou's own kindness working against him, Ilya had withdrawn without any sort of attack against either him or Rin.

Had Archer been wounded, Rin could not have gone on patrol this night. And had Rin bonded with Shirou against a common enemy, it was more likely that even if they hadn't joined forces, she would have chosen to ignore him completely rather than simply not actively hunting him. But she had gone on patrol, and from their vantage point on one of the taller buildings in town, Archer's impressive vision had detected Rider attacking a woman nearly five miles away. They had gone to intervene, and taking up position on a smaller but more convenient building less than a mile from the park, they had arrived in time to see that Shirou Emiya and Saber had beaten them to the punch.

Rin had elected not to make Emiya her priority, but she could hardly ignore him when he went around openly challenging other Masters in the middle of town, nor could she simply walk away from such a tempting target. Two of her enemies, distracted and unaware of her presence, and her with both the ultimate sniping position and the ultimate sniper...

"Can you get them both from here?" Rin asked.

Archer smiled softly and drew back his bowstring, the silver arrow shining in his grip. "I think I can manage."

"Just the Servants, remember. Emiya's a moron and Shinji's a weasel, but I'm supposed to be the one keeping people from dying in magical catastrophes in this town." Rin said.

"I'll try, but you remember that any attack able to kill two Servants from this distance will cause immense collateral damage. I promise nothing. Particularly with you distracting me and throwing off my aim." Archer said teasingly.

"Some great marksman you are." Rin grumbled. "Fine, fine. If you kill someone human, I'll accept it was an accident and only punish you with medium harshness."

"Why does that make my blood cold? Your medium harshness sounds like it could kill a normal person." Archer said with a small grin.

"Just take the shot, smartass."

His smile widening at the blush he knew she was wearing even without looking, he turned his body so that Rin could not see his weapon through his back. Almost immediately, the arrow in his grip changed. The silver tip extended, a hilt appeared, the shaft twisted around itself into a spiral...

His smile got even wider, and took on a distinctly predatory aspect as he viewed the ongoing battle below and almost a mile away from him down the length of his newly projected sword.

You're too soft, Rin. You said this morning you said you were willing to kill him, but when the opportunity comes up it's suddenly 'just the Servants'. Well, be thankful you have me here to pick up the slack and be ruthless enough for both of us. He thought, holding the sword-arrow at the ready. The two Servants needed to die for Rin to win this War, which despite everything else he did genuinely want. Shinji... he remembered Shinji well enough to know that only Sakura would miss him, and that his death would be doing her a favor despite this misplaced affection. No reason to spare that one. As for Emiya, well, that was personal.

With them that close together, a properly aimed shot could likely kill all four in one go, a perfect opportunity. Yes, things had turned out much better than he'd been hoping, he could say that much. Of course, Rin most likely wouldn't be amused when he killed the Masters along with the Servants. Despite her... dubious reassurance, she would probably make his life a living Hell. Assuming he still had a life after Shirou Emiya's death.

Ah, well. If he was still alive after that, then all of this was pointless and he was doomed to much worse than anything Rin could dish out, so it didn't really matter.

Holding the newly projected sword, complete with the modifications to design that would make it an effective arrow, Archer took aim again. He leveled the Noble Phantasm called Caladbolg, or at least his recreation of it, at the assembled figures in the distance. Then with another effort of will, he plunged his mind into the magnificent harmony of steel and fire inherent in the masterwork weapon... and Broke it. Barely restrained power began to hum in the readied arrow-sword as it became dangerously unstable, awaiting only a target to die against. Good-bye, Ladies and Gentlemen. Well... ladies, gentleman, and Shinji.

I am the bone of my sword...

Spoiler for Author's Note:

Can I say? As odd as this sounds, my favorite part of this chapter was Shinji. It is just so liberating to cut loose and really just write as slimy as I can.

I somehow get the distinct feeling that this will not end well.... for Shirou. Because God knows how he loves to screw up people's plans. Especially Rin's.

Interesting to see that with the lack of Rin being around and acting as Shirou's partner, Saber has actually grown closer to Shirou as a result. A small change, somewhat similar to HF really, but it's all going back to your original idea of how small changes can shape the whole world. It'll be interesting to see how Saber develops from her exposure to Shirou under these conditions.

As for Sakura, I say your portrayal of her is fine. You capture her kindness and her love for Shirou, but you also hint that beneath it all she's got much deeper problems than anyone knows. So, I think you nailed her down perfectly. And yes, Shinji was most awesome. I loved to hate him in this chapter.

Also, can I just say I laughed out loud at how easily Saber lied to Sakura? There was something utterly priceless about it.

[Tiresias]

Originally Posted by Moczo

All right, here we go.

I'm actually nervous; this is the first chapter where Sakura gets some dialogue and development, and I know that if I didn't get her dead-on correct I will be harshly chastised.

Spoiler for Chaos Theory, Chapter Three:

Chapter 3: First Day, First Night


It was nearly morning by the time Shirou returned to his familiar home, Saber following closely behind him. Already the sky was beginning to brighten and the stars fade as the sun just barely began to hint at peeking over the horizon.

"Um..." Shirou said softly, looking at the girl in the armor and ugly raincoat. He'd been so pumped with adrenaline for most of the night that it hadn't really hit home until now that he wasn't really sure what to do with her. I mean, 'save the people endangered by the War' is all well and good to say, but I know only the basics here. I don't know anything about Saber at all, or what a Servant needs to survive. I know from Tohsaka that she needs mana, but what about food, water, sleep? Oh, man, where is she going to sleep? And what will she wear? That armor's not going to cut it. And I certainly need to find someplace to hide her during the times that Fuji-nee is here... Oh, god, he didn't even want to think about what Taiga would say. His unofficial guardian/big sister might not have been the best adult, but she could be a surprisingly serious teacher and she would not be happy to find a girl she'd never met staying over at his house unsupervised. He didn't think Sakura would be a problem, at least, but one bright spot among a sea of blackness was not a huge comfort to-

"Master?" The quiet girl asked, interrupting his reverie upon noticing that her summoner had begun to speak and then trailed off into oblivion without saying anything. "Are you, perhaps, ill? You went the night without sleep, and the weather is quite cool."

"Er, no. I was just thinking about what to do next." Shirou said in a slightly embarrassed tone. "Sorry, I wasn't trying to make you worry."

"That is perfectly all right. Strategy is important; my only complaint is that you should consult me as well, Master. We can spend a few hours now outlining a basic strategy for the early phases of the War and outlining what routes we'll patrol through the city tonight, rest through most of the day, and begin hunting the other Masters at nightfall. If you have a map of the city and nearby locations of interest, we can try to determine where other Masters have been active and..."

"Er... actually, I was more thinking things along the lines of 'would you like something to eat'?"

"Yes." Saber said, so quickly the word seemed to snap in and out of the air in an instant.

"... oh. I wasn't sure that Heroic Spirits," She's a Heroic Spirit? Really? "Actually ate food or not..."

"We do." Saber said, once again far too quickly. "In fact, with you unable to transfer mana to me, food will be a good way to maintain my strength, Master. Please provide meals often."

"Heh..." Shirou said. It was harder to really tell when she was being somber and serious, but when she was like this, clearly chomping at the bit for a simple breakfast and trying to disguise it, well... she was kind of adorable. "Well then, I guess I'll get cooking. We can have that strategy meeting you mentioned over an early breakfast, how does that sound?"

"Perfectly acceptable, Master." Saber said, clearly happier than she'd been since her summoning.

"Oh, and you don't have to call me 'Master'. I mean... I saw you against Lancer, last night. I would have died, and you saved me. There's no way I could win this War without you, so look at me as your partner, all right? Call me Shirou."

Saber blinked, briefly taken aback, before smiling softly. "Very well... I like the sound of that better, yes. Shirou."

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"We should have killed them." Archer said calmly.

"He saved my life, I saved his." Rin said stubbornly, brushing out her hair in front of the mirror in her bedroom. "We're even, now."

"So? Why exactly do we need to be even with him?" Archer asked.

"Because maybe you can just go around being in debt to people, but I can't tolerate that sort of thing." Rin said flatly. "If I'd killed him yesterday, I would have been in debt to him for the rest of my life with no way to pay it back. It would drive me crazy. Today, I owe him nothing and I can face him as a Master."

Archer sighed. Well, it wasn't like he hadn't been expecting this. He knew better than anyone how difficult Rin could be to reason with if she got weird ideas into her head. The same passion that made her excel in all aspects of her life also made her stick relentlessly with the ideas she latched onto, even when they made no sense. "I suppose you are the Master, so I'll obey you. But you'll need to be more ruthless than this if you want to win, you know."

"... I know. And if we face him again, I won't show any mercy." Rin said softly. She honestly had nothing against Emiya, really. But if he'd wanted a long, healthy life, he should have bowed out of the War when he'd had the chance. That said... "But I won't be actively hunting him down, either. I have more important concerns."

"The boundary field at the school." Archer said, anticipating her next statement.

"And the gas leaks." Rin agreed. "They're both Servants, though I don't think the same one. The 'gas leaks' haven't killed anyone yet, while that abomination at school will eat anyone inside it when it becomes active. They just seem too different to be the work of the same person."

"If I had to guess, I'd say the fake gas leaks are Caster's work. Drawing power from so many large groups of people in rapid succession would require a great magic, and a Servant qualified to be Caster could manage something along those lines." Archer said. "Though I'm not sure how. According to the news there was another last night, but I couldn't detect anything. She might be casting her spells from a distance, but in that case she shouldn't be making back enough energy to make it worthwhile. It's a puzzle." It wasn't a puzzle. Caster had constructed her Temple around the Leyline at Ryudou Temple to get around the energy cost. But he couldn't exactly let Rin know that he knew that without giving her far too many hints as to who he was; he would have to subtly direct her to that conclusion in such a manner that she believed she'd reached it on her own.

"I'm more worried about the school, anyway. People are at greater risk there. As long as Caster's Master holds their Servant back from actually killing anyone, they can be content to be Target #2."

Archer shrugged. "Whatever you decide, Master. Now, since it's Sunday, maybe you should get a little sleep? You were up all night."

"That was the idea." Rin agreed. "I'll catch a few hours of rest, and we can head out tonight to check out the situation around town, then head into school and drain however many sigils we can find for that boundary field. Tomorrow we start our hunt for the ones behind it in earnest."

"Very well. In that case, I'll go into spirit form so you can get some rest." Archer said, preparing to dematerialize.

"Archer?" Rin said, still looking into the mirror as she brushed out her long black locks in preparation for sleep.

"Yes, Rin?"

"How did you know Caster is a woman?"

Halfway through his dematerialization, Archer froze. "Excuse me?"

"You called Caster a 'she'. 'She might be casting her spells from a great distance'. What makes you think Caster is a woman? We've never encountered Caster or... her... Master." She sounded curious, but he had little doubt she was readying one of her remaining Command Seals. Just in case she didn't like his answer.

Dammit. Perceptive little thing, isn't she? Archer thought, a cold feeling in his gut. He hadn't meant to do that, and he couldn't exactly explain himself with, 'because I saw her the last time I went through this War. Talented Magus, very attractive woman, but unfortunately also kind of nuts'. If she knew he was someone involved in the current War, a hero from the future rather than the past, well, there were only so many people he could be. Fortunately, years of constant struggle had left him with the ability to stay cool under pressure. And perhaps more importantly, the ability to lie like a dog.

"It just slipped out that way, really. Hmmm... well, we don't know who I really am. Maybe Caster is someone I knew in my first life, and her magic sparked some subconscious reaction?" He said. There... enough truth to it that it sounded genuine without really telling Rin anything at all; Kotomine would be proud. He had known Caster in his first life, it just hadn't been Caster's first life. And her activities had sparked a memory, it was just that memory had been freely available beforehand and just happened to be 'Oh, I guess Caster's already gotten started on her soul-stealing. I guess she was summoned pretty early compared to most of the others, so that makes sense'.

"... oh. Okay, then." Rin said, apparently satisfied with this. "Well, if that's the case then maybe actually seeing her will jog your memory even more. I would like to know what Hero I'm partnered with eventually."

Archer smiled. He really, really couldn't resist this sometimes... "All right, then, but we shouldn't be too confident. I mean, it could just as easily be that I saw how sadistic and vindictive this soul-stealing is and just subconsciously assumed that the one responsible must be a cold and bitter woman like my own Mast-"

The pain of her hairbrush smacking him between the eyes was completely worth it just to see Rin turn as red as her favorite shirt.


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He hadn't been sure what to make for Saber, so he'd gone simple. Western food, not his speciality but it was an easy dish: toast and sunny-side up eggs, two slices and two eggs for each of them.

She had inhaled it.

So, realizing he'd underestimated how hungry she was, he'd given her half of his own breakfast while he went to make more.

It was gone before he reached the kitchen.

Taking this as a challenge, he'd gotten into the fridge and broken out the big guns. Taking out the rice, some leftover tofu, cheese, spices, and his remaining eggs, he had constructed what could technically be called an 'omelet with fried rice' and could more realistically be called a 'breakfast monster'. Forget Saber; this would feed his entire family with enough left over to make lunches for himself and two friends of his choice. Fuji-nee could not finish this. He served himself a small portion, and gave Saber the rest of his ultimate weapon.

She demolished it. There was... maybe enough left for a small meal later, but she devoured the vast majority. Shirou wondered, vaguely, if his income was in any way enough to pay for having this walking black hole in his kitchen during mealtimes. Fuji-nee could put away enough for three people, and even Sakura ate more than her appearance would suggest, but he was pretty sure Saber had them both beat by a solid margin.

"Ah..." The petite (Petite? Try tiny!Where the Hell does all the food go?) blond sighed, smiling in satisfaction. "Wonderful. I was hoping for a passable meal at best considering the early hour, but you are an amazing chef, Shirou. I believe these living arrangements will be quite sufficient if the food continues to be of this quality."

The Holy Grail War is going to be murder on my bank account if she expects this much at every meal... Shirou thought dryly. Still, no cook would be completely unhappy to have such an appreciative audience, so he merely said, "I'm glad you liked it. I'll do my best to keep living up to your standards, though I'm sure I'm no match for whatever chefs an Epic Hero must have had..."

Saber shuddered and very pointedly did not look him in the eyes. "No, no... you are better. So, so much better..." She said in a haunted tone.

After a few moments of silence, Shirou decided to break the awkward chill that had fallen over the room, as if all the life had been sucked from the air. "So... we didn't actually get any strategy work done, did we?"

Saber's eyes widened, and she... god, she blushed. Not much, but a little, and she even smiled in a slightly goofy manner. "Er... yes, well... it is difficult to think when hungry, and the food was excellent so... I may have lost track of what we were doing..."

Adorable. She's totally adorable. This is completely unfair. Shirou thought, feeling his own cheeks redden slightly.

"That's all right. I'm used to not sleeping much, so we can plan for little bit before I turn in. Though really... when I say 'planning' I guess I really mean that I could use a crash course on all the little details. I mean, I don't know what hero you are, what capabilities you have, why you're after the Holy Grail, who that Lancer guy really was, how to spot other Masters..."

"Senpai! Are you awake? I know it's a little early but there's a new recipe I wanted to try!" Called a familiar, cheerful voice from the entrance.

"... where we're going to put you so that Sakura doesn't freak out on seeing a girl in armor sitting in my kitchen!" Shirou said, though no longer quite so calmly.

"Intruder?" Saber questioned. Wind seemed to pick up inside the kitchen as she prepared that invisible sword she'd used against Lancer.

"No! No, not intruder, don't kill!" Shirou said in just a tiny panic. "Er... look, we can't let her see you like this. Out the window, loop west around the building, climb into the guest room. Fuji-nee sometimes leaves a spare set of clothes for when she mooches off my charity, it will be too big for you but..."

In a soft rain of silver light, Saber armor and gauntlets dissolved to leave her in only the blue dress beneath them.

"... or you could do that." The dress still did not look exactly like 'normal' clothes, it was much too elaborate, but it would be easier to explain away than full armor. Of course... "But you should still leave, since I can't really explain a girl without armor much better than one with it and she'll be here-"

Now. Crap.

"Oh, you are up early!" Sakura said warmly, poking her head into the kitchen. The room seemed to get sunnier with her smile; Sakura Matou just had that sort of effect on the world. The younger sister of his middle-school friend, Shinji, Sakura was his kohai at school and a sort of surrogate little sister at everything else. And while he and Shinji had drifted apart, he and Sakura had only gotten closer over the years as she stopped by to help around the house more and more often, slowly but surely making herself part of the family. He really couldn't imagine life without her stopping by every day anymore; she was as much family as Fuji-nee was, and he could honestly say that if the two of them hadn't stepped in following the death of his father, he probably wouldn't be alive today. "Aw, and you made breakfast already? I was looking forward... to..."

Sakura's voice trailed off as her eyes locked onto the girl in the fancy blue dress sitting at the table in front of the empty plates. Her smile disappeared. The sunniness went away. "S-senpai...?"

"Yes, Sakura?" He asked, as though nothing were odd about the situation at all. Maybe... maybe if he didn't say anything about Saber, Sakura wouldn't ask. Hey, it could happen!

"Senpai... there is a girl in the kitchen." Sakura said, softly. Her tone did not sound approving.

Oh, Hell. Shirou thought. "... er. Yes. That's true." Smooth, Emiya. Smooth.

"Why is she there, Senpai?"

"Well, she..."

"And why wasn't she here yesterday? I left with Fujimura-sensei fairly late in the evening. When, exactly, did she arrive, the middle of the night? Or were you out with her all night, without telling m- us?"

"Er... actually, y-"

"And does Fujimura-sensei know about this? As much as I cannot approve of this, she will disapprove even more." Sakura said firmly.

God, she's pissed, isn't she? Shirou thought painfully. She was far too polite and quiet to be anything but furious.

"Look, Sakura, it's not like that." He said, trying his hardest to salvage this somehow.

"Not like what, Senpai?"

"Not like whatever you're thinking!" Shirou said. "She's just a friend of Kiritsugu, that's all. She showed up last night to see him, and, well... you know. And I couldn't just leave her on her own after that!" Come on, Saber, play along... He thought. He'd made sure to call his dad by name, so that she could pretend to actually know him, but he couldn't be sure she'd pick up that she was supposed to in time...

Sakura did not look convinced. "She came to see him in the middle of the night?"

