From the Ashes

by Day Dreamer 62

When the Moon Cell's war ends and another begins, Hakuno finds herself unwillingly thrust into it. Summoned as a Servant, it is Hakuno's turn to play hero. Can she overcome both new and old obstacles to claim victory for her Master? Rated T for Language! Archer x Female Protagonist. Slight Shirou x Female Protagonist. AU and slight OOC. HIATUS.

2. Chapter Two Familiar Faces

DD 62: This is my second attempt at chapter two. The first attempt was okay but I feel like I could do better. Let's see where this one goes. Also, I will hopefully be updating on the fifteenth and thirtieth of each month so be on the lookout around those dates! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Fate/EXTRA or any other games from the franchise. I DO own a copy of the game and am a loyal fan.

~xXxXx~

I stared at the house we stood in front of. Upon first being summoned, I hadn't gotten a good look at the home of my Master. It was a modest Japanese style house with walls surrounding it. It didn't look like a house a high schooler would live in. Shirou reached into his pocket and fished out his keys. He found the correct one, reached down, and unlocked the door. I stepped inside after him and looked around. The light was on in the living room which meant someone else was here. I removed my shoes and crept down the hallway. A form came flying at me and slammed into me, tackling me to the ground in a hug.

"Shirou~! I'm so glad you're home! I'm sooo hungry!"

I blinked at the woman who currently was hugging me to death. Was that…Taiga?! The hyper active teacher rubbed her head affectionately into my chest. She stopped when she realized my chest wasn't that of a teenage boy's. Both of our faces were burning in embarrassment. Taiga quickly jumped up and stood awkwardly away from me.

"Taiga, is that you?" Shirou stared at me in confusion. "Caster, why are you on the ground?"

I clumsily stood up and glanced between the two humans. "U-um…uh…"

"EMIYA SHIROU! DID YOU BRING A GIRL HOME TO DO INAPPROPRIATE THINGS?!"

Shirou flinched at the woman's tone. I didn't think my face could get any more red. First she tackle hugged me and then she totally misunderstood the situation. The Taiga I knew and this Taiga were one in the same.

"Taiga, you've got it all wrong! She isn't just some random girl, she's my-"

I cut in hastily, "I'm his cousin." Shirou gave me another confused look but I pushed forward. "I'm visiting for a while and he said I could stay here." Please, oh please, believe me!

Taiga narrowed her eyes and stared at me hard. I felt myself growing nervous. A smile spread across her face and she hugged my again. "YAY! We have a guest!" She glared at Shirou. "Why are you just standing there Shirou? Go make us a delicious meal so we can celebrate your cousin's arrival!"

"Okay, okay." Shirou waved his hands in a calming gesture. He glanced at me worriedly before going into the kitchen. I guess Shirou was used to handling Taiga and her mood swings. Taiga tugged on my hand and pulled me over to the table. As soon as we sat down, she started to talk my ear off. She talked about anything and everything. She chattered away until Shirou stuck his head out of the door to the kitchen. "Caster, could you lend me a hand?"

"You're name is Caster?"

I sweat dropped at Taiga's star struck expression. "I-it's a childhood nickname. I never got Shirou to stop calling me by that." Standing from my seat, I went into the kitchen to assist Shirou. "How can I help?"

"Why did you lie to Taiga?"

I sighed in defeat. "Normal humans can't know about the Holy Grail War. If they find out about it, I would have to kill them to protect the secret of the magus world."

Shirou looked taken aback. "You have to kill anyone who finds out about the Holy Grail War?"

I cursed Kotomine. Although the priest explained the basics of the war to Shirou, he had left out some of the more crucial parts. The rules were different from my own war so I was surprised that I even knew them at all. In my war the only rule you really had to follow was not attacking any Masters while on campus. This war seemed to be drastically different from mine. Any non-magus was never allowed to know about the war and had to be silenced. And that was putting it mildly.

"Yes, I have to kill any humans that witness any battles or see me use any of my abilities." I felt a pang of guilt at Shirou's facial expression. "It's just the way things are." He didn't respond. "S-so, what do you need me to do?"

"Can you grab the carrots from the refrigerator and cut them up?"

I nodded. I slipped by Shirou and opened the refrigerator to search for the carrots. Once I spotted them, I grabbed them and straightened up. Walking over to the empty counter, I grabbed a knife to begin chopping the orange vegetable. We worked in uncomfortable silence. I racked my mind for conversation ideas. Sadly, I was no conversationalist and we continued on in silence. I could feel my eye twitching from the quiet. It was almost as bad as the final week in the Moon Cell.

