Foreword: To those that don't know, Archer-ko is the creation of extremely talented writer and artist Himura Kiseki, she's from a series of unofficial TYPE-MOON doujinshi by the title of Sword Dancer I and II. As of yet her true identity is unknown but the two most competent theories say that she is either a grown up version of Illyasviel Von Einzbern, or as we will be going with for this story, she is a character known as Emillya and Shirou-ko. Emillya is Shirou Emiya from a series of unofficial doujins by the artist/writer/group Limit Break. She comes from Limit Break's story were after the end of Heaven's Feel route in Fate/Stay Night where Shirou Emiya dies and is then saved by Illyasviel at the cost of her own life as she uses her body to house his soul and bring him back to life. As a result in his new body, Shirou is given the name Emillya by Rin in order to hide him from both the church and the mages. A note of Shirou now being a girl, Emillya grows several inches, her hair takes on a reddish tinge, and she becomes...a bit of a clutz as well as rather adorably girly and even a fair bit flippant and carefree.

So now that you have a basic idea of who Archer-ko is, I'll get on with the story and I'll tell you now, canon is not fully solid given the situation of Archer-ko, I'll be playing with the standard canon, and I will be happy to point people towards more information on her via PM.

Now on with the show.

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Oh, all copyright's go to their respective owners, no matter how much I wish to, I don't own Familiar of Zero or the TYPE-MOON universe.

You know something? Being a Counter-Counter-Guardian can be damn tiring, especially when you're stuck doing the same sort of stuff over and over again because someone else won't give up. I mean it's actually kinda fun having what I guess would best be described as a rival, even if he is an alternate version of myself which has lead to quite enough bothersome thoughts when I've had too much quiet time.

But still, why did I decide to protect that little girl?! Was it just because EMIYA was trying to kill her? I mean yeah I pretty much made it my job to get in his way but that wasn't any reason for me to keep helping her after I drove him off the first time, especially with that rather curse I picked up on touching the girl, but even then I kept helping her.

Heh.

I guess dad instilled better morals in me than I thought. That I promised to save everyone without killing anyone probably helped too. I mean she wasn't in a situation to different than my own when Dad rescued me from the ruins of that fire. I may not have been in a situation where I was being actively hunted down, but both of us were completely bereft of help and on death's doorstep when we were helped respectively, so maybe it was kinship.

Now though...now I can't help her. I went ahead and got myself killed saving her. I don't even get to know if she's safe from EMIYA! All I really can do now is wait and see if the world decides if it needs me again.

Selfish Root.

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The sensation was almost imperceptible at first, but it continued and grew, feeling that at first resembled something like a comb being drawn through her hair as it stirred her consciousness to awareness. Instinctively she felt the prana being fed to her as it she awoke. Then came the words, words she knew all to well from all too long ago that reached to her from somewhere far away.

"Silver and iron to the origin.

Gem and the archduke of contracts to the cornerstone."

The summon. The summon of a Mage competing in the war for the Holy Grail. She knew it, and deep inside she was torn. She knew the violence that would result of the fight, but there was also opportunity in the chance.

Then something went wrong.

It felt almost as if someone had taken hold of her hair and suddenly wretched, dragging her attention away from the summon to the Holy Grail as new words reached her though it was just a brief snippet of what had been said.

"-allière. Pentagon of the five elemental power, Hee-"

"-alighted wind becomes a wall.

The gates in the four directions close, coming from the c-"

"No, this is most certainly not good," she thought hastily, "I've never seen what happens two people try to something at once, but if it it's anything like when I don't finish a projection this is not good." That thought was only validated as the feeling of a comb through her hair became a dragging wretch not unlike the other force and she was able to get an answer to one of her most idle questions.

No, one certainly did not need a body to feel pain if the sensation of being torn in half at the moment was any indication.

Still, it was a race she realized. A race to see which incantation finished first. Would it be the Grail War mage or the other one? She wasn't sure but the idea of them finishing at the same time wasn't attractive at all. Still, in the nearly timeless world of the Throne of Heroes, it was possible to get excited, even about something so potentially dangerous to herself.

"-three-forked road-"

"-and bring forth-"

"-Shut. Shut. Shut. Shut. Shu-"

"-my familiar!"

As that last words reached her, she would have sworn had she still had hears that the very Root itself echoed with a horrendous tearing sound as she experienced perhaps the most excruciating pain in her life before-

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Worlds away from Earth, away from Fyuki City, away from the War for the Holy Grail; a small, petite girl in a white and black uniform stood mutely amongst a large number of other boys and girls in the same uniform, though none were quite as short as she was. Strawberry blonde hair of such a vivid shade one would be hard pressed to argue it wasn't pink framed a face with pale, fair skin and large amber eyes that even now shifted from person to person and creature to creature to creature.

An expression bordering on disdain but also worry and even fear sat rather precariously on her face as she looked around, as if the slightest detail that was wrong might send her into a fit.

This girl was Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière, a second year student at the Tristan Magical Academy.

And yes, she was indeed on the edge of a fit. Though a fit of what wasn't clear.

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"Very good class, it seems we've had a successful year for familiar summoning. Now everyone, please head to the cafeteria for lunch," a balding, brown haired man declared as he called out to the congregated students in the courtyard, looking out over the various familiars that had been summoned, including of all things a dragon.

"Sensei, we can't go yet, Zero hasn't done her summoning yet!" a girl piped up loudly from the crowd.

At the sudden call Louise felt her cheeks burn from the nickname that her classmates had assigned her for her skills at magic before she was distracted as she heard the balding man, Professor Colbert she reminded herself, sighed as he said, "Class, there's no need to be rude." He then turned to look at her with what could be described as a hopeful smile playing across his face as he looked to her.