"I am from out of the country, as you could probably tell." Saber said calmly. "I am unused to travelling, and did not calculate my arrival time correctly. Shirou was quite helpful... I was shocked to hear of Kiritsugu's passing, and not sure where I would have stayed had he not offered me a room."

Good job, Saber! Shirou thought firmly.

"I... see." Sakura said. Her expression was still dark, but she seemed to have, if not agreed to Saber's presence, at least noted that she had no grounds to refuse it. "Well, I guess that... I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."

"Saber." Shirou said automatically, and immediately began kicking himself mentally. Just Saber? Really? Who would believe that was a person's name?

"... Saber?" Sakura said.

"It is a family name." Saber said in a perfect deadpan.

We're doomed. Shirou thought.

"... ah. Well... I... suppose I have no real cause to ask that you leave... Saber-san." Sakura said slowly.

... really? Shirou thought. That's... good! That's a good thing!

"So I'll wait here and see what Fujimura-sensei has to say. If she says that you can stay here, I guess that I can't really say anything." Sakura said.

Crap. Fuji-nee. Shirou thought blankly. He stood up.

"Shirou?" Saber asked. "What is wrong?"

"I need to make more breakfast." Shirou said. "Maybe if I distract her with food she won't think too hard."

It turned out, shortly, that food was not in fact enough to completely distract Taiga from a girl in the room, though it took her nearly seventeen minutes to notice. Luckily, however, Fuji-nee wasn't as good at arguing as Sakura, so if Sakura hadn't been able to find a real reason to deny Saber a room...

"ABSOLUTELY NOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!" Taiga roared.

... Fuji-nee would just deny her without a reason.

It was possible that this would be a long day.


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Oh, God.

Oh, God.

Why? Why? Why? Why?

The girl. The beautiful one he'd called his 'father's friend'.

Fujimura-sensei, in the end, had not turned the girl away. Sakura had never really expected her to do so, though a small part of her had hoped she would; leave it to Fujimura-sensei to base her room-and-board decisions on a shinai duel... of course, the same thing that made Taiga accept Saber into the household was merely one more sign to Sakura how dangerous the girl truly was.

She was lucky that Senpai had merely thought her dislike of the girl to be jealousy. The truth was, after all, worse... even if her display of swordsmanship against Taiga had not been far too skilled to be truly human, Sakura could still taste the true nature of the girl. She certainly felt closer to human than the other Servant Sakura had met in person, but the aura of power would have been unmistakable even if Senpai hadn't been so foolish as to introduce her as 'Saber'.

In spite of herself, Sakura smiled fondly through her worry. Oh, Senpai, you really do have no talent for these things at all, do you? Sakura herself would have taken care, if she couldn't astallize the Servant as he apparently could not, to only feed her in a side-room, place some kind of visual obstacles in the path to make it appear the wing she was staying in was under renovations, and on the off-chance someone did encounter her, give her a convincing pseudonym to go by. And to be frank, that was still pretty pathetic by Magus standards; it didn't even do anything about the girl's unusual dress (She decided then to loan Saber some clothing, in an effort to keep the girl and Senpai even slightly more off-the-radar. It wasn't much, but it was the most she could do on short notice). Yet Senpai had never even thought to take such simple precautions.

She liked that. Senpai's honesty was... cute. His sincerity shone like the sun. Particularly when he was trying not to be sincere and doing so very, very badly.

Unfortunately, her brief good mood faded as she recalled what Senpai was badly lying to her about. A Servant. The girl with him was a Servant and that made Senpai a Master. He was involved in that awful war and he could... he...

She couldn't even bring her mind to form the grim thought, and settled for 'he was in serious danger'. He was no Magus, not like the other competitors. At the least grandfather had told her that he wouldn't be getting involved in the current war; Senpai would have no chance against Zouken Matou. And her own brother was... he did not have Senpai's presence, to put it mildly. Her first impressions of Saber were limited, but she did not think Rider could beat her with Shinji in possession of her contract.

But the other Masters were monsters, enough to make even Grandfather, the most powerful and horrifying person she knew, decide to avoid getting involved.

And he'd said, almost as an afterthought, that the favorite to win this time was the Heir of Tohsaka. At the time it had only made Sakura feel slightly... off. She wasn't sure what to call the emotion, honestly. Now? It just made her feel terrified.

Of course... why wouldn't she be the top ranked Master? She's more talented than anyone. Sakura thought. Of course she's going to win. And if she fights Senpai to do it...

Sakura's training had not been traditional by any means, but she knew that Masters in the Holy Grail War were not known for showing mercy to one another.

For just the briefest of moments, something dark flashed behind the young girl's violet eyes as a tiny burst... less than a second... of something cold and vicious ran through her mind at the thought of the shining, perfect girl who she'd always watched from a distance, and who might very well be killing the man she loved. And of the polite, angelic blond Servant who had put him in a position to be hurt so in the first place...


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In his crypt, Zouken smiled. The worms throughout the chamber increased their repulsive writhing in sensitivity to his emotions, continuing to slither towards him and burrow into his ankles and legs.

He had made the decision to become involved in the War the previous day, and immediately told Sakura the exact opposite. For all her talk of the Emiya boy's lack of skill at deception, it never occurred to her that perhaps she was also being deceived. And why would it? For starters, Zouken did not commonly lie to her: he didn't need to. Zouken forced her to do what he wanted her to do, and therefore had no reason to resort to deception. If he'd wanted her to enter the War as a Master, he could simply make her, and the fact that he had not done so was sufficient proof to her that he was honest about not getting personally involved.

Silly girl. He wondered how long it would be before she realized that she had a far, far greater destiny than to act as a mere Master. And he wondered even more how long it would be before she realized that it had been the second half of their brief conversation that had actually been important. The few statements carefully calculated to drive her thoughts... and animosity... just slightly in the direction of the Tohsaka girl.

The thing about the girl was that as broken as she might seem to anyone who saw her in the midst of 'training', she really wasn't. Not deep down, not on the most fundamental level, not broken how he needed her to break. As ragged and shattered as her surface personality was, there still existed some core essence that simply would not falter and would brook no intrusion into the territory of her mind and soul. While impressive, and what allowed her to withstand the training and alterations needed for her ultimate purpose, it also made her basically useless to him unless he could circumvent it in time. And unfortunately, a decade of the most heinous methods he could imagine had not pierced this final bastion of inner strength, and he could devise some truly, deeply heinous methods.

So he had tried another venue. If it would not break to external attack, make her break it herself from within.

Hope was one weakness, which the Emiya boy had so kindly instilled. Jealousy was another, which Rin Tohsaka had inspired and Zouken himself had inflamed. And now the source of the jealousy was leading her to fear for the source of the hope, that terror becoming a third weakness all of her own creation.

Not much of a reaction, really. The tiniest, most imperceptible of cracks in the armor. But he could work with that.

Now, perhaps it was time he looked up that Summoning ritual again and became directly involved in events for the first time in centuries. All Seven cards had already been pulled, of course, but there were always loopholes. He'd be sure to thank Caster later for creating such a huge one for him to exploit.

She'd be dead, so he doubted she'd appreciate the thanks, but it never hurt to be polite.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shirou and Saber walked through the night, mostly in silence.

It had been a long day, but they had eventually managed to come to a reasonable term for their living arrangements. Saber would be staying in the guest room, much to her annoyance, but Sakura and especially Fuji-nee had been painfully insistent. And so Shirou found himself hosting a slumber party.

Still, at least Taiga and Sakura were apparently both deep sleepers, because according to Saber they had not reacted in the slightest when she had gotten up and left the room to find Shirou. (She was half-right... Taiga had indeed just kept on snoring. Sakura had winced and bitten her lip so hard she nearly drew blood at the implications of the Servant leaving in the middle of the night).

Shirou cast his new Servant a sideways glance. Rather than wear her armor, which she claimed she could materialize as easily as she dematerialized it, she had elected to wear the simple clothing Sakura had provided her after stating that her normal dress was too nice for everyday wear; a white sweater and a deep purple skirt that reached slightly past her knees. It was a plain, elegant outfit that suited her well, though for some reason Shirou couldn't help but think she looked better in blue.

And he also noticed that it was slightly too big for her and disguised her body almost completely. He'd noticed that Sakura didn't really seem to like Saber and wondered if perhaps this was done on purpose, but couldn't see why. If if had inconvenienced her in some way, that would be one thing. But all it did was hide her figure fr...

Oh. Oh.

Taking his realization of one possible reason that Sakura wouldn't want him looking at another girl's body and repressing the Hell out of it, Shirou picked up his pace slightly so Saber could not see him blush. Girls were complicated.

The duo had decided to be proactive in this Holy Grail War... Saber had informed him that nearly all of the odd incidents on the news, the gas leaks and murders alike, had most likely been the doing of other Masters. Shirou had decided that their strategy for at least the early parts of the War should be to let the other Masters deal with each other however they liked, while he and Saber focused on hunting down and defeating the ones who were hurting innocent people. He'd been expecting her to take the pragmatic approach, and encourage him to go after any Master who made themselves an easy target... but she had smiled warmly and said she approved of this tactic, and appreciated his confidence in her. He wasn't sure how she could think he wouldn't have confidence in her, having seen her both drive off an enemy who had effortlessly defeated Shirou himself and shrug off a spear through the chest in literally seconds, but Shirou found her approval reassuring. Particularly in the face of the things Kotomine had said to him the previous night about his wish...

It's nothing like that. It's not a wish for people to be in danger. It's a wish for nobody to ever be in danger. To be the kind of hero who can create a world that doesn't need heroes. Impossible in the end, but I can keep pursuing it because I know it to be a pure wish...

... because if it wasn't, this holy girl with a presence like wind over clear water would not have smiled at me.

"Shirou?" Saber asked curiously. "Is something wrong? Your pace has slowed considerably."

"Eh? No, just thinking."

"Focus on the task at hand, Shirou." Saber chided him. "An enemy could be around any corner. Planning ahead is good, but not if you lose sight of your surroundings in the process."

Shirou chuckled, wondering vaguely how she'd react if he told her that he had actually not been thinking about their patrol at all. Would she "Well, at this point I almost hope so. We've been walking for a long time and so far..."

A blood-curdling sound pierced the still of the night; a woman's scream, a shriek of pure terror. And then, just as suddenly as it had emerged, it stopped, cut off mid-cry.

Shirou knew it was impossible considering how far away the scream had been, but he felt he could smell blood on the air, and something else sickeningly sweet, like rotting honey...

This was... this was it. This was the moment. The moment where he either finally lived up to his ideals, or not. A real danger, a real life at stake. Someone needed his protection.

God, he was scared, but the thought that someone else might die if he did nothing was so, so much worse than the though that he might be killed himself...!

In a flash of silver, Saber stood armed and armored. "That was very near, Shirou! Follow m-"

She blinked in confusion at the realization that Shirou had already begun sprinting in the direction of the scream, leaving her behind in a mad rush. Luckily, she was much faster than him, so it didn't matter much, but she would have to talk to him later. His tendency to run out in front of her was simply not good tactics.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shinji Matou, blood heir of the most noble line of Matou magi, smiled in satisfaction and closed the book.

His Servant was a pretty thing, but he hadn't been certain she was really all they were supposed to be. Certainly, she was stronger than a normal person, but not to the degree he'd been expecting. But now, seeing her like this... dark against the darkness, her violet hair thrashing almost of its own accord as she clamped onto the dying, futilely struggling figure in her arms? She was exactly the sort of monster he'd wanted.

The girl was nothing, a nobody, a random person too stupid to stay inside at night while a murderer was roaming the streets. Young, a student most likely, though not one Shinji recognized. It made sense... kids always thought they were immortal until someone proved otherwise. Rider had stalked her for some time until she'd made the mistake of cutting through this secluded area. When the Servant had made her move, it had been both simultaneously thrilling and somehow almost too easy. The kid had time for one scream before Rider's fangs sank into her throat and began to extract blood... and with it, something far more precious.

Shinji watched in delight as the girl's struggles ceased. No, more than ceased... her eyes rolled back in her head, her arms wrapped around Rider's waist and she began to gasp softly in time to Rider's drawing on her lifeblood. He almost laughed out loud... Rider was eating her soul, and she was enjoying it! How entertaining. If having this much power over the life and death of one insignificant little insect was so empowering, he could only imagine what it would be like when the surprise he had planned at his school was finally ready...

Rider dropped the woman to the ground like so much garbage and leaped backwards to stand directly in front of him. "Company, Shinji."

He was briefly annoyed at the interruption... he had been enjoying the show, thank you very much!... but his good mood was quickly restored by the sight of who it was coming to see him. A girl in silver armor, veeeerrrrrry pretty, and...

"Emiya! Hey, man, nice to see you. Nice night for a walk, am I right?" Shinji said jovially, as if they'd run into each other while out on a jog rather than meeting over a soon-to-be corpse.

"Sh... Shinji?" Emiya gasped, his eyes wide in shock. Shinji tried and failed to suppress a chuckle. The big doof was clueless as always. "That woman is..."

"Oh, you mean Rider?" Shinji said, still with the same air of casual cheerfulness. "Yeah, she's mine. And I guess that's yours, huh? Man, who'd have thought that you of all people would in the War with me? This must be fate, us meeting like this."

Emiya's eyes narrowed. "Shinji... this girl, her soul... almost all of it has been drained out. She's dying, and your Servant did it?"

"Eh? Oh, yeah, Rider needed food, and souls are the best energy source for a Servant. It's no big deal, all the Masters do it. If you think this is bad, you should see what the Witch up on the mountain has been pulling! But knowing you, I guess even this little thing is going to make you go all crazy?" Shinji said, sighing in annoyance. "It's a shame you saw this... I might have been willing to work with you for a little bit, but I don't think that will be happening now."

"Saber." Emiya said. "Deal with the Servant. If I get that girl out of here she might still survive, so..."

"Understood, Master." Saber said without the slightest hesitation. "I will cover your retreat... and cut down your enemy."

Rider, who had been standing silently as a statue throughout the entire exchange, wiped the last drops of blood from her lips and crouched like a snake about to strike. "Shinji?"

"Well, this is good in a way, I guess. I wanted to see what you could really do." Shinji said, his easy smile going cold and ugly. "Kill them both, Rider."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shirou made a flying leap to the prone girl, wrapping her in his arms and dragging her from the battlefield as quickly as he possibly could. He was running on adrenaline, righteous anger as Shinji, and pure shrieking terror for his life, and it let her basically just pick the girl up bodily and simply sprint her out of the line of fire.

It turned out he didn't really have to bother, when he deposited her in the nearest cover he could find (thank god they were in a park, trees were better than nothing); neither Servant had been paying him the slightest bit of attention.

Rider was fast, impossibly so; she was darting through the park like a black shooting star, so quickly his eyes could barely follow her. She would attack, retreat, and attack again from a different angle all in the space of a heartbeat. To make matters worse, her weapon was truly insane, a bizarre whip of some... no, two nails attached by a length of chain that whirled around her madly with only slight motions of her arms to attack from unpredictable angles and then be drawn almost instantly back to her hands.

But that only made Saber all the more impressive. Unable to match her opponent in agility, she had planted her feet and was repelling each and every one of those wild strikes as if she could see the future and simple knew where they would fall. Rider darted around her, mixing strikes from distance melee, yet Saber met each and every attack and pushed it back, her sword repelling the chain with seemingly no more effort than it took Rider to make the flicks of her wrist needed to send it whirling.

Shirou and Shinji both watched spellbound when they really should have been doing something productive. It was hard to blame them, really. Neither had that much experience with anything so dangerously beautiful as the almost dancelike grace of the two women as they fought. Which, of course, just made the end a greater shock.

Saber, with a single smooth motion, used her sword to tap the whirling chain so that the nail aimed for her throat instead impaled itself in the ground. Before Rider could pull it free, she stomped onto it with her armored boot and used the impact to lunge. Rider, temporarily halted in mid-dash by the sudden pressure on her weapon, was caught flat-footed.

It became obvious to Shirou, then, what had actually happened. The effortless grace with which Saber had executed her counterattack told him that this had never even been a fight: Saber had been taking Rider's measure and found it wanting. The black-clad Servant had failed to kill her in these many attacks, and now the first counter would also be Saber's last offensive of the duel.

Or rather, it should have been...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It all came back to yesterday night.

Just a few differences, really. Archer had escaped his confrontation with Saber unharmed thanks to Shirou's own heroic instincts working against him; expending a Command Seal to save Rin.

And thanks to Shirou's own kindness working against him, Ilya had withdrawn without any sort of attack against either him or Rin.

Had Archer been wounded, Rin could not have gone on patrol this night. And had Rin bonded with Shirou against a common enemy, it was more likely that even if they hadn't joined forces, she would have chosen to ignore him completely rather than simply not actively hunting him. But she had gone on patrol, and from their vantage point on one of the taller buildings in town, Archer's impressive vision had detected Rider attacking a woman nearly five miles away. They had gone to intervene, and taking up position on a smaller but more convenient building less than a mile from the park, they had arrived in time to see that Shirou Emiya and Saber had beaten them to the punch.

Rin had elected not to make Emiya her priority, but she could hardly ignore him when he went around openly challenging other Masters in the middle of town, nor could she simply walk away from such a tempting target. Two of her enemies, distracted and unaware of her presence, and her with both the ultimate sniping position and the ultimate sniper...

"Can you get them both from here?" Rin asked.

Archer smiled softly and drew back his bowstring, the silver arrow shining in his grip. "I think I can manage."

"Just the Servants, remember. Emiya's a moron and Shinji's a weasel, but I'm supposed to be the one keeping people from dying in magical catastrophes in this town." Rin said.

"I'll try, but you remember that any attack able to kill two Servants from this distance will cause immense collateral damage. I promise nothing. Particularly with you distracting me and throwing off my aim." Archer said teasingly.

"Some great marksman you are." Rin grumbled. "Fine, fine. If you kill someone human, I'll accept it was an accident and only punish you with medium harshness."

"Why does that make my blood cold? Your medium harshness sounds like it could kill a normal person." Archer said with a small grin.

"Just take the shot, smartass."

His smile widening at the blush he knew she was wearing even without looking, he turned his body so that Rin could not see his weapon through his back. Almost immediately, the arrow in his grip changed. The silver tip extended, a hilt appeared, the shaft twisted around itself into a spiral...

His smile got even wider, and took on a distinctly predatory aspect as he viewed the ongoing battle below and almost a mile away from him down the length of his newly projected sword.