I placed the knife done and took a deep breath. "Shirou, do you have any problems with the way the war is operated? If we're going to be working together we need to clear the air between us."

Shirou stopped cooking and faced me. His expression was very serious. "How can you justify killing innocent people just to keep a secret? It's inhumane."

"Servants may look like humans Shirou, but we are far from it. We can do things most humans can't even imagine."

"What allows a person to become a Servant?" He gave me a curious look. "Do you have to do something specific to be made a Servant or…?"

I thought about his question. Most Servants did something extraordinary during their time as humans to get them recognized as important figures in history. This seemed to impress the Holy Grail and I suppose it decided who became a Servant and who didn't. How I managed to impress it was beyond me. I had been a low level magus that rose above the odds and managed to defeat a powerful person on my quest to win the Holy Grail. Did that mean something to the Grail? Did the Grail think I had potential to be a good Servant?

"Caster? Hello, Caster?"

I shook my head and focused on Shirou. "Sorry, what were we talking about?"

"Never mind. Let's just finish cooking before-"

"Shirou~!"

Taiga came waltzing into the kitchen and pouted at us. She complained about how long we were taking and demanded that we work faster to fill her belly. Shirou and I chuckled at her behavior and hurried to finish. I pulled out some plates and set the table while Shirou brought the food out. Taiga cheered and dug in as soon as the food was placed on the table. She complimented Shirou's cooking and praised me for helping. I laughed at the way Shirou and Taiga interacted. They acted just like family. It was a nice change from my life in the virtual world.

A yawn escaped my lips. Taiga smiled at me. "You must be tired from your long day." She turned to Shirou and gestured to me. "Show your cousin to a room."

"Oh no, it's fine! I can find an empty room by myself."

"Nonsense! You're our guest and we need to make you feel welcome."

I knew better than to argue against Taiga. Shirou sighed and lead me down a hallway. We stopped in front of a door and he slid it open. The room was blank and derived of any decoration. Dust covered every inch of the room and floor. Shirou rubbed his neck in embarrassment.

"Ah, we don't usually have a lot of guests so we don't clean the empty rooms that often. I-I can clean it up tomorrow if you'd like."

I waved him off. "It's fine, I can take care of it. Is there a futon in the closet?"

"Yes, here let me help you get it set up."

He strode over to the closet and opened it. I swear dust bunnies came hopping out of there. Shirou ignored it and pulled out the futon and held it out to me. I took it from him and set about laying it out on the floor. He passed me a pillow and cover and soon my bed was ready. I nodded in approval.

"So," Shirou began, "do you have any clothes to change into?"

"U-um…" I scratched the back of my head nervously. "N-no? I figured I'd just sleep in my clothes."

"That's ridiculous! You can borrow some of my old clothes for the time being." I opened my mouth to protest but Shirou was already out of the room. I had no choice but to wait for him to return. It didn't take long. He reappeared in the room and held a baggy gray shirt in one hand and a pair of black sweat pants in the other. Upon closer inspection, it looked like the shirt had a hole near the bottom hem and the bottoms of the pant legs were fraying. Shirou looked embarrassed. "I'm sorry about the condition the clothes are in but they looked like the only ones that would fit you."

I shrugged. "They'll be fine; I'll just be using them to sleep in anyway."

"What will you do for every day clothes?"

I shrugged again. "I'll worry about that tomorrow but right now I'm tired and I'd like to get some sleep."

"Oh! O-of course! I'll just…uh…go."

I chuckled at Shirou's behavior. He was such a gentleman. I changed into the borrowed clothes and placed my other clothes to the side. Crawling into the bed, I closed my eyes just realizing how tired I was. My mind wandered from reality as I felt myself slowly falling asleep.

~xXxXx~

It was dark and cold. My eyes snapped open and I gazed out around me. I couldn't see anything in sight. It felt like I was back in the realm I had been in before being summoned. My body shook from the cold. There had to be a way out of this place. I spun around and searched for anything that could aid me. My search yielded no results. Panic filled my veins and it was becoming hard to focus.

"There's no escaping." A voice called out to me. "You're staying here forever."

""No, you're wrong!" I shouted back.

"You belong here with me. Don't you want to stay here with me?" The voice took on a comforting tone. It felt like a hand was caressing my face. "You're safe here. Don't worry, I'll protect you."

I tried to push away whatever was touching my face but my hands hit nothing but air. The voice chuckled at my reaction. The sensation of being touched soon stopped and I was left alone again. The darkness was overwhelming me and I could feel myself panicking again. I shut my eyes and tried to think of something that made me feel safe. Every thought was consumed by the darkness that surrounded me. My resolve to beat this thing was slowly slipping away.