"Now Louise, please go ahead and begin the summoning ritual," he directed calmly.

Raising her head and gathering the entirety of her dignity, Louise stepped forward into a small clear spot that was forming amongst the class. Doing her best impression of a deaf commoner, she ignored the crowd around her as they made little snippets of conversation between each other.

"What do you think she'll summon?"

"You actually think she'll manage to complete the summon even?"

"I'm betting she screws it up like everything else."

Clearing her throat briefly, she closed her eyes as she raised her wand, banishing the words of the crowd from her mind before gathering her will carefully as she began the incantation for the summoning ritual.

"My name is Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière.

Pentagram of the five elemental power,

Heed my summoning...

and bring forth...

my familiar!"

As she finished the aria of the spell, the ground before her flashed and shone with brilliant silver light before there was a tremendous roar as an explosion flashed out from the location of the summon, dark black smoke pouring out through the crowd before a small girl with blue hair and glasses waved the staff she carried, casting a small wind spell that blew what was left of the smoke away after several moments.

Students who had been tossed backwards by the explosion struggled back to their feet, patting themselves off to clear away some of the soot from the blast as they began to mutter between themselves.

"Looks like she really did screw it up."

"I told you so."

"Why is she even here?!"

Louise for her part struggled to her feet, but even with the ringing in her ears from the blast she could still hear her classmates cursing her latest failure, the question about why she was even there hurting her pride the most. Still she pulled herself to her feet to look at the spot where her familiar should have been standing to find that waiting for her was...

...A sword.

Granted, Louise didn't know as much about blades and the like as perhaps other nobles did, but the weapon sitting embedded point first into the grass and soil before her struck her as particularly...she hesitated as she tried to find the right word to describe the weapon, but she eventually settled for calling it dignified.

The blade and indeed the majority of the weapon were made from what looked like polished silver though it seemed to have almost an internal luminosity to it as she stared. The blade of the sword was maybe two inches from edge to edge though as it approached the hilt it suddenly widened before smoothly flowing into the metal that formed the hilt of the sword that was nearly a foot or more from edge to edge at the bottom and widest point. In the middle of the hilt, a half circle of material was missing and in this area the grip of the sword attached, looking to have been carved from some kind of black and silver metal that varied in color from section-to-section as her eyes traveled up the length of the grip will it reached a small silver cone that served as the pommel.

It truly struck her as something beautiful, as she took in the entire appearance before she was shocked out of her reverie by another student.

"She summoned a sword," a student deadpanned rather sharply.

"Yes go ahead and point out the obvious," Louise muttered under her breath as she looked at the blade before being distracted by a polite cough as she looked to the source, finding Professor Colbert looking to her.

"Miss Valliere, though this is perhaps the oddest summoning I've ever seen, I suppose you should go ahead and fetch your...familiar," Colbert suggested politely, though the look on his face suggested this was a situation she was going to be getting a talking to for.

Lifting her head again as she gathered the scattered remains of her dignity, Louise stepped forward, grabbed the handle of the sword with her right and pulled it from the ground, only to suddenly be surprised as the blade came forth freely, and far too quickly before she realized what the problem was. The blade was light, far too light. In fact she had to wager it probably only weighed as much as her wand.

And as she held it, she couldn't deny that there was power in the weapon, she could feel the Will swirling beneath the surface of the grip in her hand as she looked at it open mouthed before a voice rang out, so clearly she wasn't sure if she had heard it, or if it had been in her head.

But the words were unmistakable, as was the female tone of the voice as it rang out again.

"Did you summon me?"

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"That...definitely hurt..." she thought as she settled into new her form, expecting to stretch out newly formed arms and legs only to be rudely brought back to Earth when she didn't. Rather she found herself bound in metal. Stretching her awareness, she found herself in a blade, a sword, an elegant, beautiful sword that called to mind an unpleasant set of memories as she sighed to herself before deciding to see what her surroundings were.

As a sword, she couldn't exactly see persay, but she had her refined senses as a mage, and those were enough to feel the world around her to tell her what was around her in her current form. There were people, actually, a surprising amount of people, and as she listened, she heard mutterings that suggested someone had fouled something up rather badly before she took note of the person closest to herself.

A young girl, maybe fifteen or sixteen years of age, if she included the estimated ages of those around her to help her approximation, stood looking upon her in what she decided to describe as blind admiration before coming to her senses as someone spoke particularly loudly. Listening, she settled that their language sounded something like an older version of French, though she still barely understood it as she watched the girl be spoken to by an older, balding man who, she realized, was dressed differently than everyone else around her.

"Ah students and a teacher. Still doesn't explain why someone tried to summon a Heroic Spirit though," she mused before being distracted. The girl closest to her, with long, vibrant pink hair had begun to approach, and in a single instant grabbed her form by the grip before pulling her from the soil. Deciding it was now or never, she decided to try for some contact as she spoke out to the girl, "Did you summon me?"

There was a clear start on the girl's face, but no immediate response, so she spoke again, putting more force behind her voice as she asked, "Did you summon me?"

The girl very nearly dropped her, but steadied her grip as surprise filled her face before she spoke up, muttering a small "...yes..." in reply.

"Oh boy...this just got interesting," she thought to herself.

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AN:

And there's the first chapter. I'd appreciate any input you, my readers, have as to how to improve this story as I'm not as well versed in writing from a character's specific perspective rather than that of an observer perspective I try to and fail to in Halo: Mass Contact. I'm a great fan of both TYPE-MOON and Familiar of Zero universes and you'll likely see references to other peoples' works and some youtube stuff if you know what you're looking for.