You're too soft, Rin. You said this morning you said you were willing to kill him, but when the opportunity comes up it's suddenly 'just the Servants'. Well, be thankful you have me here to pick up the slack and be ruthless enough for both of us. He thought, holding the sword-arrow at the ready. The two Servants needed to die for Rin to win this War, which despite everything else he did genuinely want. Shinji... he remembered Shinji well enough to know that only Sakura would miss him, and that his death would be doing her a favor despite this misplaced affection. No reason to spare that one. As for Emiya, well, that was personal.

With them that close together, a properly aimed shot could likely kill all four in one go, a perfect opportunity. Yes, things had turned out much better than he'd been hoping, he could say that much. Of course, Rin most likely wouldn't be amused when he killed the Masters along with the Servants. Despite her... dubious reassurance, she would probably make his life a living Hell. Assuming he still had a life after Shirou Emiya's death.

Ah, well. If he was still alive after that, then all of this was pointless and he was doomed to much worse than anything Rin could dish out, so it didn't really matter.

Holding the newly projected sword, complete with the modifications to design that would make it an effective arrow, Archer took aim again. He leveled the Noble Phantasm called Caladbolg, or at least his recreation of it, at the assembled figures in the distance. Then with another effort of will, he plunged his mind into the magnificent harmony of steel and fire inherent in the masterwork weapon... and Broke it. Barely restrained power began to hum in the readied arrow-sword as it became dangerously unstable, awaiting only a target to die against. Good-bye, Ladies and Gentlemen. Well... ladies, gentleman, and Shinji.

I am the bone of my sword...

Spoiler for Author's Note:

Can I say? As odd as this sounds, my favorite part of this chapter was Shinji. It is just so liberating to cut loose and really just write as slimy as I can.

So the action begins. Hmm, nice. Sakura toying with Shirou was also kinda cute, in a twisted kind of way.

Just some things:

Spoiler for things:

1. Google translate didn't give any result on astallize and I can't think of any other word, so I assume you meant astralize/astrallize?
2. "He was running on adrenaline, righteous anger as Shinji, and pure shrieking terror for his life, and it let her basically just pick the girl up bodily and simply sprint her out of the line of fire." I think you meant him.

Can't wait for Illya's active part in this . Oh this was so worth staying up past midnight

[GDB]

One change for the first Rin/Archer part:

Spoiler for Rin/Archer conversation:

Since Japanese doesn't have gender identification (he/she), it'd probably be best to have Archer say "That woman" instead of "She".

Also, love that last quip of Archer's in the first part. Overall it was a great read.

[Haak]

It was really great, especially the comedy, but Sakura does seem a lot different here. When Sakura first saw Saber in Heaven's Feel, she was no where near as combatative (atleast not that I can recall).

Plus I think Rider referes to Shinji as 'Master', not Shinji.

[Cherry_Lover]

Hmm, this is pretty good. There's one problem that I've noticed, though, with the scene where Sakura arrives.

"Oh, you are up early!" Sakura said warmly, poking her head into the kitchen. The room seemed to get sunnier with her smile; Sakura Matou just had that sort of effect on the world. The younger sister of his middle-school friend, Shinji, Sakura was his kohai at school and a sort of surrogate little sister at everything else. And while he and Shinji had drifted apart, he and Sakura had only gotten closer over the years as she stopped by to help around the house more and more often, slowly but surely making herself part of the family. He really couldn't imagine life without her stopping by every day anymore; she was as much family as Fuji-nee was, and he could honestly say that if the two of them hadn't stepped in following the death of his father, he probably wouldn't be alive today.

This is wrong. Sakura didn't gradually get closer to him, at least in terms of coming around his house. If you remember HF, he injured himself a little over a year before the route and Sakura used that as an excuse to come around and look after him. He refused her help at first, so she just turned up and stood outside his house every day for about a week until he just gave up and let her help him and gave her a key. After that, she started coming over almost every day.

I can't remember the exact details of how they got to know each other now, but I'm certain that that is how Sakura came to start coming around his house, at least.

Originally Posted by Haak

It was really great, especially the comedy, but Sakura does seem a lot different here. When Sakura first saw Saber in Heaven's Feel, she was no where near as combatative (atleast not that I can recall).

Yeah, Sakura is being too aggressive here, I think. Remember that she is fully aware of what Saber is, and thus knows damn well that she's not going away in a hurry. So, there's no point in her pressing Shirou too hard about it. All that will mean is that he'll be more likely to refuse Saber's protection, which endangers him more.

Plus I think Rider referes to Shinji as 'Master', not Shinji.

Yeah, she does. I mean, do you honestly think that Shinji wouldn't take the opportunity to force someone else to call him "Master"....

[Moczo]

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, and I corrected all the straight-up mistakes...

Originally Posted by Haak

It was really great, especially the comedy, but Sakura does seem a lot different here. When Sakura first saw Saber in Heaven's Feel, she was no where near as combatative (atleast not that I can recall).

Plus I think Rider referes to Shinji as 'Master', not Shinji.

Originally Posted by Cherry_Lover

Yeah, Sakura is being too aggressive here, I think. Remember that she is fully aware of what Saber is, and thus knows damn well that she's not going away in a hurry. So, there's no point in her pressing Shirou too hard about it. All that will mean is that he'll be more likely to refuse Saber's protection, which endangers him more.

Hmmm... I was going to justify this with the thought that the meeting circumstances are more 'incriminating' towards Shirou; she caught him with Saber and he acted like he had something to hide, he didn't bring Saber out and introduce her. No matter what she says or even thinks, a certain part of her is just irrationally mad that he had a girl she's never met apparently spend the night, regardless of the circumstances. ... Then I realized that I can't even remember how Saber and Sakura met in HF, so maybe I did make her too aggressive.

As to the second point, all I can say is that she never directly asks Saber to leave; she was mainly just trying to express her general disapproval, because she can't say what she really wants to say: 'Get rid of your command seals and get out of this war before my sister kills you'.

Originally Posted by GDB

One change for the first Rin/Archer part:

Spoiler for Rin/Archer conversation:

Since Japanese doesn't have gender identification (he/she), it'd probably be best to have Archer say "That woman" instead of "She".

Also, love that last quip of Archer's in the first part. Overall it was a great read.

While I appreciate the intent, the sad fact is that I think in English, with English pronouns. There is no way I could possibly remember to write dialogue like that the entire story...

Glad you enjoyed Archer, though. His interactions with Rin are amusing to me.

Originally Posted by RadiantBeam

I somehow get the distinct feeling that this will not end well.... for Shirou. Because God knows how he loves to screw up people's plans. Especially Rin's.

Interesting to see that with the lack of Rin being around and acting as Shirou's partner, Saber has actually grown closer to Shirou as a result. A small change, somewhat similar to HF really, but it's all going back to your original idea of how small changes can shape the whole world. It'll be interesting to see how Saber develops from her exposure to Shirou under these conditions.

As for Sakura, I say your portrayal of her is fine. You capture her kindness and her love for Shirou, but you also hint that beneath it all she's got much deeper problems than anyone knows. So, I think you nailed her down perfectly. And yes, Shinji was most awesome. I loved to hate him in this chapter.

Also, can I just say I laughed out loud at how easily Saber lied to Sakura? There was something utterly priceless about it.

Things never end well for Shirou until the very end. He is not allowed to do anything awesome without ending up a half-blind cripple moving on sheer willpower because his brain is on fire or something crazy. As a result, a big tonkin' exploding sword is about to hit him.

I have noticed that in UBW too; at the beginning, when Rin's not around yet, Saber is much less formal and more open with Shirou. It's like something about Rin's presence makes her clam up for some reason...

Thanks! I might have made some small errors (see above) but I'm glad I got the spirit of the character down. This fic is not meant to bash anybody; I want to treat all the characters with respect except the ones who are just totally without redeeming qualities and thus sort of impossible to treat with respect. They know who they are. ... They're Shinji and Zouken.

Originally Posted by Tiresias

So the action begins. Hmm, nice. Sakura toying with Shirou was also kinda cute, in a twisted kind of way.


Can't wait for Illya's active part in this . Oh this was so worth staying up past midnight

I thought so too. Shirou is just so fun to toy with, that even Sakura can't resist it a little bit.

Neither can I! I like Ilya, and I can't wait to start fitting her into things, but first I need to screw over Shirou a bit.

[Altima of the Gates]

As for Sakura, I say your portrayal of her is fine. You capture her kindness and her love for Shirou, but you also hint that beneath it all she's got much deeper problems than anyone knows. So, I think you nailed her down perfectly.

Yes, there are issues, but the main thing here is that in any situation, misunderstandings and the people who manipulate those misunderstandings are the root of all evil. It all cascades down a pit of fuckery. That is 60-70% of the problem there.

Nice job, here Moczo. Funny how Archer muses that killing off Shinji will be kind of beneficial to Sakura, and yet, he shows how dense he was in life by not realizing what killing Shirou at the same time will do.

[GDB]

Originally Posted by Altima of the Gates

Nice job, here Moczo. Funny how Archer muses that killing off Shinji will be kind of beneficial to Sakura, and yet, he shows how dense he was in life by not realizing what killing Shirou at the same time will do.

To be fair, he probably knows. He just doesn't give a damn because he needs to do it to accomplish his goal.

[GlancingReverse]

Originally Posted by Altima of the Gates

Funny how Archer muses that killing off Shinji will be kind of beneficial to Sakura, and yet, he shows how dense he was in life by not realizing what killing Shirou at the same time will do.

Hey, he did say it was personal. Presumably, after years of what would probably be considered traumatizing, underpaid work, you really don't care about things like that anymore.

On the other hand, since Archer's plan hasn't gone wrong quite yet, something's probably going to go wrong in the next *amount of time it takes him to fire the arrow*.

[GDB]

Originally Posted by GlancingReverse

On the other hand, since Archer's plan hasn't gone wrong quite yet, something's probably going to go wrong in the next *amount of time it takes him to fire the arrow*.

Cue Berserker? And then Shinji crapping himself when he realizes just how utterly outgunned he is, and how many people are within striking distance that wouldn't mind seeing him dead?

[GlancingReverse]

Strangely, that would mean that Ilya's doing job at better job at what she set out to do than most of the other times that I can think of.

[Moczo]

All right, after a minor incident where I think the site achieved sentience and tried to eat my story for nutrients, the latest chapter is now up on FF.net.

EDIT:

Originally Posted by Altima of the Gates

Nice job, here Moczo. Funny how Archer muses that killing off Shinji will be kind of beneficial to Sakura, and yet, he shows how dense he was in life by not realizing what killing Shirou at the same time will do.

Well... look at it as less him asking the question as 'what would be the best option for Sakura?' and coming up with a very bad answer; and more asking the question 'Do I have any real reason not to kill Shinji when I kill everyone else?' and coming up with a resounding 'Nope'.

[Moczo]

Spoiler for Chaos Theory, Chapter Four:

Chapter Four: Opening Salvo

Shirou didn't know how he knew.

One moment Saber was on the verge of an easy win and they were one step closer to saving that woman, the next his blood ran cold in his veins and the world seemed to fall into slow motion. He could see it.

The sword, glittering in the moonlight. The red knight, smiling coldly as he prepared to fire. He knew there was no way he could be able to see this, see Archer taking aim from so far away, but he could as plain as day. He heard something, yet didn't hear it at the same time, and knew that whatever it was he'd... heard? Not heard? He didn't even know his own thoughts anymore... he knew that whatever it was, it was dangerous. Very, very dangerous.

I... ... ... my sword...

It sounded like gibberish, and yet for some reason...

"Saber!" he shouted. "Get back!"

Saber didn't know what had Shirou so worried, but her Master sounded openly terrified and he had been rather good at maintaining his cool until now, so she decided ignoring him was not wise. Shifting the angle of what had been meant to be her killing stroke, she forced mana into her legs, and instead smashed her sword into the portion of Rider's weapon that the other Servant was still holding, using her entire body to push herself backwards as hard as she could. If there was something dangerous approaching her current, position, then she needed to not only move but get Shirou out of the way quickly. The violet-haired Servant, recognizing that something was wrong, followed suit, retreating towards Shinji and grabbing him at a greater speed than Saber herself could manage. Still, they both managed to scoop up their respective Masters and begin dragging them away from the central battlefield, and...

They very nearly made all the way out of the blast radius before Archer's attack detonated.

-------------------------------

Ilya breathed a sigh of relief. As she looked at the blast through the eyes of a nearby tree. He was alive, his Servant having gotten him mostly to safety and absorbing what damage she couldn't avoid.

Er... not that she cared, really. She'd probably kill him herself! It was just that... well... she didn't want to do it yet. She was curious, that was all. He hadn't been anything like what she expected, and so she didn't want to kill him until she found out why that was.

Ilya was, to put it mildly, a naive girl. She believed people when they spoke to her; all people, really. She simply took it as fact that nobody would say anything that wasn't the truth, because it was just common sense to only say things that were true. If it wasn't true, why say it? That was why Kiritsugu had hurt her so deeply... when he'd told her that he would come back to her, she had believed, totally and without the slightest reservation. And then he hadn't come back. Grandpapa had told her why; he had found another child, one he cared for more than her. He had abandoned her because he was coldhearted and evil, and he had realized that the Einzbern family would not allow him to corrupt Ilya after his betrayal in the Fourth Grail War, so he had simply left her behind like trash so he could mold some other child into his twisted image. And she had believed that too, because Kiritsugu... papa... wasn't there. If he were a good person, if he loved her, wouldn't he have been there?

Now, though, she was starting to wonder. She knew that someone involved in the Kiritsugu situation had deceived her, but she was starting to wonder who, exactly, it was. The boy had smiled at her even when she wasn't doing anything at all, and his eyes were warm and gentle. Papa's eyes had been like that sometimes; mostly they looked empty, or sad, but sometimes they'd been gentle when he played with her, or when he looked at mama. It made her feel warm inside, and did not really match what her family had told her about him... about either of them.

Grandpapa only smiled when he spoke of the Holy Grail, and his eyes were like the pictures she'd seen of sharks. When he spoke to her, it was to instruct her in her training or to preach the philosophy of the Einzbern family. He was cold, as cold as the forests around the old castle. Even in the summer the chill hung in the air...

She hadn't known the boy long, but the more she learned of the outside world, the more she was getting the impression that even if he was evil, he was probably still less evil than Grandpapa.

It required further observation. So she wouldn't kill him, and she wouldn't let him die. Not until she knew for sure what he was truly like. The truth was very, very important to Ilyasviel; she always told it, and she expected everyone else to do the same. If she found out that Kiritsugu had been the one telling the truth, and that Grandpapa had been lying to her, she would be very cross indeed.

But now this. She had wanted to follow him, observe him, maybe even talk to him if she could work up the courage. And when he'd gone into battle, she had held back despite the overwhelming urge to involve herself because she didn't want him to know she was a Master, not yet. Masters fought Masters, always. To really know what he was like, she needed to see how he reacted to her, not the Master of Berserker. She would never get to know him if he was on guard against her (And no, that wasn't lying to him! She wasn't going to tell him she wasn't a Master! She just... wouldn't bring the subject up! That might have been cheating a little, but it was still okay, she was pretty sure!). Fortunately, even an idiot could tell that Saber would defeat Rider; Rider's Master was possibly the lowliest, most pathetic human being she had ever seen, a perfect example of how thoroughly the Makiri had rotted over the years.

Kiritsugu's boy was, from what she had seen, adorably helpless. A kitten without his Servant. The mischievous part of her had been fighting the urge for some time to sneak up and halt his motor functions with her magic, just to tease him a bit and giggle at how cute and hopeless he was. But even someone as weak as he was could deal with that slime so long as Saber was by his side.

Then Rin Tohsaka had to stick her big nose into Ilya's business, and her Archer was very, very strange, and Ilya was starting to get worried that someone might kill her boy before she decided if she wanted to kill him herself or not...

-------------------------------

His ears ringing, Shirou blinked a few times to clear his vision. Even with her armor, she didn't weigh all that much, but he was feeling awfully sore and Saber on top of him wasn't helping. He still felt a jab of relief when she opened her eyes to gaze into his, however.

"Are you all right?" The Master and Servant asked in unison.

"... you were between me and the blast." Shirou said.

"... I'm harder to hurt than you, and my armor took most of the shrapnel. What happened?" She asked, Rider largely forgotten.

"I... Archer. Tohsaka's Archer just tried to... he attacked us. I think he was firing from that building, over..." he said, scanning the skyline, "There. The office building... the only one in that row of buildings that doesn't have any lights on in any of the windows. Must have chosen it because it was vacant..."

Saber stood and helped her Master to his feet. "How did you know which building they are-" Before she finished the sentence, she suddenly spun in place, the wind howling as her sword snapped through the air to smash aside an incoming silver flash, then another, then another...

Shirou watched in awe. The arrows... and they were arrows, he could see when they hit the ground after she intercepted them... were moving like bullets, visible only because of their size and the way they reflected the streetlights. And yet Saber was deflecting them like they were nothing. And he could see... yes, amid the silver flashes on the other side of the park, a shadow was weaving as Rider dodged among the arrows, her speed not visibly affected by the fact that she had slung a clearly uncomfortable Shinji over her shoulder. And the arrows themselves were reason to be impressed, descending like a silver monsoon, far too fast and far too numerous to be the work of anything but a machine gun, yet they were arrows...

He wondered if he would ever stop being awed by Servants, he really did.

"I believe you were correct when you stated we were under attack by Archer, Master." Saber said conversationally as she batted aside another arrow. "At least, I don't believe any of the other Servants could manage a projectile attack of this caliber. Fortunately, projectile weaponry is largely useless against me if I can see the path of the missile. Still, another shot on the level of that first attack would be best avoided, so I should hunt him down."

"Er... yeah." Shirou said, trying to get his amazement back under control. "He's on the building I pointed out to you... I don't know, I just sort of saw him there. Don't ask me how."

And that smile... like he was looking me right in the eye from a mile away and laughing at the thought of my death. Shirou thought. Tohsaka... what kind of Servant did you call?

And are you there with him, looking over his shoulder while he tries to kill me?

"As you command." Saber said, spinning her sword in a wide arc to repel more of the incoming projectiles. "I shall not ask, although I am curious."

"Er, no, you can ask, it's just that I don't know."

"Ah, very well." Saber said, nodding. "Master, it would perhaps be prudent for you to take cover while I deal with the enemy? Archer will not be able to kill you if he is trying to slow my advance. I believe that large tree near the bench in the northwest corner of the park should provide an acceptable shield. I will cover your retreat."