"Don't worry," the voice spoke again, "I'll take good care of you."

~xXxXx~

I gasped and shot up in bed. My hand flew to my forehead as I tried to even out my breathing. Mind whirling with what I dreamt about, I pushed the blankets off of me and stood up. My hand was still held up to my forehead as I slid my door open and walked to the kitchen. I needed a drink of water. Flipping the light on, I searched the cupboards until I found an empty glass. I held the glass under the faucet until it was about half full. I switched it off and drank deeply from the cup. That made me feel a little better. I set the glass down on the mat that sat on the counter to dry and headed back to my room. I glanced up on my way and paused. Shirou sat on the porch staring up into the sky.

"Shirou?" He turned his head and looked at me. "What are you doing?"

"Star gazing, would you like to join me?"

I hesitated for a moment but then sat down next to him. I pulled my knees to my chest and stared up at the stars. There were next to no clouds in the sky making it a perfect night to gaze at them. A breeze blew through the house and made me shiver. Shirou looked at me worriedly.

"Are you cold? You didn't have to join me."

"I wanted to. This could be a good opportunity for us to get to know each other. The relationship between a Master and Servant is very important and can affect the way I perform in battle."

Shirou nodded at my logic. He put his hands behind him and leaned against them. "So, tell me about yourself."

"There's not much to tell. Why don't you explain why Taiga is living here?"

"Ah, yes that's a good place to start." Shirou took a deep breath then launched into his story. "I was living with my family up until ten years ago until they…died in a fire. My life was rescued by a man named Emiya Kiritsugu. He took me in and taught me how to use magecraft. He died about five years ago and Taiga decided that she would take care of me. Her and her father are my next door neighbors. Taiga looks after me while her father manages my finances. Although," Shirou chuckled, "it seems like I take care of Taiga more than she takes care of me. I swear, she spends more time here than at her own home."

I smiled softly at his statement. "You really think of her as family, don't you?"

"I guess I do." Shirou glanced at me. "I think of you as my family too Caster."

"W-what? How can you say that? We just met!"

He shrugged. "You seem like a good person and like you care about what happens to people. I can tell by the way you talked about killing innocents to protect the secret of the Grail War."

I blushed and looked away to hide it. He could tell that much about me from spending just a few hours together? Am I that easy to read? I'd have to control my emotions better if I wanted to be able to survive this war. A question popped into my head at that thought.

"Shirou? What will you wish for if you win the war?"

"I don't know honestly." He tilted his head to the side in thought. "I guess I'd wish for a way to save everyone."

"Why would you wish for something like that?"

Shirou leaned forward and clasped his hands together. "I want to be able to protect the innocent. I want to give out justice to those who deserve it."

That reminded me of something Archer once told me. During his life, he had been an 'Ally of Justice' and lived his life doing what he believed was right. Due to his beliefs, he caused great fear in those who he was trying to protect and made them turn against him. He didn't argue against his fate and let them kill him because he realized it was the right thing to do. There were odd similarities between Archer and Shirou.

"So, what about you?"

"What about me?"

"If you could have any wish granted, what would you wish for?"

I sat there in silent contemplation. "I honestly don't know either. There isn't really anything I could want."

"That's surprising; I figured even Servants had wishes they would want granted."

"Maybe some do but I don't."

Silence fell between us. Shirou stretched his arms above his head then stood. "I'd better head to bed, I have school tomorrow." He held his hand out to me.

"I think I'll stay out a little longer."

Shirou shrugged and turned towards his room. I listened to his footsteps echo down the hallway. I stared at the stars for a while longer. Sighing, I stood up and followed Shirou down the hallway. I slipped into my room silently and crawled back into my bed. I closed my eyes sincerely hoping that my nightmare from earlier didn't repeat itself. Soon I had drifted off to sleep and wasn't bothered by any bad dreams.

~xXxXx~

A bright light glared into my face causing a groan to emit from me. I pulled my pillow over my face in an attempt to block out the light and to get some more sleep. I had almost succeeded when a soft knock came from the door. Groaning, I rolled over and glanced around the room. I shot up in alarm as I realized I had no idea where I was. Various questions whirled in my mind, the most important being where the hell was I? Another knock resonated through the room drawing my attention to the door. I cautiously pushed the covers back, stood up, and tip toed to the door. Grasping the door handle, I took a deep breath and flung it open. On the other side stood a boy with red, spikey hair who stared back at me with a peaceful smile across his face.

"Good morning Caster; are you hungry? I'm about to start on breakfast."