"What about Rider?" Shirou asked.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAH-" Shinji said as he went flying through the air into a tangle of bushes, Rider 'depositing' him into cover before vanishing into the darkened streets to pursue Archer.

"I believe that, for the moment, she is closer to an ally than an enemy." Saber said. "Now take cover!"

As Saber disappeared in a burst of wind, charging down the enemy and striking aside projectiles as if she were swatting flies, Shirou hid behind a tree.

This... this is not acceptable. He thought in supreme humiliation. I should be out there with her, but I can't even stand in the open without getting killed! This is just... what kind of a useless Master am I?

I need to get stronger. I can't be like this, I can't be like...

Gasping for air and brushing thorns off his clothes, Shinji Matou dove behind the tree next to him.

... like him, basically.

"Gah... that bitch! I'm her Master, and she throws me around like a piece of trash? She'd better kill whoever is out to get me, or I swear I'll..." He snapped to the night air in general, only to have his voice trail off when he recognized who was sitting next to him. He snarled a curse, reaching inside his shirt for something...

Shirou, then, taught him the problems with trying to reach for a weapon in a point-blank fight by simply grabbing Shinji's head and slamming it into the tree.

"Ow..." Shinji said, his eyes going distinctly unfocused. It was a good thing he had already been sitting down, because his knees went very weak.

"I would tell you to give up your Command Seals and bow out of the war, now that I know you're having your Servant eat people." Shirou said, glad to have encountered a problem he could deal with. "But Rider is helping Saber, so I don't want her to disappear right now. But Shinji... I can't forgive your actions here easily. You're going to sit here, and you're not going to talk, and since we're in a war zone I won't take whatever weapon you have in there but if you try to pull it on me again I will hit you until you stop moving. And once we're safe, you are out of this war and you will pay for your crimes."

Shinji gave him a somewhat fuzzy look of pure loathing. It seemed deeply wrong on the face of someone he had until moments ago still considered at least a friend, if not a close one. "H-how... how dare..."

"I was completely serious about beating you unconscious, Shinji."

Shinji stopped talking.

-------------------------------

Archer sighed in annoyance, continuing his bombardment out of pure spite. The kid had seen it coming. Presumably he had sensed the projection somehow... this close together, he supposed their magic might be interacting in unexpected ways. Well, he'd remember that and compensate in the future. In the meantime, Rider was flitting in and out of his vision and Saber was charging straight down his throat and deflecting everything he threw at her; just nameless blades remade as arrows, certainly no match for her holy sword, but the fact that she could discern and deflect all of them was something special. She really was as amazing as he remembered.

"They're on their way, Rin." He said, sending off another volley. "I can only slow them down like this. We will have company very soon."

"H... how do you fire so many?" Rin asked in a hushed tone, honestly confused. It was like he was not only moving more quickly than humanly possible, but also that many of the arrows were not even being fired from his bow, they were just appearing in the air in front of him...

"That's not what matters right now, Rin. What matters is that two Servants are converging on our position and I can't defeat them both if I have to protect you."

"Oh, of c... if you have to protect me?!" Rin snapped. "You can't defeat them both at all! Saber would have killed you if Emiya hadn't stopped her the first time we..."

"Rin! Focus, please!" Archer said sharply. "If I fight defensively, I can at least hold them both for some time. And they won't be fighting as a team, not really, which will make things easier. But if you're there, they'll force me to protect you and we'll both end up dead."

Rin nodded. "Right. I see. So you don't want me to... oh. Oh-ho. Archer, I think I have a plan. Make sure that Saber and Rider both come after you, okay? I need you to keep them off my back for a bit!" She said, running for the stairs.

Archer considered the situation and what she was most likely planning... and smiled wickedly. "Clever girl."

Well then, it was time to be a distraction then. Casting aside his rain of weak arrows, he centered his will into a greater projection. A jagged, black blade appeared in his hands, and he drew back the bowstring.

"Hrunting." He said under his breath.

The blade was solid black, a twisted, serrated, jagged piece of work. But while it might be ugly, it served Archer's purpose as a missile better than nearly any sword imaginable. Lacking the raw destructive power of Caladbolg as artillery, Hrunting, one of the Noble Phantasms of the hero Beowulf, instead possessed a certain quality that made it an ideal tool for sniping. As Saber would soon be learning...

He took aim at the silver knight, Broke the Phantasm, and fired. As the arrow flew, it took on red highlights, swiftly becoming a brilliant red bullet that lit up the sky as it streaked towards Saber. With contemptuous ease, she simply leapt over the blast and continued her charge... only to have her eyes widen in shock at the realization that the arrow had shifted its course to follow her jump. Archer couldn't help but admire her grace as she twisted in midair, slamming her invisible sword into the streak of red that ignored all rules of inertia to change its direction in flight. The red streak shattered upon connecting with Saber's peerless sword, finally halting its flight permanently, but the immense energy released still sent her flying to slam painfully into the side of nearby apartment building. Those tenants would be having an amusing morning...

Archer smiled, and projected another copy of the black sword. Hrunting's value as a weapon was that once it chose a target, it would not stop until it hit or it was destroyed, so long as the swordsman kept his aim on that chosen target. For a swordsman in melee, this had some value; Beowulf had found it quite nice for killing slippery, water-dwelling monsters. For an archer using the sword as a projectile, an arrow that would ceaselessly pursue the target of his choice, changing directions in midair and drilling through obstacles... the applications were far, far more interesting.

Saber blocked that one a bit too easily; let's try refining the projection a bit more. Trace, on. Analyzing basic composition, reconfiguring elements to enhance aerodynamics and piercing capabilities. Increasing mana infusion by 20%. He thought, the blade taking on a violent red aura with the strengthening magic. He adjusted his aim to take in the brief flash of violet that marked Rider's passing through a spot of light and released the arrow. If she thought she could evade his eyes by sticking to the shadows, she was about to be unpleasantly surprised.

Rider tried a different tactic than the one she'd seen Saber fail at, accelerating past the arrow and dodging to the side more quickly than it could adjust. She was not amused to discover it turning to follow her, nor happy to find that it was extremely fast. It would catch her rather quickly, unless...

Rider did not smile as the idea struck her, but only because she was by nature a rather stoic woman.

She veered sharply, weaving in and out of multiple alleys with the arrow on her tail until she found what she was looking for: Saber, only just having climbed out of the impact crater she'd made. Rider charged her as she oriented herself, and Saber instantly dropped into a defensive stance. She was caught slightly off-guard, then, when Rider did not attack her but jumped over her, so closely Saber could feel the other woman's body graze her hair.

Her attention was then caught more strongly by the red bullet following in Rider's footsteps and preparing to go through her in order to get there. She brought her sword into the path of the arrow, Invisible Air screaming as the red bolt collided with the raging wind, the conflicting energies kicking up a small hurricane. This arrow was stronger than the last... she could feel the asphalt beneath her boots cracking from the pressure.

But she was not in the air, this time. And with her feet planted and her blade held firmly, she was a different foe altogether. Pouring mana into her arms and her sword, with a cry of exertion she swung her blade with all her might. For just a second, her wind scabbard parted to reveal the golden blade beneath, and the greatest of holy swords sliced the offending projectile in half. The pieces of the shattered black sword struck the street on either side of the knight with enough force to pierce into it until they totally disappeared from view. The force of the blast did little more than ruffle her hair and dress, her blade and mana absorbed the blast so thoroughly.

She turned to rebuke Rider for using her as a human shield, only to find that the black Servant was already long gone.

Archer stepped back from the edge of the building, his bow disappearing to be replaced by the twin swords Kanshou and Bakuya. The extra charge he'd given to that second arrow meant it would take him at least twenty seconds to bring up another of that caliber, and he didn't have that much-

Rider leapt up over the edge of the building, having crossed the remaining distance and scaled the structure before those twenty seconds were up. Apparently she was even quicker when she could just sprint in a straight line without dodging, and she'd correctly deduced that the increased power of the second shot had come at a price. Still, her Master was Shinji, which had to hold her back a good margin. If it had been one-on-one, he was absolutely certain he could defeat her despite her talents as a Servant.

The problem was, Saber was also on her way, and two Servants was a tall order if he wanted to actually have some prayer of winning. In particular, going into melee with Saber was just asking for death unless she was the only thing he had to worry about; she'd cut him to pieces if he also had to deal with keeping Rider's spikes out of his neck. So he needed to at least immobilize Rider before Saber arrived, and that was difficult since he probably had less than a minute.

Leaping backwards to avoid the chain spike that impaled itself in the roof where he had been standing, Archer landed in a crouch, dug his blades into the roof, and spun in a quick circle. His cape whirling around him, he fell through onto the top floor of the empty office building, throwing Kanshou up through the newly created hole before he even landed. Rider dove for the opening, only to pull back abruptly as the black blade came whirling out of it.

A transparent ploy to buy a few seconds, she thought. He didn't want to engage her in melee, apparently; appropriate for an Archer. She dove down through the hole, to see something strange... the other sword, the white one, was planted in the floor at the bottom of the hole she'd dropped into.

She heard something cutting the air behind her. The black sword was coming back, far more quickly than gravity should have allowed, being pulled toward the white...!

She snapped her chain into a nearby wall, using it to pull herself out of her descent and away from the area between the two blades before she was sliced in half. She caught a glimpse of Archer, smiling, with an arrow knocked, but he wouldn't hit her by aiming where he was, she was too quick for...

Oh no. He knew he wasn't going to hit her, didn't he?

Archer hurled another pair of Kanshou and Bakuya, this set Broken, to collide with the flying black sword in midair... and explode very, very close to Rider.

He decided with not-inconsiderable satisfaction that blasting her out the window of a thirty-story building was a decent way to immobilize her for a few minutes. It probably wouldn't kill her, since the final impact at the bottom was mundane, of little value against a Servant, but she would not be going anywhere for a bit.

His satisfaction was dampened as Saber leapt in through the window shattered by Rider's fall, the wind howling as she crossed the space to him in less than a second and took a nasty chunk out of his chest as his dodge was not quite fast enough. Fighting to maintain his footing and composure, he brought new copies of his favored swords into existence and parried her second blow, feeling the shock up his arms from her power and the strength of her sword. Amazing as ever... these weapons really are no match...

Oddly enough, when he jumped back and over an overturned desk to get some space, she did not follow, merely kept him within dashing distance so he could not begin using projectiles again. She looked... cautious?

"Where..." She asked in a worried tone, "... is Rin?"

Archer smiled. "You missed her? She was headed right past you, I believe."

Saber's eyes widened. "Shirou...!"

"Good plan, no? I was actually somewhat proud when Rin came up with it. Why bother with you when your Master is such an easy target, right? She'll probably do something fluffy like try to make him give up his Command Seals before she turns to violence, but at least she spotted a sensible path to victory and took it. She's growing, don't you think? And when she has to kill those two because they won't give in, she'll grow even more." Archer said calmly. "She's not ruthless enough, not willing to make all the necessary sacrifices. Even if you have to kill one, dozen, a hundred people to win this war, isn't that better than letting people like Shinji Matou and his blood-drinker get their hands on a power like the Holy Grail? Maybe seeing real combat and bloodying her hands a bit will drive that point home."

"Archer, you...!" Saber said, bristling both at the threat to her Master and at his frank admission of his satisfaction at the thought of the honestly likable girl she'd met the previous night turning into a coldhearted killer. She fully intended to defeat Rin for the Holy Grail, but she had wanted it to be a fair and genuine contest in deference to the girl's pleasant personality. Now...

"Don't waste your venom on me. Whatever my thoughts on her development, it's still a solid tactic to focus on the Master first. Shirou Emiya and Shinji Matou are no match for a genuine Magus like Rin. And if you try to go stop her, you can know for a fact that I'll shoot you in the back at the first opportunity." Archer said calmly. "So now that you finally understand what's going on, tell me, Saber... you can probably defeat me, but do you think you can do it before Rin finishes your worthless Master off?"

-------------------------------

Shirou and Shinji sat in awkward silence.

"So... you're a Master?" Shirou asked.

"... don't talk to me." Shinji said. His head still hurt. A lot.

Shirou fell silent. Honestly, he'd just found out his friend, who he would have called 'an okay guy with some rough spots' yesterday at this time, was going around feeding people to his summoned monster.

... What do I do if she dies? Or if there have been other victims? He wondered. If she was the first, and she survives, I could maybe still redeem Shinji. Let him off with just being removed from this War. But if she dies, or if she wasn't the first, if he's... if he's a murderer...

What should he do? Shinji couldn't be prosecuted by human law for crimes committed by a Servant. Should he... should he just kill Shinji? Just... just grab a rock or something and bash his head in? Order Saber to cut him down where he stood? Eye for an eye justice?

A hero stops the villain, doesn't he? He was standing over that woman and watching her die like it was funny, does he deserve mercy? Shirou asked silently. God, he's Shinji, I've known him for years, he's Sakura's brother! I can't just kill him, but I can't just let him go either...!


And then something slammed into the ground next to the tree, invisible but with a pressure he could still feel somehow. He silently thanked whatever it was for giving him a problem he could understand more easily.

"I know where you are, boys. Come out, surrender peacefully, and you can both leave with nothing but the Command Seals ripped out of your nerves. Losing use of an arm is pretty merciful compared to what some Masters would do to you." Rin Tohsaka's voice commanded. "Don't play nice, and the next shot punches that tree in half."

Shinji's eyes widened in panic. "Wh-where did she... damn! I'm calling Rider, we need to..."

"No! I don't think either of our Servants should fight Archer alone!" Shirou said.

"Who cares about them? They're supposed to die anyway, I just want to get out of here alive!" Shinji countered.

Shirou stared at him for several seconds. "All right, I have a plan. That spell was called 'Gandr'. I learned about it from my father... it causes a virus in the target for a few days. It won't kill you."

"... it won't kill me?"

"Yeah. Because I'm using you as a shield until I can find some kind of weapon." Shirou said.

"What?"

"I can only do reinforcement magic. So unless I can find a... a stick, or something to use as a weapon, I can't beat her. So I need a shield to block at least her first shot until I can find one."

"So? You can't use me!" Rider! Rider get your ass back here right n-

"You have a weapon in your chest pocket, right? You can maybe hold her off for a few seconds." Shirou said reassuringly. "I'll help as soon as I can, and she won't kill you, I know her."

"She's a Master! Of course she'll kill m-" Shinji began. He didn't finish because Shirou picked that moment to grab him by the shirt-front, spin him around the tree, and physically chuck him at Rin.

He then, you know, went off to find a stick or something to use as a weapon.

-------------------------------

Saber was becoming frustrated.

No matter how her invisible blade moved, Archer seemed to know precisely what weak point she was aiming at and just barely manage a defense. And he didn't allow her to retreat, either, despite the fact that his Archer class should be trying to get to higher ground for sniping purposes. Whatever else could be said about him, two things were obvious. First, he was a highly skilled and intelligent opponent to keep up with her blade, even as weakened as she was by Shirou's inability to supply her with power.

Second... he knew.

He knew who she was! There was simply no other explanation. He knew the precise size and shape of her sword, or he couldn't have defended so perfectly. And while that could be explained away by saying that he could see through illusions or had analyzed Invisible Air in her fight with Rider, he was also staying close to her. He knew that with them so near the rooftops, he shouldn't get too far away from her or she would be able to use her Noble Phantasm without fear of hitting innocent bystanders. Somehow, he knew who she was.

Saber stopped her attack, her sword held cautiously at her side. "You... I don't know you, so how...?"

Archer smirked, holding Kanshou slightly behind and below Bakuya in a defensive posture that should allow him to get at least one sword into the path of any attack. "Maybe I was in your army, your majesty. Do you remember every knight under your command?"

"Of course not, no king can know every soldier in their army. But a warrior of your caliber would have had an honored seat at my table, and since you did not, I can say that I did not know you in my life." She said frankly.

"HA! Well, I guess it's a shame I wasn't born in your kingdom, then... some recognition would have been nice." Archer said, his smirk remaining firmly in place. "On the other hand, considering how your kingdom ended up..."

Her next attack slashed completely through Kanshou and halfway through Bakuya before his guard managed to stop it. He saw the promise of death in her pretty eyes. He pulled back, inviting her to continue her lunge, and she obliged, once again with a vicious two-handed chop that ruined another pair of newly-projected swords.

Razor-sharp... lightning fast... he thought, fighting to keep his expression worried so that she wouldn't comprehend what he was really trying to do. ... and blessedly predictable.

A part of him felt bad, honestly. He knew how sensitive she was about the subject of her kingdom, and knew that anger would dull her reactions, make her strokes more obvious. And stronger, granted, but he could get new swords easily enough. Better to project a new weapon with each exchange than deal with Saber at her best. She was stronger than him, had a better weapon, and was a more talented natural swordswoman; his hope for victory lie in making her fight with emotion and cloud her instincts so she was easy to read and he knew exactly where those powerful blows would land.

The sword dance continued like that, shards of metal from shattered sword after shattered sword being hurled through the building only to vanish as old projections ended and new began. Saber's anger made her attacks lack the finesse they should have had, and her wild swings would eventually leave...

There. An opening. Her next step forward would take her onto uneven ground, a piece of rubble that would throw off her footing and make her already in-progress swing lose its killing edge. He would hook her unbalanced sword on Kanshou, letting him hold her just enough to give him the second he needed to flick Bakuya into her throat. It wouldn't take her head off, so she wouldn't die, but not even Saber could just keep fighting with her neck slashed open. He could finish her off at will.

She lunged, exactly as planned. Tripped, exactly as planned. He caught the sword, prepared to make the tiny flick of his wrist needed to end the fight...

She snapped one hand off her sword and in front of her face. She winced in pain as his blade slashed through armor and into flesh, but not so much pain that she wasn't able to disengage her sword and leap backward, eyes wide.

"Damn... I thought I had you for a moment there." Archer said. "Should have known you weren't as angry as I thought you were. Still, I came close, and one of your arms isn't such a bad consolation prize."

"Archer..." Saber said, her eyes still wide with shock and fear as she looked around the shadows, searching for something. "Where is Rider?"

Archer considered this for a moment. He was certain he hadn't killed her, just wounded. And he'd been so caught up in the duel that he hadn't even considered that Rider hadn't made any sort of a reappearance, despite the fact that she would have had a considerable advantage in this darkness...

"Damn!" He said, breaking into a sprint and preparing to leap out the window to get to the park more quickly, Saber following on his heels.

Dammit, Rin, this is what Command Seals are for! He screamed mentally. Call me, call me, call me!

-------------------------------

Rin's eyes widened in surprise as something warm and soft slammed into her midsection. The wind knocked out of her, she, elegantly and with the dignity appropriate the Tohsaka heir, fell on her ass.

She looked down in confusion to see what, exactly, had come whipping around the tree at that unusual speed, and saw Shinji Matou's familiar blue mop. He had his face buried in her stomach, and he had reflexively grabbed onto her legs.

So she, elegantly and with the dignity appropriate the Tohsaka heir, said, "Who the Hell do you think you're touching?!" And punched him in the side of the head as hard as she could.

That was a mistake. Bone on bone hurt her hand as much as his head.

"Ow... ow... ow..." Shinji said, raising his head. Rin's eyes widened slightly at the look on his face. He didn't seem 'angry' so much as... inhuman. "I... am so sick... of you people treating me like your punching bag!"

She leveled her palm in his direction, the Tohsaka Magic Crest gleaming upon her forearm. "Then you shouldn't be so good at getting hit. Surrender, or..."

He threw his hand inside his shirt, extended his other, and something dark, cold, and sharp roared towards her.

Fortunately, Rin Tohsaka was actually pretty good at this. Her physical training was flawless, and her instincts were sound. She might not have been very experienced, but experience was the only thing she was lacking, and dodging such a simplistic magic as this blade of darkness was no problem. Still, she could admit to a certain amount of surprise that Shinji was capable of even that much.

"Not bad, Matou." She said. "A Servant, some low-grade battle spells... considering you're not even a Magus, you've put together a passable defensive package. I wouldn't say I'm impressed, but at least I'm... amused."

Shinji stood facing her, a small book clenched in his hands. "See if you're still amused in a second, bitch." He spat, his face contorted in frankly unsettling fury. She'd known Matou was a weasel, but she was suspecting now that he was legitimately unstable. And the book...

Rin was an excellent Magus. She knew a magic like that by sight. Ah. Ah-ha. So that's how a no-count like this managed to take control of Rider. She put on her best smirk. "Shinji, Shinji, Shinji. I know your family tree is a bit withered, but depending on charity? Did grandpa decide he couldn't be bothered to get up this week, but wanted into the War anyway?"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Shinji growled, more of the same blades of darkness slicing through the night air towards her. She did not even bother to dodge, merely held her Magic Crest in front of her and willed a counter blast. The blades were shredded by her own spell, hurling Shinji to his knees once again. She hoped he enjoyed the pain to go on top of his new virus, she'd put in the extra effort for a physical blow. "Do you really think your bargain-bin sorcery and stolen mana can handle a real magus, Shinji?"

He smiled horribly and wiped blood from his nose, his skin already looking pale. "Not really. Bet she can, though." He hissed.

Rin never even saw Rider hit her. One moment she was in control of the situation, the next she was pinned to the ground with her Crest arm twisted painfully behind her... and a soft hand pushing her hair away from her neck.

"What have we here?" Rider purred. "Lunch?"

Eyes wide in horror, Rin tried to pour mana into her crest, simply make a burst to blast the Servant away... and cried out as Rider twisted the arm harder. She heard tendons pop.

"There, there. It will only hurt for a second, and then it feels rather good." Rider chided her, leaning towards her bared neck.

She made it about halfway there before something heavy and blunt smashed into the back of her skull. It didn't really hurt, but it was enough to be a nuisance, so she slammed the captive Mage's head into the dirt once to dizzy her and leapt into a defensive stance. The Servant nearly laughed out loud at the sight of the red-haired boy, brandishing a stick with a frankly pitiful aura of magic about it as though it were a sword.

"E... Emiya...?" The dazed Magus said. Her head was heavy and her arm hurt like Hell, but she thought she could focus enough to see...

"Emiya, whose side are you on?! She was going to kill us both! I'm just returning the favor!" Shinji protested.

"She wasn't. And even if she were, I wouldn't let you just feed her to that thing! She's a person, not food!" Shirou said firmly.

Rider sighed in annoyance. "Master, I had a head start, but their Servants will be here shortly..."

Shinji smiled in triumph. "Well... it seems like I'm saying this more and more often these days. Kill them both, Rider."

-------------------------------

Ilya was no longer divided.

Rin had not been intending to kill onii-chan, so she had not intervened. The girl might talk big, but unlike Ilya, who had no problem with death unless it happened to someone she actually liked, Rin was squeamish. She didn't truly want to kill even the slimy Makiri thing, though the world would certainly be a lot less sleazy without him. She had just meant to take the boy's Servant, and Ilya could not care less about Saber.

But now, because Rin had not simply blown the Makiri Master's head off when she had the chance, his Servant was back. The two Masters might be able to hold Rider off for a time, as weakened as she was by her worthless Master, but the Servant would win in the end. Saber and Archer would not be there in time.

But she was closer, and she had someone faster...

She didn't know much about the boy, but she had come to one decision, after all of her thinking. Whatever else he was, he was hers. She had come to Japan solely for him, that much had not changed just because she was no longer certain what she wanted to do once she had him.

If he died, it would be when she wished him to die.

If she decided she did not wish for such a thing, then he would not die.

And until she made up her mind, nobody was allowed to harm a single hair on his head, because he. Belonged. To her! Not to Makiri, not to Tohsaka, and not even to Einzbern; he was Ilya's. Her own. And nobody took something that belonged to her.

"Go, Berserker."

And the black giant roared, free to enter the battle at last.

Spoiler for Author's Note::

Hmmm... well, I don't actually have anything to say, really. Need to work on some other stories, so it might be longer before the next update. Beyond that, as usual point out any genuine errors you spot, and hope you enjoy the chapter!

[GDB]

Originally Posted by Moczo

Spoiler for Chaos Theory, Chapter Four:

Archer smiled, and projected another copy of the black sword. Hrunting's value as a weapon was that once it chose a target, it would not stop until it hit or it was destroyed, so long as the swordsman kept his aim on that chosen target. For a swordsman in melee, this had some value; Beowulf had found it quite nice for killing slippery, water-dwelling monsters.

Actually:

Spoiler for Hrunting / Beowulf:

Beowulf never killed anyone with Hrunting. He used it to fight Grendal's Mother, but it didn't do a damned thing to her, so he threw it away.

Other than that, I enjoyed it. Definitely nice seeing some battle prowess from Archer against someone other than Caster.

[Tiresias]

Originally Posted by Moczo

[...]

Very,very nice. Reading Archer's thought process as he modifies his weapon was a nice treat .

Hmm, about Hrunting, maybe he could just use a depowered Gae Bolg instead?

So I guess no new chapter for a while. Back to Infinity ? Or maybe Sette ?

[Moczo]

Originally Posted by GDB

Actually:

Spoiler for Hrunting / Beowulf:

Beowulf never killed anyone with Hrunting. He used it to fight Grendal's Mother, but it didn't do a damned thing to her, so he threw it away.

Other than that, I enjoyed it. Definitely nice seeing some battle prowess from Archer against someone other than Caster.

Originally Posted by Tiresias

Very,very nice. Reading Archer's thought process as he modifies his weapon was a nice treat .

Hmm, about Hrunting, maybe he could just use a depowered Gae Bolg instead?

All I have to say is: Hrunting was not chosen at random.

So I guess no new chapter for a while. Back to Infinity ? Or maybe Sette ?

Definitely the former, since I have a chapter about, oh, 3/4 complete as we speak, and really need to sit down and finish it. Probably the latter too just since it has been awhile.


Posted the chapter to ff.net.

[RadiantBeam]

Originally Posted by Moczo

Spoiler for Chaos Theory, Chapter Four:

Chapter Four: Opening Salvo

Shirou didn't know how he knew.

One moment Saber was on the verge of an easy win and they were one step closer to saving that woman, the next his blood ran cold in his veins and the world seemed to fall into slow motion. He could see it.

The sword, glittering in the moonlight. The red knight, smiling coldly as he prepared to fire. He knew there was no way he could be able to see this, see Archer taking aim from so far away, but he could as plain as day. He heard something, yet didn't hear it at the same time, and knew that whatever it was he'd... heard? Not heard? He didn't even know his own thoughts anymore... he knew that whatever it was, it was dangerous. Very, very dangerous.

I... ... ... my sword...

It sounded like gibberish, and yet for some reason...

"Saber!" he shouted. "Get back!"

Saber didn't know what had Shirou so worried, but her Master sounded openly terrified and he had been rather good at maintaining his cool until now, so she decided ignoring him was not wise. Shifting the angle of what had been meant to be her killing stroke, she forced mana into her legs, and instead smashed her sword into the portion of Rider's weapon that the other Servant was still holding, using her entire body to push herself backwards as hard as she could. If there was something dangerous approaching her current, position, then she needed to not only move but get Shirou out of the way quickly. The violet-haired Servant, recognizing that something was wrong, followed suit, retreating towards Shinji and grabbing him at a greater speed than Saber herself could manage. Still, they both managed to scoop up their respective Masters and begin dragging them away from the central battlefield, and...

They very nearly made all the way out of the blast radius before Archer's attack detonated.

-------------------------------

Ilya breathed a sigh of relief. As she looked at the blast through the eyes of a nearby tree. He was alive, his Servant having gotten him mostly to safety and absorbing what damage she couldn't avoid.

Er... not that she cared, really. She'd probably kill him herself! It was just that... well... she didn't want to do it yet. She was curious, that was all. He hadn't been anything like what she expected, and so she didn't want to kill him until she found out why that was.

Ilya was, to put it mildly, a naive girl. She believed people when they spoke to her; all people, really. She simply took it as fact that nobody would say anything that wasn't the truth, because it was just common sense to only say things that were true. If it wasn't true, why say it? That was why Kiritsugu had hurt her so deeply... when he'd told her that he would come back to her, she had believed, totally and without the slightest reservation. And then he hadn't come back. Grandpapa had told her why; he had found another child, one he cared for more than her. He had abandoned her because he was coldhearted and evil, and he had realized that the Einzbern family would not allow him to corrupt Ilya after his betrayal in the Fourth Grail War, so he had simply left her behind like trash so he could mold some other child into his twisted image. And she had believed that too, because Kiritsugu... papa... wasn't there. If he were a good person, if he loved her, wouldn't he have been there?

Now, though, she was starting to wonder. She knew that someone involved in the Kiritsugu situation had deceived her, but she was starting to wonder who, exactly, it was. The boy had smiled at her even when she wasn't doing anything at all, and his eyes were warm and gentle. Papa's eyes had been like that sometimes; mostly they looked empty, or sad, but sometimes they'd been gentle when he played with her, or when he looked at mama. It made her feel warm inside, and did not really match what her family had told her about him... about either of them.

Grandpapa only smiled when he spoke of the Holy Grail, and his eyes were like the pictures she'd seen of sharks. When he spoke to her, it was to instruct her in her training or to preach the philosophy of the Einzbern family. He was cold, as cold as the forests around the old castle. Even in the summer the chill hung in the air...

She hadn't known the boy long, but the more she learned of the outside world, the more she was getting the impression that even if he was evil, he was probably still less evil than Grandpapa.

It required further observation. So she wouldn't kill him, and she wouldn't let him die. Not until she knew for sure what he was truly like. The truth was very, very important to Ilyasviel; she always told it, and she expected everyone else to do the same. If she found out that Kiritsugu had been the one telling the truth, and that Grandpapa had been lying to her, she would be very cross indeed.

But now this. She had wanted to follow him, observe him, maybe even talk to him if she could work up the courage. And when he'd gone into battle, she had held back despite the overwhelming urge to involve herself because she didn't want him to know she was a Master, not yet. Masters fought Masters, always. To really know what he was like, she needed to see how he reacted to her, not the Master of Berserker. She would never get to know him if he was on guard against her (And no, that wasn't lying to him! She wasn't going to tell him she wasn't a Master! She just... wouldn't bring the subject up! That might have been cheating a little, but it was still okay, she was pretty sure!). Fortunately, even an idiot could tell that Saber would defeat Rider; Rider's Master was possibly the lowliest, most pathetic human being she had ever seen, a perfect example of how thoroughly the Makiri had rotted over the years.

Kiritsugu's boy was, from what she had seen, adorably helpless. A kitten without his Servant. The mischievous part of her had been fighting the urge for some time to sneak up and halt his motor functions with her magic, just to tease him a bit and giggle at how cute and hopeless he was. But even someone as weak as he was could deal with that slime so long as Saber was by his side.

Then Rin Tohsaka had to stick her big nose into Ilya's business, and her Archer was very, very strange, and Ilya was starting to get worried that someone might kill her boy before she decided if she wanted to kill him herself or not...

-------------------------------

His ears ringing, Shirou blinked a few times to clear his vision. Even with her armor, she didn't weigh all that much, but he was feeling awfully sore and Saber on top of him wasn't helping. He still felt a jab of relief when she opened her eyes to gaze into his, however.

"Are you all right?" The Master and Servant asked in unison.

"... you were between me and the blast." Shirou said.

"... I'm harder to hurt than you, and my armor took most of the shrapnel. What happened?" She asked, Rider largely forgotten.

"I... Archer. Tohsaka's Archer just tried to... he attacked us. I think he was firing from that building, over..." he said, scanning the skyline, "There. The office building... the only one in that row of buildings that doesn't have any lights on in any of the windows. Must have chosen it because it was vacant..."

Saber stood and helped her Master to his feet. "How did you know which building they are-" Before she finished the sentence, she suddenly spun in place, the wind howling as her sword snapped through the air to smash aside an incoming silver flash, then another, then another...

Shirou watched in awe. The arrows... and they were arrows, he could see when they hit the ground after she intercepted them... were moving like bullets, visible only because of their size and the way they reflected the streetlights. And yet Saber was deflecting them like they were nothing. And he could see... yes, amid the silver flashes on the other side of the park, a shadow was weaving as Rider dodged among the arrows, her speed not visibly affected by the fact that she had slung a clearly uncomfortable Shinji over her shoulder. And the arrows themselves were reason to be impressed, descending like a silver monsoon, far too fast and far too numerous to be the work of anything but a machine gun, yet they were arrows...

He wondered if he would ever stop being awed by Servants, he really did.

"I believe you were correct when you stated we were under attack by Archer, Master." Saber said conversationally as she batted aside another arrow. "At least, I don't believe any of the other Servants could manage a projectile attack of this caliber. Fortunately, projectile weaponry is largely useless against me if I can see the path of the missile. Still, another shot on the level of that first attack would be best avoided, so I should hunt him down."

"Er... yeah." Shirou said, trying to get his amazement back under control. "He's on the building I pointed out to you... I don't know, I just sort of saw him there. Don't ask me how."

And that smile... like he was looking me right in the eye from a mile away and laughing at the thought of my death. Shirou thought. Tohsaka... what kind of Servant did you call?

And are you there with him, looking over his shoulder while he tries to kill me?

"As you command." Saber said, spinning her sword in a wide arc to repel more of the incoming projectiles. "I shall not ask, although I am curious."

"Er, no, you can ask, it's just that I don't know."

"Ah, very well." Saber said, nodding. "Master, it would perhaps be prudent for you to take cover while I deal with the enemy? Archer will not be able to kill you if he is trying to slow my advance. I believe that large tree near the bench in the northwest corner of the park should provide an acceptable shield. I will cover your retreat."

"What about Rider?" Shirou asked.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAH-" Shinji said as he went flying through the air into a tangle of bushes, Rider 'depositing' him into cover before vanishing into the darkened streets to pursue Archer.

"I believe that, for the moment, she is closer to an ally than an enemy." Saber said. "Now take cover!"

As Saber disappeared in a burst of wind, charging down the enemy and striking aside projectiles as if she were swatting flies, Shirou hid behind a tree.

This... this is not acceptable. He thought in supreme humiliation. I should be out there with her, but I can't even stand in the open without getting killed! This is just... what kind of a useless Master am I?

I need to get stronger. I can't be like this, I can't be like...

Gasping for air and brushing thorns off his clothes, Shinji Matou dove behind the tree next to him.

... like him, basically.

"Gah... that bitch! I'm her Master, and she throws me around like a piece of trash? She'd better kill whoever is out to get me, or I swear I'll..." He snapped to the night air in general, only to have his voice trail off when he recognized who was sitting next to him. He snarled a curse, reaching inside his shirt for something...

Shirou, then, taught him the problems with trying to reach for a weapon in a point-blank fight by simply grabbing Shinji's head and slamming it into the tree.

"Ow..." Shinji said, his eyes going distinctly unfocused. It was a good thing he had already been sitting down, because his knees went very weak.

"I would tell you to give up your Command Seals and bow out of the war, now that I know you're having your Servant eat people." Shirou said, glad to have encountered a problem he could deal with. "But Rider is helping Saber, so I don't want her to disappear right now. But Shinji... I can't forgive your actions here easily. You're going to sit here, and you're not going to talk, and since we're in a war zone I won't take whatever weapon you have in there but if you try to pull it on me again I will hit you until you stop moving. And once we're safe, you are out of this war and you will pay for your crimes."

Shinji gave him a somewhat fuzzy look of pure loathing. It seemed deeply wrong on the face of someone he had until moments ago still considered at least a friend, if not a close one. "H-how... how dare..."

"I was completely serious about beating you unconscious, Shinji."

Shinji stopped talking.

-------------------------------

Archer sighed in annoyance, continuing his bombardment out of pure spite. The kid had seen it coming. Presumably he had sensed the projection somehow... this close together, he supposed their magic might be interacting in unexpected ways. Well, he'd remember that and compensate in the future. In the meantime, Rider was flitting in and out of his vision and Saber was charging straight down his throat and deflecting everything he threw at her; just nameless blades remade as arrows, certainly no match for her holy sword, but the fact that she could discern and deflect all of them was something special. She really was as amazing as he remembered.

"They're on their way, Rin." He said, sending off another volley. "I can only slow them down like this. We will have company very soon."

"H... how do you fire so many?" Rin asked in a hushed tone, honestly confused. It was like he was not only moving more quickly than humanly possible, but also that many of the arrows were not even being fired from his bow, they were just appearing in the air in front of him...

"That's not what matters right now, Rin. What matters is that two Servants are converging on our position and I can't defeat them both if I have to protect you."

"Oh, of c... if you have to protect me?!" Rin snapped. "You can't defeat them both at all! Saber would have killed you if Emiya hadn't stopped her the first time we..."