I looked at the boy for a moment before my memories from the night before came flooding back. Groaning once again, I trudged to where my clothes were laying and turned back towards Shirou. "I'll be there in a minute. Where's the bathroom?"

"Down the hall on the left. There should be towels in the closet next to the bathroom."

I nodded my thanks and moved passed Shirou towards the bathroom. Following Shirou's directions, I soon arrived and snagged a towel from the closet before entering. I turned the water on as hot as it could go and waited for the tub to fill up. Placing my clothes on the counter, I grabbed the brush that was also sitting there and pulled it through my hair. I flinched a few times as the brush hit a particularly nasty knot. I finished up and turned the water off then stepped into the tub. It took a moment for my body to adjust to the water temperature but soon I could feel my tense nerves relaxing. I sighed in bliss. I soaked myself for a little longer before stepping out of the tub to dry off. A collage of smells wafted through the air making my stomach growl. I quickly changed, snatched the comb from the counter, and made a beeline for the kitchen. Shirou was just placing the last of the breakfast food on the table when I ran into the room my mouth watering.

"Ah, there you are! I was just about to go get you."

I stared at him in wonder. "Did you cook all of this?"

"Yes I did." Shirou rubbed the back of his head. "I've always been good at household work and stuff like that." My mouth was watering profusely. Shirou noticed my hungry look and chuckled. His gestured to the table. "Go ahead and dig in. I'm going to go and try to get Taiga up again."

He hadn't even left the room before I had inhaled my first plate full of food. I greedily piled more food on my plate when I heard a crash come from what I assumed was Taiga's room. I debated whether or not to investigate but decided Shirou had more experience dealing with Taiga in the morning that he didn't need reinforcements. I had just shoved a load of food into my mouth when Taiga slumped headfirst onto the table. Shirou came in after her shaking his head. Blinking in shock, I hesitantly poked Taiga in the shoulders. Her head shot up and I swear I thought she was going to bite me if I hadn't jerked my hand back swiftly.

"G-good morning Taiga."

She yawned loudly and placed her head back on the table. "Good morning Caster. Whatcha eatin'?"

"Um…whatever Shirou made."

"Shirou is SUCH a great cook! His meals are always so delicious!" She hastily grabbed a plate and piled it high with food. Taiga broke her chopsticks apart and dug in. With a mouthful of food, she started speaking again. "So Caster, what are your plans for today?"

I shrugged. "I don't know; I hadn't given it much thought."

"Why not look around the town and get used to the area? If you're going to be staying here for a while, that seems like the best idea."

Honestly, I had planned to follow Shirou to school and keep an eye on him. I didn't like the idea of leaving him unprotected during the day. Of course, I wasn't entirely sure if I could follow him unnoticed. The Servants in my war had been able to alternate between spirit and solid form so there was a possibility that I could too. That would be a good thing to test soon.

We continued to eat our meal and exchanged idle conversation. In between helpings, I pulled the comb through my hair to rid it of any tangles. Taiga talked very animatedly about something or other and was waving her arms around haphazardly. Shirou ducked his head to avoid her arms. He finished before Taiga and I and stood up to take his dirty plate to the sink. I picked mine up and followed him. I stood beside him and silently rinsed off the dishes he handed me.

"Shirou," I began, "I was planning on following you to school today in order to protect you from any enemy Servants."

"What?"

I rolled my eyes. "If you feel uncomfortable with the idea, just say so."

"W-well, I appreciate your concern but I think I'll be fine at school. You don't have to shadow me all the time. I can take care of myself."

"I don't like the thought of you being attacked without me being there to aid you." I knew he could summon me any time he wanted with the help of a Command Seal but he only had a limited amount of them at his disposal. Also, I seriously doubted he would use the seals immediately if he was in danger. He seemed the type to wait till the last second to call for help. An idea popped into my head. "Do you have anything that you always keep with you, like a key chain?"

"I have my keys but no key chains." He stood for a moment in deep thought. "Hang on a second." Shirou left the room leaving me to finish the dishes. I continued to wash them until I heard Shirou return. He held out his hand to reveal a small ring in his palm. It was intricately carved and seemed oddly familiar. "I carry this from time to time for good luck."

"May I?" At his nod, I gently took the ring from him and focused on it. I detected small traces of prana coming from it. The ring had obviously been used for magical purposes at one time. That would make it easier for me to cast a spell on it. I closed my eyes in concentration. Prana surged through the air and around me. Shirou drew in a sharp breath in surprise but I ignored him. My mind was clouded with numerous spells that I had no memory of knowing before. I settled on a protection and tracking spell and set about infusing them into the ring. A moment later I had finished. I held the ring back out to Shirou. "Here, this should keep you safe until I can get to you."