"Rin! Focus, please!" Archer said sharply. "If I fight defensively, I can at least hold them both for some time. And they won't be fighting as a team, not really, which will make things easier. But if you're there, they'll force me to protect you and we'll both end up dead."

Rin nodded. "Right. I see. So you don't want me to... oh. Oh-ho. Archer, I think I have a plan. Make sure that Saber and Rider both come after you, okay? I need you to keep them off my back for a bit!" She said, running for the stairs.

Archer considered the situation and what she was most likely planning... and smiled wickedly. "Clever girl."

Well then, it was time to be a distraction then. Casting aside his rain of weak arrows, he centered his will into a greater projection. A jagged, black blade appeared in his hands, and he drew back the bowstring.

"Hrunting." He said under his breath.

The blade was solid black, a twisted, serrated, jagged piece of work. But while it might be ugly, it served Archer's purpose as a missile better than nearly any sword imaginable. Lacking the raw destructive power of Caladbolg as artillery, Hrunting, one of the Noble Phantasms of the hero Beowulf, instead possessed a certain quality that made it an ideal tool for sniping. As Saber would soon be learning...

He took aim at the silver knight, Broke the Phantasm, and fired. As the arrow flew, it took on red highlights, swiftly becoming a brilliant red bullet that lit up the sky as it streaked towards Saber. With contemptuous ease, she simply leapt over the blast and continued her charge... only to have her eyes widen in shock at the realization that the arrow had shifted its course to follow her jump. Archer couldn't help but admire her grace as she twisted in midair, slamming her invisible sword into the streak of red that ignored all rules of inertia to change its direction in flight. The red streak shattered upon connecting with Saber's peerless sword, finally halting its flight permanently, but the immense energy released still sent her flying to slam painfully into the side of nearby apartment building. Those tenants would be having an amusing morning...

Archer smiled, and projected another copy of the black sword. Hrunting's value as a weapon was that once it chose a target, it would not stop until it hit or it was destroyed, so long as the swordsman kept his aim on that chosen target. For a swordsman in melee, this had some value; Beowulf had found it quite nice for killing slippery, water-dwelling monsters. For an archer using the sword as a projectile, an arrow that would ceaselessly pursue the target of his choice, changing directions in midair and drilling through obstacles... the applications were far, far more interesting.

Saber blocked that one a bit too easily; let's try refining the projection a bit more. Trace, on. Analyzing basic composition, reconfiguring elements to enhance aerodynamics and piercing capabilities. Increasing mana infusion by 20%. He thought, the blade taking on a violent red aura with the strengthening magic. He adjusted his aim to take in the brief flash of violet that marked Rider's passing through a spot of light and released the arrow. If she thought she could evade his eyes by sticking to the shadows, she was about to be unpleasantly surprised.

Rider tried a different tactic than the one she'd seen Saber fail at, accelerating past the arrow and dodging to the side more quickly than it could adjust. She was not amused to discover it turning to follow her, nor happy to find that it was extremely fast. It would catch her rather quickly, unless...

Rider did not smile as the idea struck her, but only because she was by nature a rather stoic woman.

She veered sharply, weaving in and out of multiple alleys with the arrow on her tail until she found what she was looking for: Saber, only just having climbed out of the impact crater she'd made. Rider charged her as she oriented herself, and Saber instantly dropped into a defensive stance. She was caught slightly off-guard, then, when Rider did not attack her but jumped over her, so closely Saber could feel the other woman's body graze her hair.

Her attention was then caught more strongly by the red bullet following in Rider's footsteps and preparing to go through her in order to get there. She brought her sword into the path of the arrow, Invisible Air screaming as the red bolt collided with the raging wind, the conflicting energies kicking up a small hurricane. This arrow was stronger than the last... she could feel the asphalt beneath her boots cracking from the pressure.

But she was not in the air, this time. And with her feet planted and her blade held firmly, she was a different foe altogether. Pouring mana into her arms and her sword, with a cry of exertion she swung her blade with all her might. For just a second, her wind scabbard parted to reveal the golden blade beneath, and the greatest of holy swords sliced the offending projectile in half. The pieces of the shattered black sword struck the street on either side of the knight with enough force to pierce into it until they totally disappeared from view. The force of the blast did little more than ruffle her hair and dress, her blade and mana absorbed the blast so thoroughly.

She turned to rebuke Rider for using her as a human shield, only to find that the black Servant was already long gone.

Archer stepped back from the edge of the building, his bow disappearing to be replaced by the twin swords Kanshou and Bakuya. The extra charge he'd given to that second arrow meant it would take him at least twenty seconds to bring up another of that caliber, and he didn't have that much-

Rider leapt up over the edge of the building, having crossed the remaining distance and scaled the structure before those twenty seconds were up. Apparently she was even quicker when she could just sprint in a straight line without dodging, and she'd correctly deduced that the increased power of the second shot had come at a price. Still, her Master was Shinji, which had to hold her back a good margin. If it had been one-on-one, he was absolutely certain he could defeat her despite her talents as a Servant.

The problem was, Saber was also on her way, and two Servants was a tall order if he wanted to actually have some prayer of winning. In particular, going into melee with Saber was just asking for death unless she was the only thing he had to worry about; she'd cut him to pieces if he also had to deal with keeping Rider's spikes out of his neck. So he needed to at least immobilize Rider before Saber arrived, and that was difficult since he probably had less than a minute.

Leaping backwards to avoid the chain spike that impaled itself in the roof where he had been standing, Archer landed in a crouch, dug his blades into the roof, and spun in a quick circle. His cape whirling around him, he fell through onto the top floor of the empty office building, throwing Kanshou up through the newly created hole before he even landed. Rider dove for the opening, only to pull back abruptly as the black blade came whirling out of it.

A transparent ploy to buy a few seconds, she thought. He didn't want to engage her in melee, apparently; appropriate for an Archer. She dove down through the hole, to see something strange... the other sword, the white one, was planted in the floor at the bottom of the hole she'd dropped into.

She heard something cutting the air behind her. The black sword was coming back, far more quickly than gravity should have allowed, being pulled toward the white...!

She snapped her chain into a nearby wall, using it to pull herself out of her descent and away from the area between the two blades before she was sliced in half. She caught a glimpse of Archer, smiling, with an arrow knocked, but he wouldn't hit her by aiming where he was, she was too quick for...

Oh no. He knew he wasn't going to hit her, didn't he?

Archer hurled another pair of Kanshou and Bakuya, this set Broken, to collide with the flying black sword in midair... and explode very, very close to Rider.

He decided with not-inconsiderable satisfaction that blasting her out the window of a thirty-story building was a decent way to immobilize her for a few minutes. It probably wouldn't kill her, since the final impact at the bottom was mundane, of little value against a Servant, but she would not be going anywhere for a bit.

His satisfaction was dampened as Saber leapt in through the window shattered by Rider's fall, the wind howling as she crossed the space to him in less than a second and took a nasty chunk out of his chest as his dodge was not quite fast enough. Fighting to maintain his footing and composure, he brought new copies of his favored swords into existence and parried her second blow, feeling the shock up his arms from her power and the strength of her sword. Amazing as ever... these weapons really are no match...

Oddly enough, when he jumped back and over an overturned desk to get some space, she did not follow, merely kept him within dashing distance so he could not begin using projectiles again. She looked... cautious?

"Where..." She asked in a worried tone, "... is Rin?"

Archer smiled. "You missed her? She was headed right past you, I believe."

Saber's eyes widened. "Shirou...!"

"Good plan, no? I was actually somewhat proud when Rin came up with it. Why bother with you when your Master is such an easy target, right? She'll probably do something fluffy like try to make him give up his Command Seals before she turns to violence, but at least she spotted a sensible path to victory and took it. She's growing, don't you think? And when she has to kill those two because they won't give in, she'll grow even more." Archer said calmly. "She's not ruthless enough, not willing to make all the necessary sacrifices. Even if you have to kill one, dozen, a hundred people to win this war, isn't that better than letting people like Shinji Matou and his blood-drinker get their hands on a power like the Holy Grail? Maybe seeing real combat and bloodying her hands a bit will drive that point home."

"Archer, you...!" Saber said, bristling both at the threat to her Master and at his frank admission of his satisfaction at the thought of the honestly likable girl she'd met the previous night turning into a coldhearted killer. She fully intended to defeat Rin for the Holy Grail, but she had wanted it to be a fair and genuine contest in deference to the girl's pleasant personality. Now...

"Don't waste your venom on me. Whatever my thoughts on her development, it's still a solid tactic to focus on the Master first. Shirou Emiya and Shinji Matou are no match for a genuine Magus like Rin. And if you try to go stop her, you can know for a fact that I'll shoot you in the back at the first opportunity." Archer said calmly. "So now that you finally understand what's going on, tell me, Saber... you can probably defeat me, but do you think you can do it before Rin finishes your worthless Master off?"

-------------------------------

Shirou and Shinji sat in awkward silence.

"So... you're a Master?" Shirou asked.

"... don't talk to me." Shinji said. His head still hurt. A lot.

Shirou fell silent. Honestly, he'd just found out his friend, who he would have called 'an okay guy with some rough spots' yesterday at this time, was going around feeding people to his summoned monster.

... What do I do if she dies? Or if there have been other victims? He wondered. If she was the first, and she survives, I could maybe still redeem Shinji. Let him off with just being removed from this War. But if she dies, or if she wasn't the first, if he's... if he's a murderer...

What should he do? Shinji couldn't be prosecuted by human law for crimes committed by a Servant. Should he... should he just kill Shinji? Just... just grab a rock or something and bash his head in? Order Saber to cut him down where he stood? Eye for an eye justice?

A hero stops the villain, doesn't he? He was standing over that woman and watching her die like it was funny, does he deserve mercy? Shirou asked silently. God, he's Shinji, I've known him for years, he's Sakura's brother! I can't just kill him, but I can't just let him go either...!


And then something slammed into the ground next to the tree, invisible but with a pressure he could still feel somehow. He silently thanked whatever it was for giving him a problem he could understand more easily.

"I know where you are, boys. Come out, surrender peacefully, and you can both leave with nothing but the Command Seals ripped out of your nerves. Losing use of an arm is pretty merciful compared to what some Masters would do to you." Rin Tohsaka's voice commanded. "Don't play nice, and the next shot punches that tree in half."

Shinji's eyes widened in panic. "Wh-where did she... damn! I'm calling Rider, we need to..."

"No! I don't think either of our Servants should fight Archer alone!" Shirou said.

"Who cares about them? They're supposed to die anyway, I just want to get out of here alive!" Shinji countered.

Shirou stared at him for several seconds. "All right, I have a plan. That spell was called 'Gandr'. I learned about it from my father... it causes a virus in the target for a few days. It won't kill you."

"... it won't kill me?"

"Yeah. Because I'm using you as a shield until I can find some kind of weapon." Shirou said.

"What?"

"I can only do reinforcement magic. So unless I can find a... a stick, or something to use as a weapon, I can't beat her. So I need a shield to block at least her first shot until I can find one."

"So? You can't use me!" Rider! Rider get your ass back here right n-

"You have a weapon in your chest pocket, right? You can maybe hold her off for a few seconds." Shirou said reassuringly. "I'll help as soon as I can, and she won't kill you, I know her."

"She's a Master! Of course she'll kill m-" Shinji began. He didn't finish because Shirou picked that moment to grab him by the shirt-front, spin him around the tree, and physically chuck him at Rin.

He then, you know, went off to find a stick or something to use as a weapon.

-------------------------------

Saber was becoming frustrated.

No matter how her invisible blade moved, Archer seemed to know precisely what weak point she was aiming at and just barely manage a defense. And he didn't allow her to retreat, either, despite the fact that his Archer class should be trying to get to higher ground for sniping purposes. Whatever else could be said about him, two things were obvious. First, he was a highly skilled and intelligent opponent to keep up with her blade, even as weakened as she was by Shirou's inability to supply her with power.

Second... he knew.

He knew who she was! There was simply no other explanation. He knew the precise size and shape of her sword, or he couldn't have defended so perfectly. And while that could be explained away by saying that he could see through illusions or had analyzed Invisible Air in her fight with Rider, he was also staying close to her. He knew that with them so near the rooftops, he shouldn't get too far away from her or she would be able to use her Noble Phantasm without fear of hitting innocent bystanders. Somehow, he knew who she was.

Saber stopped her attack, her sword held cautiously at her side. "You... I don't know you, so how...?"

Archer smirked, holding Kanshou slightly behind and below Bakuya in a defensive posture that should allow him to get at least one sword into the path of any attack. "Maybe I was in your army, your majesty. Do you remember every knight under your command?"

"Of course not, no king can know every soldier in their army. But a warrior of your caliber would have had an honored seat at my table, and since you did not, I can say that I did not know you in my life." She said frankly.

"HA! Well, I guess it's a shame I wasn't born in your kingdom, then... some recognition would have been nice." Archer said, his smirk remaining firmly in place. "On the other hand, considering how your kingdom ended up..."

Her next attack slashed completely through Kanshou and halfway through Bakuya before his guard managed to stop it. He saw the promise of death in her pretty eyes. He pulled back, inviting her to continue her lunge, and she obliged, once again with a vicious two-handed chop that ruined another pair of newly-projected swords.

Razor-sharp... lightning fast... he thought, fighting to keep his expression worried so that she wouldn't comprehend what he was really trying to do. ... and blessedly predictable.

A part of him felt bad, honestly. He knew how sensitive she was about the subject of her kingdom, and knew that anger would dull her reactions, make her strokes more obvious. And stronger, granted, but he could get new swords easily enough. Better to project a new weapon with each exchange than deal with Saber at her best. She was stronger than him, had a better weapon, and was a more talented natural swordswoman; his hope for victory lie in making her fight with emotion and cloud her instincts so she was easy to read and he knew exactly where those powerful blows would land.

The sword dance continued like that, shards of metal from shattered sword after shattered sword being hurled through the building only to vanish as old projections ended and new began. Saber's anger made her attacks lack the finesse they should have had, and her wild swings would eventually leave...

There. An opening. Her next step forward would take her onto uneven ground, a piece of rubble that would throw off her footing and make her already in-progress swing lose its killing edge. He would hook her unbalanced sword on Kanshou, letting him hold her just enough to give him the second he needed to flick Bakuya into her throat. It wouldn't take her head off, so she wouldn't die, but not even Saber could just keep fighting with her neck slashed open. He could finish her off at will.

She lunged, exactly as planned. Tripped, exactly as planned. He caught the sword, prepared to make the tiny flick of his wrist needed to end the fight...

She snapped one hand off her sword and in front of her face. She winced in pain as his blade slashed through armor and into flesh, but not so much pain that she wasn't able to disengage her sword and leap backward, eyes wide.

"Damn... I thought I had you for a moment there." Archer said. "Should have known you weren't as angry as I thought you were. Still, I came close, and one of your arms isn't such a bad consolation prize."

"Archer..." Saber said, her eyes still wide with shock and fear as she looked around the shadows, searching for something. "Where is Rider?"

Archer considered this for a moment. He was certain he hadn't killed her, just wounded. And he'd been so caught up in the duel that he hadn't even considered that Rider hadn't made any sort of a reappearance, despite the fact that she would have had a considerable advantage in this darkness...

"Damn!" He said, breaking into a sprint and preparing to leap out the window to get to the park more quickly, Saber following on his heels.

Dammit, Rin, this is what Command Seals are for! He screamed mentally. Call me, call me, call me!

-------------------------------

Rin's eyes widened in surprise as something warm and soft slammed into her midsection. The wind knocked out of her, she, elegantly and with the dignity appropriate the Tohsaka heir, fell on her ass.

She looked down in confusion to see what, exactly, had come whipping around the tree at that unusual speed, and saw Shinji Matou's familiar blue mop. He had his face buried in her stomach, and he had reflexively grabbed onto her legs.

So she, elegantly and with the dignity appropriate the Tohsaka heir, said, "Who the Hell do you think you're touching?!" And punched him in the side of the head as hard as she could.

That was a mistake. Bone on bone hurt her hand as much as his head.

"Ow... ow... ow..." Shinji said, raising his head. Rin's eyes widened slightly at the look on his face. He didn't seem 'angry' so much as... inhuman. "I... am so sick... of you people treating me like your punching bag!"

She leveled her palm in his direction, the Tohsaka Magic Crest gleaming upon her forearm. "Then you shouldn't be so good at getting hit. Surrender, or..."

He threw his hand inside his shirt, extended his other, and something dark, cold, and sharp roared towards her.

Fortunately, Rin Tohsaka was actually pretty good at this. Her physical training was flawless, and her instincts were sound. She might not have been very experienced, but experience was the only thing she was lacking, and dodging such a simplistic magic as this blade of darkness was no problem. Still, she could admit to a certain amount of surprise that Shinji was capable of even that much.

"Not bad, Matou." She said. "A Servant, some low-grade battle spells... considering you're not even a Magus, you've put together a passable defensive package. I wouldn't say I'm impressed, but at least I'm... amused."

Shinji stood facing her, a small book clenched in his hands. "See if you're still amused in a second, bitch." He spat, his face contorted in frankly unsettling fury. She'd known Matou was a weasel, but she was suspecting now that he was legitimately unstable. And the book...

Rin was an excellent Magus. She knew a magic like that by sight. Ah. Ah-ha. So that's how a no-count like this managed to take control of Rider. She put on her best smirk. "Shinji, Shinji, Shinji. I know your family tree is a bit withered, but depending on charity? Did grandpa decide he couldn't be bothered to get up this week, but wanted into the War anyway?"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Shinji growled, more of the same blades of darkness slicing through the night air towards her. She did not even bother to dodge, merely held her Magic Crest in front of her and willed a counter blast. The blades were shredded by her own spell, hurling Shinji to his knees once again. She hoped he enjoyed the pain to go on top of his new virus, she'd put in the extra effort for a physical blow. "Do you really think your bargain-bin sorcery and stolen mana can handle a real magus, Shinji?"

He smiled horribly and wiped blood from his nose, his skin already looking pale. "Not really. Bet she can, though." He hissed.

Rin never even saw Rider hit her. One moment she was in control of the situation, the next she was pinned to the ground with her Crest arm twisted painfully behind her... and a soft hand pushing her hair away from her neck.

"What have we here?" Rider purred. "Lunch?"

Eyes wide in horror, Rin tried to pour mana into her crest, simply make a burst to blast the Servant away... and cried out as Rider twisted the arm harder. She heard tendons pop.

"There, there. It will only hurt for a second, and then it feels rather good." Rider chided her, leaning towards her bared neck.

She made it about halfway there before something heavy and blunt smashed into the back of her skull. It didn't really hurt, but it was enough to be a nuisance, so she slammed the captive Mage's head into the dirt once to dizzy her and leapt into a defensive stance. The Servant nearly laughed out loud at the sight of the red-haired boy, brandishing a stick with a frankly pitiful aura of magic about it as though it were a sword.

"E... Emiya...?" The dazed Magus said. Her head was heavy and her arm hurt like Hell, but she thought she could focus enough to see...

"Emiya, whose side are you on?! She was going to kill us both! I'm just returning the favor!" Shinji protested.

"She wasn't. And even if she were, I wouldn't let you just feed her to that thing! She's a person, not food!" Shirou said firmly.

Rider sighed in annoyance. "Master, I had a head start, but their Servants will be here shortly..."

Shinji smiled in triumph. "Well... it seems like I'm saying this more and more often these days. Kill them both, Rider."

-------------------------------

Ilya was no longer divided.

Rin had not been intending to kill onii-chan, so she had not intervened. The girl might talk big, but unlike Ilya, who no problem with death unless it happened to someone she actually liked, Rin was squeamish. She didn't truly want to kill even the slimy Makiri thing, though the world would certainly be a lot less sleazy without him. She had just meant to take the boy's Servant, and Ilya could not care less about Saber.

But now, because Rin had not simply blown the Makiri Master's head off when she had the chance, his Servant was back. The two Masters might be able to hold Rider off for a time, as weakened as she was by her worthless Master, but the Servant would win in the end. Saber and Archer would not be there in time.

But she was closer, and she had someone faster...

She didn't know much about the boy, but she had come to one decision, after all of her thinking. Whatever else he was, he was hers. She had come to Japan solely for him, that much had not changed just because she was no longer certain what she wanted to do once she had him.

If he died, it would be when she wished him to die.

If she decided she did not wish for such a thing, then he would not die.

And until she made up her mind, nobody was allowed to harm a single hair on his head, because he. Belonged. To her! Not to Makiri, not to Tohsaka, and not even to Einzbern; he was Ilya's. Her own. And nobody took something that belonged to her.

"Go, Berserker."

And the black giant roared, free to enter the battle at last.

Spoiler for Author's Note::

Hmmm... well, I don't actually have anything to say, really. Need to work on some other stories, so it might be longer before the next update. Beyond that, as usual point out any genuine errors you spot, and hope you enjoy the chapter!

I think "Oh, shit" sums this up very nicely. Especially since Ilya just let Berserker loose onto the battlefield. It seems she has no intention of killing Rin (and obviously, no intention of killing her boy), but I don't know if Shinji and Rider will be as lucky. Speaking of.... I took immense, hilarious pleasure out of seeing Shinji used as the universal punching bag. Even Rider got her hits in!

You know, if Shirou plays this right, he might still end up partnered to Rin yet. He pretty much saved her life a second time, and from a much more dangerous threat than his own Saber. She's going to feel like she owes him again, and so it continues....

A little thing, but it was a nice touch to see Archer feeling guilty for manipulating Saber. It still shows that deep down he's the same as when he was alive, even in spite of what's happened to him.

[GDB]

Originally Posted by Moczo

All I have to say is: Hrunting was not chosen at random.

Yeah, but that still doesn't fix that Beowulf never killed anyone with it.
Not sure why the typemoon wiki seems to think he did, but the story itself specifically says that he threw it away after it was ineffective against her.

[Moczo]

Originally Posted by GDB

Yeah, but that still doesn't fix that Beowulf never killed anyone with it.
Not sure why the typemoon wiki seems to think he did, but the story itself specifically says that he threw it away after it was ineffective against her.

*Shrug*.

Nasu is well known for playing fast and loose with the legends he uses. To the best of my knowledge, there is no version of Arthurian Myth where King Arthur slays the entire enemy army with one strike from her sword that shoots lasers.

[Haak]

Originally Posted by Moczo

Spoiler for Chaos Theory, Chapter Four:

Chapter Four: Opening Salvo

Shirou didn't know how he knew.

One moment Saber was on the verge of an easy win and they were one step closer to saving that woman, the next his blood ran cold in his veins and the world seemed to fall into slow motion. He could see it.

The sword, glittering in the moonlight. The red knight, smiling coldly as he prepared to fire. He knew there was no way he could be able to see this, see Archer taking aim from so far away, but he could as plain as day. He heard something, yet didn't hear it at the same time, and knew that whatever it was he'd... heard? Not heard? He didn't even know his own thoughts anymore... he knew that whatever it was, it was dangerous. Very, very dangerous.

I... ... ... my sword...

It sounded like gibberish, and yet for some reason...

"Saber!" he shouted. "Get back!"

Saber didn't know what had Shirou so worried, but her Master sounded openly terrified and he had been rather good at maintaining his cool until now, so she decided ignoring him was not wise. Shifting the angle of what had been meant to be her killing stroke, she forced mana into her legs, and instead smashed her sword into the portion of Rider's weapon that the other Servant was still holding, using her entire body to push herself backwards as hard as she could. If there was something dangerous approaching her current, position, then she needed to not only move but get Shirou out of the way quickly. The violet-haired Servant, recognizing that something was wrong, followed suit, retreating towards Shinji and grabbing him at a greater speed than Saber herself could manage. Still, they both managed to scoop up their respective Masters and begin dragging them away from the central battlefield, and...

They very nearly made all the way out of the blast radius before Archer's attack detonated.

-------------------------------

Ilya breathed a sigh of relief. As she looked at the blast through the eyes of a nearby tree. He was alive, his Servant having gotten him mostly to safety and absorbing what damage she couldn't avoid.

Er... not that she cared, really. She'd probably kill him herself! It was just that... well... she didn't want to do it yet. She was curious, that was all. He hadn't been anything like what she expected, and so she didn't want to kill him until she found out why that was.

Ilya was, to put it mildly, a naive girl. She believed people when they spoke to her; all people, really. She simply took it as fact that nobody would say anything that wasn't the truth, because it was just common sense to only say things that were true. If it wasn't true, why say it? That was why Kiritsugu had hurt her so deeply... when he'd told her that he would come back to her, she had believed, totally and without the slightest reservation. And then he hadn't come back. Grandpapa had told her why; he had found another child, one he cared for more than her. He had abandoned her because he was coldhearted and evil, and he had realized that the Einzbern family would not allow him to corrupt Ilya after his betrayal in the Fourth Grail War, so he had simply left her behind like trash so he could mold some other child into his twisted image. And she had believed that too, because Kiritsugu... papa... wasn't there. If he were a good person, if he loved her, wouldn't he have been there?

Now, though, she was starting to wonder. She knew that someone involved in the Kiritsugu situation had deceived her, but she was starting to wonder who, exactly, it was. The boy had smiled at her even when she wasn't doing anything at all, and his eyes were warm and gentle. Papa's eyes had been like that sometimes; mostly they looked empty, or sad, but sometimes they'd been gentle when he played with her, or when he looked at mama. It made her feel warm inside, and did not really match what her family had told her about him... about either of them.

Grandpapa only smiled when he spoke of the Holy Grail, and his eyes were like the pictures she'd seen of sharks. When he spoke to her, it was to instruct her in her training or to preach the philosophy of the Einzbern family. He was cold, as cold as the forests around the old castle. Even in the summer the chill hung in the air...

She hadn't known the boy long, but the more she learned of the outside world, the more she was getting the impression that even if he was evil, he was probably still less evil than Grandpapa.

It required further observation. So she wouldn't kill him, and she wouldn't let him die. Not until she knew for sure what he was truly like. The truth was very, very important to Ilyasviel; she always told it, and she expected everyone else to do the same. If she found out that Kiritsugu had been the one telling the truth, and that Grandpapa had been lying to her, she would be very cross indeed.

But now this. She had wanted to follow him, observe him, maybe even talk to him if she could work up the courage. And when he'd gone into battle, she had held back despite the overwhelming urge to involve herself because she didn't want him to know she was a Master, not yet. Masters fought Masters, always. To really know what he was like, she needed to see how he reacted to her, not the Master of Berserker. She would never get to know him if he was on guard against her (And no, that wasn't lying to him! She wasn't going to tell him she wasn't a Master! She just... wouldn't bring the subject up! That might have been cheating a little, but it was still okay, she was pretty sure!). Fortunately, even an idiot could tell that Saber would defeat Rider; Rider's Master was possibly the lowliest, most pathetic human being she had ever seen, a perfect example of how thoroughly the Makiri had rotted over the years.

Kiritsugu's boy was, from what she had seen, adorably helpless. A kitten without his Servant. The mischievous part of her had been fighting the urge for some time to sneak up and halt his motor functions with her magic, just to tease him a bit and giggle at how cute and hopeless he was. But even someone as weak as he was could deal with that slime so long as Saber was by his side.

Then Rin Tohsaka had to stick her big nose into Ilya's business, and her Archer was very, very strange, and Ilya was starting to get worried that someone might kill her boy before she decided if she wanted to kill him herself or not...

-------------------------------

His ears ringing, Shirou blinked a few times to clear his vision. Even with her armor, she didn't weigh all that much, but he was feeling awfully sore and Saber on top of him wasn't helping. He still felt a jab of relief when she opened her eyes to gaze into his, however.

"Are you all right?" The Master and Servant asked in unison.

"... you were between me and the blast." Shirou said.

"... I'm harder to hurt than you, and my armor took most of the shrapnel. What happened?" She asked, Rider largely forgotten.

"I... Archer. Tohsaka's Archer just tried to... he attacked us. I think he was firing from that building, over..." he said, scanning the skyline, "There. The office building... the only one in that row of buildings that doesn't have any lights on in any of the windows. Must have chosen it because it was vacant..."

Saber stood and helped her Master to his feet. "How did you know which building they are-" Before she finished the sentence, she suddenly spun in place, the wind howling as her sword snapped through the air to smash aside an incoming silver flash, then another, then another...

Shirou watched in awe. The arrows... and they were arrows, he could see when they hit the ground after she intercepted them... were moving like bullets, visible only because of their size and the way they reflected the streetlights. And yet Saber was deflecting them like they were nothing. And he could see... yes, amid the silver flashes on the other side of the park, a shadow was weaving as Rider dodged among the arrows, her speed not visibly affected by the fact that she had slung a clearly uncomfortable Shinji over her shoulder. And the arrows themselves were reason to be impressed, descending like a silver monsoon, far too fast and far too numerous to be the work of anything but a machine gun, yet they were arrows...

He wondered if he would ever stop being awed by Servants, he really did.

"I believe you were correct when you stated we were under attack by Archer, Master." Saber said conversationally as she batted aside another arrow. "At least, I don't believe any of the other Servants could manage a projectile attack of this caliber. Fortunately, projectile weaponry is largely useless against me if I can see the path of the missile. Still, another shot on the level of that first attack would be best avoided, so I should hunt him down."

"Er... yeah." Shirou said, trying to get his amazement back under control. "He's on the building I pointed out to you... I don't know, I just sort of saw him there. Don't ask me how."

And that smile... like he was looking me right in the eye from a mile away and laughing at the thought of my death. Shirou thought. Tohsaka... what kind of Servant did you call?

And are you there with him, looking over his shoulder while he tries to kill me?

"As you command." Saber said, spinning her sword in a wide arc to repel more of the incoming projectiles. "I shall not ask, although I am curious."

"Er, no, you can ask, it's just that I don't know."

"Ah, very well." Saber said, nodding. "Master, it would perhaps be prudent for you to take cover while I deal with the enemy? Archer will not be able to kill you if he is trying to slow my advance. I believe that large tree near the bench in the northwest corner of the park should provide an acceptable shield. I will cover your retreat."

"What about Rider?" Shirou asked.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAH-" Shinji said as he went flying through the air into a tangle of bushes, Rider 'depositing' him into cover before vanishing into the darkened streets to pursue Archer.

"I believe that, for the moment, she is closer to an ally than an enemy." Saber said. "Now take cover!"

As Saber disappeared in a burst of wind, charging down the enemy and striking aside projectiles as if she were swatting flies, Shirou hid behind a tree.

This... this is not acceptable. He thought in supreme humiliation. I should be out there with her, but I can't even stand in the open without getting killed! This is just... what kind of a useless Master am I?

I need to get stronger. I can't be like this, I can't be like...

Gasping for air and brushing thorns off his clothes, Shinji Matou dove behind the tree next to him.

... like him, basically.

"Gah... that bitch! I'm her Master, and she throws me around like a piece of trash? She'd better kill whoever is out to get me, or I swear I'll..." He snapped to the night air in general, only to have his voice trail off when he recognized who was sitting next to him. He snarled a curse, reaching inside his shirt for something...

Shirou, then, taught him the problems with trying to reach for a weapon in a point-blank fight by simply grabbing Shinji's head and slamming it into the tree.

"Ow..." Shinji said, his eyes going distinctly unfocused. It was a good thing he had already been sitting down, because his knees went very weak.

"I would tell you to give up your Command Seals and bow out of the war, now that I know you're having your Servant eat people." Shirou said, glad to have encountered a problem he could deal with. "But Rider is helping Saber, so I don't want her to disappear right now. But Shinji... I can't forgive your actions here easily. You're going to sit here, and you're not going to talk, and since we're in a war zone I won't take whatever weapon you have in there but if you try to pull it on me again I will hit you until you stop moving. And once we're safe, you are out of this war and you will pay for your crimes."

Shinji gave him a somewhat fuzzy look of pure loathing. It seemed deeply wrong on the face of someone he had until moments ago still considered at least a friend, if not a close one. "H-how... how dare..."

"I was completely serious about beating you unconscious, Shinji."

Shinji stopped talking.

-------------------------------

Archer sighed in annoyance, continuing his bombardment out of pure spite. The kid had seen it coming. Presumably he had sensed the projection somehow... this close together, he supposed their magic might be interacting in unexpected ways. Well, he'd remember that and compensate in the future. In the meantime, Rider was flitting in and out of his vision and Saber was charging straight down his throat and deflecting everything he threw at her; just nameless blades remade as arrows, certainly no match for her holy sword, but the fact that she could discern and deflect all of them was something special. She really was as amazing as he remembered.

"They're on their way, Rin." He said, sending off another volley. "I can only slow them down like this. We will have company very soon."

"H... how do you fire so many?" Rin asked in a hushed tone, honestly confused. It was like he was not only moving more quickly than humanly possible, but also that many of the arrows were not even being fired from his bow, they were just appearing in the air in front of him...

"That's not what matters right now, Rin. What matters is that two Servants are converging on our position and I can't defeat them both if I have to protect you."

"Oh, of c... if you have to protect me?!" Rin snapped. "You can't defeat them both at all! Saber would have killed you if Emiya hadn't stopped her the first time we..."

"Rin! Focus, please!" Archer said sharply. "If I fight defensively, I can at least hold them both for some time. And they won't be fighting as a team, not really, which will make things easier. But if you're there, they'll force me to protect you and we'll both end up dead."

Rin nodded. "Right. I see. So you don't want me to... oh. Oh-ho. Archer, I think I have a plan. Make sure that Saber and Rider both come after you, okay? I need you to keep them off my back for a bit!" She said, running for the stairs.

Archer considered the situation and what she was most likely planning... and smiled wickedly. "Clever girl."

Well then, it was time to be a distraction then. Casting aside his rain of weak arrows, he centered his will into a greater projection. A jagged, black blade appeared in his hands, and he drew back the bowstring.

"Hrunting." He said under his breath.

The blade was solid black, a twisted, serrated, jagged piece of work. But while it might be ugly, it served Archer's purpose as a missile better than nearly any sword imaginable. Lacking the raw destructive power of Caladbolg as artillery, Hrunting, one of the Noble Phantasms of the hero Beowulf, instead possessed a certain quality that made it an ideal tool for sniping. As Saber would soon be learning...

He took aim at the silver knight, Broke the Phantasm, and fired. As the arrow flew, it took on red highlights, swiftly becoming a brilliant red bullet that lit up the sky as it streaked towards Saber. With contemptuous ease, she simply leapt over the blast and continued her charge... only to have her eyes widen in shock at the realization that the arrow had shifted its course to follow her jump. Archer couldn't help but admire her grace as she twisted in midair, slamming her invisible sword into the streak of red that ignored all rules of inertia to change its direction in flight. The red streak shattered upon connecting with Saber's peerless sword, finally halting its flight permanently, but the immense energy released still sent her flying to slam painfully into the side of nearby apartment building. Those tenants would be having an amusing morning...

Archer smiled, and projected another copy of the black sword. Hrunting's value as a weapon was that once it chose a target, it would not stop until it hit or it was destroyed, so long as the swordsman kept his aim on that chosen target. For a swordsman in melee, this had some value; Beowulf had found it quite nice for killing slippery, water-dwelling monsters. For an archer using the sword as a projectile, an arrow that would ceaselessly pursue the target of his choice, changing directions in midair and drilling through obstacles... the applications were far, far more interesting.

Saber blocked that one a bit too easily; let's try refining the projection a bit more. Trace, on. Analyzing basic composition, reconfiguring elements to enhance aerodynamics and piercing capabilities. Increasing mana infusion by 20%. He thought, the blade taking on a violent red aura with the strengthening magic. He adjusted his aim to take in the brief flash of violet that marked Rider's passing through a spot of light and released the arrow. If she thought she could evade his eyes by sticking to the shadows, she was about to be unpleasantly surprised.

Rider tried a different tactic than the one she'd seen Saber fail at, accelerating past the arrow and dodging to the side more quickly than it could adjust. She was not amused to discover it turning to follow her, nor happy to find that it was extremely fast. It would catch her rather quickly, unless...

Rider did not smile as the idea struck her, but only because she was by nature a rather stoic woman.

She veered sharply, weaving in and out of multiple alleys with the arrow on her tail until she found what she was looking for: Saber, only just having climbed out of the impact crater she'd made. Rider charged her as she oriented herself, and Saber instantly dropped into a defensive stance. She was caught slightly off-guard, then, when Rider did not attack her but jumped over her, so closely Saber could feel the other woman's body graze her hair.

Her attention was then caught more strongly by the red bullet following in Rider's footsteps and preparing to go through her in order to get there. She brought her sword into the path of the arrow, Invisible Air screaming as the red bolt collided with the raging wind, the conflicting energies kicking up a small hurricane. This arrow was stronger than the last... she could feel the asphalt beneath her boots cracking from the pressure.

But she was not in the air, this time. And with her feet planted and her blade held firmly, she was a different foe altogether. Pouring mana into her arms and her sword, with a cry of exertion she swung her blade with all her might. For just a second, her wind scabbard parted to reveal the golden blade beneath, and the greatest of holy swords sliced the offending projectile in half. The pieces of the shattered black sword struck the street on either side of the knight with enough force to pierce into it until they totally disappeared from view. The force of the blast did little more than ruffle her hair and dress, her blade and mana absorbed the blast so thoroughly.

She turned to rebuke Rider for using her as a human shield, only to find that the black Servant was already long gone.

Archer stepped back from the edge of the building, his bow disappearing to be replaced by the twin swords Kanshou and Bakuya. The extra charge he'd given to that second arrow meant it would take him at least twenty seconds to bring up another of that caliber, and he didn't have that much-

Rider leapt up over the edge of the building, having crossed the remaining distance and scaled the structure before those twenty seconds were up. Apparently she was even quicker when she could just sprint in a straight line without dodging, and she'd correctly deduced that the increased power of the second shot had come at a price. Still, her Master was Shinji, which had to hold her back a good margin. If it had been one-on-one, he was absolutely certain he could defeat her despite her talents as a Servant.

The problem was, Saber was also on her way, and two Servants was a tall order if he wanted to actually have some prayer of winning. In particular, going into melee with Saber was just asking for death unless she was the only thing he had to worry about; she'd cut him to pieces if he also had to deal with keeping Rider's spikes out of his neck. So he needed to at least immobilize Rider before Saber arrived, and that was difficult since he probably had less than a minute.

Leaping backwards to avoid the chain spike that impaled itself in the roof where he had been standing, Archer landed in a crouch, dug his blades into the roof, and spun in a quick circle. His cape whirling around him, he fell through onto the top floor of the empty office building, throwing Kanshou up through the newly created hole before he even landed. Rider dove for the opening, only to pull back abruptly as the black blade came whirling out of it.

A transparent ploy to buy a few seconds, she thought. He didn't want to engage her in melee, apparently; appropriate for an Archer. She dove down through the hole, to see something strange... the other sword, the white one, was planted in the floor at the bottom of the hole she'd dropped into.

She heard something cutting the air behind her. The black sword was coming back, far more quickly than gravity should have allowed, being pulled toward the white...!

She snapped her chain into a nearby wall, using it to pull herself out of her descent and away from the area between the two blades before she was sliced in half. She caught a glimpse of Archer, smiling, with an arrow knocked, but he wouldn't hit her by aiming where he was, she was too quick for...

Oh no. He knew he wasn't going to hit her, didn't he?

Archer hurled another pair of Kanshou and Bakuya, this set Broken, to collide with the flying black sword in midair... and explode very, very close to Rider.

He decided with not-inconsiderable satisfaction that blasting her out the window of a thirty-story building was a decent way to immobilize her for a few minutes. It probably wouldn't kill her, since the final impact at the bottom was mundane, of little value against a Servant, but she would not be going anywhere for a bit.

His satisfaction was dampened as Saber leapt in through the window shattered by Rider's fall, the wind howling as she crossed the space to him in less than a second and took a nasty chunk out of his chest as his dodge was not quite fast enough. Fighting to maintain his footing and composure, he brought new copies of his favored swords into existence and parried her second blow, feeling the shock up his arms from her power and the strength of her sword. Amazing as ever... these weapons really are no match...

Oddly enough, when he jumped back and over an overturned desk to get some space, she did not follow, merely kept him within dashing distance so he could not begin using projectiles again. She looked... cautious?

"Where..." She asked in a worried tone, "... is Rin?"

Archer smiled. "You missed her? She was headed right past you, I believe."

Saber's eyes widened. "Shirou...!"

"Good plan, no? I was actually somewhat proud when Rin came up with it. Why bother with you when your Master is such an easy target, right? She'll probably do something fluffy like try to make him give up his Command Seals before she turns to violence, but at least she spotted a sensible path to victory and took it. She's growing, don't you think? And when she has to kill those two because they won't give in, she'll grow even more." Archer said calmly. "She's not ruthless enough, not willing to make all the necessary sacrifices. Even if you have to kill one, dozen, a hundred people to win this war, isn't that better than letting people like Shinji Matou and his blood-drinker get their hands on a power like the Holy Grail? Maybe seeing real combat and bloodying her hands a bit will drive that point home."

"Archer, you...!" Saber said, bristling both at the threat to her Master and at his frank admission of his satisfaction at the thought of the honestly likable girl she'd met the previous night turning into a coldhearted killer. She fully intended to defeat Rin for the Holy Grail, but she had wanted it to be a fair and genuine contest in deference to the girl's pleasant personality. Now...

"Don't waste your venom on me. Whatever my thoughts on her development, it's still a solid tactic to focus on the Master first. Shirou Emiya and Shinji Matou are no match for a genuine Magus like Rin. And if you try to go stop her, you can know for a fact that I'll shoot you in the back at the first opportunity." Archer said calmly. "So now that you finally understand what's going on, tell me, Saber... you can probably defeat me, but do you think you can do it before Rin finishes your worthless Master off?"

-------------------------------

Shirou and Shinji sat in awkward silence.

"So... you're a Master?" Shirou asked.

"... don't talk to me." Shinji said. His head still hurt. A lot.

Shirou fell silent. Honestly, he'd just found out his friend, who he would have called 'an okay guy with some rough spots' yesterday at this time, was going around feeding people to his summoned monster.

... What do I do if she dies? Or if there have been other victims? He wondered. If she was the first, and she survives, I could maybe still redeem Shinji. Let him off with just being removed from this War. But if she dies, or if she wasn't the first, if he's... if he's a murderer...

What should he do? Shinji couldn't be prosecuted by human law for crimes committed by a Servant. Should he... should he just kill Shinji? Just... just grab a rock or something and bash his head in? Order Saber to cut him down where he stood? Eye for an eye justice?

A hero stops the villain, doesn't he? He was standing over that woman and watching her die like it was funny, does he deserve mercy? Shirou asked silently. God, he's Shinji, I've known him for years, he's Sakura's brother! I can't just kill him, but I can't just let him go either...!


And then something slammed into the ground next to the tree, invisible but with a pressure he could still feel somehow. He silently thanked whatever it was for giving him a problem he could understand more easily.

"I know where you are, boys. Come out, surrender peacefully, and you can both leave with nothing but the Command Seals ripped out of your nerves. Losing use of an arm is pretty merciful compared to what some Masters would do to you." Rin Tohsaka's voice commanded. "Don't play nice, and the next shot punches that tree in half."

Shinji's eyes widened in panic. "Wh-where did she... damn! I'm calling Rider, we need to..."

"No! I don't think either of our Servants should fight Archer alone!" Shirou said.

"Who cares about them? They're supposed to die anyway, I just want to get out of here alive!" Shinji countered.

Shirou stared at him for several seconds. "All right, I have a plan. That spell was called 'Gandr'. I learned about it from my father... it causes a virus in the target for a few days. It won't kill you."

"... it won't kill me?"

"Yeah. Because I'm using you as a shield until I can find some kind of weapon." Shirou said.

"What?"

"I can only do reinforcement magic. So unless I can find a... a stick, or something to use as a weapon, I can't beat her. So I need a shield to block at least her first shot until I can find one."

"So? You can't use me!" Rider! Rider get your ass back here right n-

"You have a weapon in your chest pocket, right? You can maybe hold her off for a few seconds." Shirou said reassuringly. "I'll help as soon as I can, and she won't kill you, I know her."

"She's a Master! Of course she'll kill m-" Shinji began. He didn't finish because Shirou picked that moment to grab him by the shirt-front, spin him around the tree, and physically chuck him at Rin.

He then, you know, went off to find a stick or something to use as a weapon.

-------------------------------

Saber was becoming frustrated.

No matter how her invisible blade moved, Archer seemed to know precisely what weak point she was aiming at and just barely manage a defense. And he didn't allow her to retreat, either, despite the fact that his Archer class should be trying to get to higher ground for sniping purposes. Whatever else could be said about him, two things were obvious. First, he was a highly skilled and intelligent opponent to keep up with her blade, even as weakened as she was by Shirou's inability to supply her with power.

Second... he knew.

He knew who she was! There was simply no other explanation. He knew the precise size and shape of her sword, or he couldn't have defended so perfectly. And while that could be explained away by saying that he could see through illusions or had analyzed Invisible Air in her fight with Rider, he was also staying close to her. He knew that with them so near the rooftops, he shouldn't get too far away from her or she would be able to use her Noble Phantasm without fear of hitting innocent bystanders. Somehow, he knew who she was.

Saber stopped her attack, her sword held cautiously at her side. "You... I don't know you, so how...?"

Archer smirked, holding Kanshou slightly behind and below Bakuya in a defensive posture that should allow him to get at least one sword into the path of any attack. "Maybe I was in your army, your majesty. Do you remember every knight under your command?"

"Of course not, no king can know every soldier in their army. But a warrior of your caliber would have had an honored seat at my table, and since you did not, I can say that I did not know you in my life." She said frankly.

"HA! Well, I guess it's a shame I wasn't born in your kingdom, then... some recognition would have been nice." Archer said, his smirk remaining firmly in place. "On the other hand, considering how your kingdom ended up..."

Her next attack slashed completely through Kanshou and halfway through Bakuya before his guard managed to stop it. He saw the promise of death in her pretty eyes. He pulled back, inviting her to continue her lunge, and she obliged, once again with a vicious two-handed chop that ruined another pair of newly-projected swords.

Razor-sharp... lightning fast... he thought, fighting to keep his expression worried so that she wouldn't comprehend what he was really trying to do. ... and blessedly predictable.

A part of him felt bad, honestly. He knew how sensitive she was about the subject of her kingdom, and knew that anger would dull her reactions, make her strokes more obvious. And stronger, granted, but he could get new swords easily enough. Better to project a new weapon with each exchange than deal with Saber at her best. She was stronger than him, had a better weapon, and was a more talented natural swordswoman; his hope for victory lie in making her fight with emotion and cloud her instincts so she was easy to read and he knew exactly where those powerful blows would land.

The sword dance continued like that, shards of metal from shattered sword after shattered sword being hurled through the building only to vanish as old projections ended and new began. Saber's anger made her attacks lack the finesse they should have had, and her wild swings would eventually leave...

There. An opening. Her next step forward would take her onto uneven ground, a piece of rubble that would throw off her footing and make her already in-progress swing lose its killing edge. He would hook her unbalanced sword on Kanshou, letting him hold her just enough to give him the second he needed to flick Bakuya into her throat. It wouldn't take her head off, so she wouldn't die, but not even Saber could just keep fighting with her neck slashed open. He could finish her off at will.

She lunged, exactly as planned. Tripped, exactly as planned. He caught the sword, prepared to make the tiny flick of his wrist needed to end the fight...

She snapped one hand off her sword and in front of her face. She winced in pain as his blade slashed through armor and into flesh, but not so much pain that she wasn't able to disengage her sword and leap backward, eyes wide.

"Damn... I thought I had you for a moment there." Archer said. "Should have known you weren't as angry as I thought you were. Still, I came close, and one of your arms isn't such a bad consolation prize."

"Archer..." Saber said, her eyes still wide with shock and fear as she looked around the shadows, searching for something. "Where is Rider?"

Archer considered this for a moment. He was certain he hadn't killed her, just wounded. And he'd been so caught up in the duel that he hadn't even considered that Rider hadn't made any sort of a reappearance, despite the fact that she would have had a considerable advantage in this darkness...

"Damn!" He said, breaking into a sprint and preparing to leap out the window to get to the park more quickly, Saber following on his heels.

Dammit, Rin, this is what Command Seals are for! He screamed mentally. Call me, call me, call me!

-------------------------------

Rin's eyes widened in surprise as something warm and soft slammed into her midsection. The wind knocked out of her, she, elegantly and with the dignity appropriate the Tohsaka heir, fell on her ass.

She looked down in confusion to see what, exactly, had come whipping around the tree at that unusual speed, and saw Shinji Matou's familiar blue mop. He had his face buried in her stomach, and he had reflexively grabbed onto her legs.

So she, elegantly and with the dignity appropriate the Tohsaka heir, said, "Who the Hell do you think you're touching?!" And punched him in the side of the head as hard as she could.

That was a mistake. Bone on bone hurt her hand as much as his head.

"Ow... ow... ow..." Shinji said, raising his head. Rin's eyes widened slightly at the look on his face. He didn't seem 'angry' so much as... inhuman. "I... am so sick... of you people treating me like your punching bag!"

She leveled her palm in his direction, the Tohsaka Magic Crest gleaming upon her forearm. "Then you shouldn't be so good at getting hit. Surrender, or..."

He threw his hand inside his shirt, extended his other, and something dark, cold, and sharp roared towards her.

Fortunately, Rin Tohsaka was actually pretty good at this. Her physical training was flawless, and her instincts were sound. She might not have been very experienced, but experience was the only thing she was lacking, and dodging such a simplistic magic as this blade of darkness was no problem. Still, she could admit to a certain amount of surprise that Shinji was capable of even that much.

"Not bad, Matou." She said. "A Servant, some low-grade battle spells... considering you're not even a Magus, you've put together a passable defensive package. I wouldn't say I'm impressed, but at least I'm... amused."

Shinji stood facing her, a small book clenched in his hands. "See if you're still amused in a second, bitch." He spat, his face contorted in frankly unsettling fury. She'd known Matou was a weasel, but she was suspecting now that he was legitimately unstable. And the book...

Rin was an excellent Magus. She knew a magic like that by sight. Ah. Ah-ha. So that's how a no-count like this managed to take control of Rider. She put on her best smirk. "Shinji, Shinji, Shinji. I know your family tree is a bit withered, but depending on charity? Did grandpa decide he couldn't be bothered to get up this week, but wanted into the War anyway?"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Shinji growled, more of the same blades of darkness slicing through the night air towards her. She did not even bother to dodge, merely held her Magic Crest in front of her and willed a counter blast. The blades were shredded by her own spell, hurling Shinji to his knees once again. She hoped he enjoyed the pain to go on top of his new virus, she'd put in the extra effort for a physical blow. "Do you really think your bargain-bin sorcery and stolen mana can handle a real magus, Shinji?"

He smiled horribly and wiped blood from his nose, his skin already looking pale. "Not really. Bet she can, though." He hissed.

Rin never even saw Rider hit her. One moment she was in control of the situation, the next she was pinned to the ground with her Crest arm twisted painfully behind her... and a soft hand pushing her hair away from her neck.

"What have we here?" Rider purred. "Lunch?"

Eyes wide in horror, Rin tried to pour mana into her crest, simply make a burst to blast the Servant away... and cried out as Rider twisted the arm harder. She heard tendons pop.

"There, there. It will only hurt for a second, and then it feels rather good." Rider chided her, leaning towards her bared neck.

She made it about halfway there before something heavy and blunt smashed into the back of her skull. It didn't really hurt, but it was enough to be a nuisance, so she slammed the captive Mage's head into the dirt once to dizzy her and leapt into a defensive stance. The Servant nearly laughed out loud at the sight of the red-haired boy, brandishing a stick with a frankly pitiful aura of magic about it as though it were a sword.

"E... Emiya...?" The dazed Magus said. Her head was heavy and her arm hurt like Hell, but she thought she could focus enough to see...

"Emiya, whose side are you on?! She was going to kill us both! I'm just returning the favor!" Shinji protested.

"She wasn't. And even if she were, I wouldn't let you just feed her to that thing! She's a person, not food!" Shirou said firmly.

Rider sighed in annoyance. "Master, I had a head start, but their Servants will be here shortly..."

Shinji smiled in triumph. "Well... it seems like I'm saying this more and more often these days. Kill them both, Rider."

-------------------------------

Ilya was no longer divided.

Rin had not been intending to kill onii-chan, so she had not intervened. The girl might talk big, but unlike Ilya, who no problem with death unless it happened to someone she actually liked, Rin was squeamish. She didn't truly want to kill even the slimy Makiri thing, though the world would certainly be a lot less sleazy without him. She had just meant to take the boy's Servant, and Ilya could not care less about Saber.

But now, because Rin had not simply blown the Makiri Master's head off when she had the chance, his Servant was back. The two Masters might be able to hold Rider off for a time, as weakened as she was by her worthless Master, but the Servant would win in the end. Saber and Archer would not be there in time.

But she was closer, and she had someone faster...

She didn't know much about the boy, but she had come to one decision, after all of her thinking. Whatever else he was, he was hers. She had come to Japan solely for him, that much had not changed just because she was no longer certain what she wanted to do once she had him.

If he died, it would be when she wished him to die.

If she decided she did not wish for such a thing, then he would not die.

And until she made up her mind, nobody was allowed to harm a single hair on his head, because he. Belonged. To her! Not to Makiri, not to Tohsaka, and not even to Einzbern; he was Ilya's. Her own. And nobody took something that belonged to her.

"Go, Berserker."

And the black giant roared, free to enter the battle at last.

Spoiler for Author's Note::

Hmmm... well, I don't actually have anything to say, really. Need to work on some other stories, so it might be longer before the next update. Beyond that, as usual point out any genuine errors you spot, and hope you enjoy the chapter!

Really impressive. One of things that annoyed me about Fate/Stay Night was that servants would only ever fight one on one, or atleast there would only be two sides. This massive battle really does seem like three sides with their own agenda's. It's becoming more of a Thirty Xanatos Pileup that I wished the original story had.

However, I do have one problem: Everyone here seems a lot smarter than in the game. I suppose that's probably a good thing (I forgot to mention this in the Game thread, but just so you know, even though i bashed Shirou a lot for being an idiot, I still ended up rather liking him) but it does kinda feel odd. I just don't get the same feel for these characters here than I did in the game, though perhaps that might simply suggest that we have different interpretations. There's a lot of taunting that goes on. I could understand Archer doing it because he did it for practical reasons but I can't imagine Rider doing it. Plus it's a lot harder for me to just accept that all the civilians don't have a clue what's going on. Surely someone must've noticed by now?

Oh and btw I think there's a typo in the third sentance in the last section;

The girl might talk big, but unlike Ilya, who had no problem with death unless it happened to someone she actually liked, Rin was squeamish.