Shirou hesitantly took it back and rolled it around in his palm. "What did you do to it? It felt like the air was heavy with magic."

He was better at sensing prana than I thought. I quickly explained what I had done. He looked awed. I waved off any questions he had and pointed out the time. He gasped and ran from the kitchen to the front door. I noticed Taiga trailing after him not nearly as panicked as him. They both slipped out of the house and waved at me.

"Have a good day Caster! Try not to get into any trouble!"

"I make no promises." I heard them both laugh and smiled. I watched them until they were out of sight. Closing the door behind me, I stretched my arms above my head and sighed after I heard a pop! sound. I sighed in relief as my arms fell back to my sides. "Now, what should I do?"

~xXxXx~

I beamed at the now clean room. After Shirou and Taiga had left, I decided to tidy up the room that I had stayed in the night before. It looked drastically better than it did when I first stepped in. Sweat dripped from my forehead and I reached up to wipe it away. A flash of red caught my eyes as my left hand neared my face. Since I had removed my cloak, belt and gloves to clean, my hands were uncovered and revealed that I still had Command Seals. Two of the three were grayed out and the other was a dull red color compared to the vibrant shade of Shirou's. I traced them and smiled softly at the memories they conjured up. Archer had been furious when I had used two of my Command Seals to save another Master from certain death. Of course, Rin hadn't been thrilled with me either but given time they had both forgiven me and I had found two true friends in a world full of enemies who wanted me dead.

I shook my head. Now was not the time to be reminiscing. Since I had finished cleaning, maybe I should consider Taiga's suggestion and scout out the town for possible battle grounds. It was better than spending my day cooped up here. The only question was whether or not to walk around or float around in spirit form. I was leaning more towards the first option but I couldn't go out in my clothes.

"Maybe Taiga has some extra clothes I could borrow."

I searched the rooms until I finally found Taiga's room. Even though Shirou told me Taiga was his next door neighbor, she had made herself right at home in one of the spare rooms. The room was overly populated by stuffed animals and other toys that could be won at an arcade. I made a mental note to ask Shirou if Taiga won all of these and walked to her closet to look over her clothes. I sweat dropped at the sheer number of identical outfits she owned. I pushed back several sets of her usual outfit and finally discovered some different clothes. An orange short sleeved hoodie and white skirt caught my eye and I pulled them out. They looked about my size. Upon further searching, I found a pair of white sandals to wear with the outfit.

"This will work." I went back to my room and changed into the clothes. I nodded in approval as I looked down at myself. "Not too bad. Well, that should convince everyone that I'm just a human." I left my room with the sandals in my hand. I slipped them on at the door and stepped outside. Shielding my eyes from the sun, I looked around me and headed in the direction I guessed that lead towards town.

~xXxXx~

"Is that what girls wear now?"

I gaped at the clothes on display in the store across the street. There was hardly any material of the shirt covering up the top of the mannequin and the bottoms were clothed in extremely short shorts. I realized that the weather was on the warm side but did girls need to wear next to nothing to stay cool? It just seemed immodest. I shook my head in disgust, True I knew next to nothing about fashion but no self-respecting female would be caught dead in that outfit.

"I think you would look good in that outfit." I spun around with my hand held back ready to slap whoever just whispered in my ear. My hand fell to my side and I stared in shock at Lancer. He smirked at my expression. "Hello again. I don't think I caught your name last night."

I glared at the blue haired man. "That's none of your business."

"You remind me of my Master, it's almost scary." Lancer chuckled at his joke.

He looked me up and down. I crossed my arms over my chest trying not to lose my patience. I also gave his appearance a once over. Instead of the blue jumpsuit he had worn the night before, he had on a Hawaiian shirt and jeans. His hair was still styled in a ponytail. Lancer had weird fashion choices. He spoke again dragging me from my thoughts.

"How did such a cute girl like you get dragged into a nasty situation like this war?"

"Fate must hate me." I stepped away from the male Servant in an attempt to create more distance between us. "Well, if you'll excuse me."

Lancer didn't protest to my leaving and went back to doing whatever he was doing before. I hadn't got to spend much time around the Lancer that Rin had summoned so I honestly didn't know what to expect from him. He seemed awful flirtatious and somewhat perverted towards all females. I wouldn't blame Rin if she had used a Command Seal to force Lancer not to flirt with her. That thought made me smile.

"I hope I don't run into any other Servants or familiar faces."

Fate just loves to screw with me.

I caught a glimpse of red out of the corner of my eye. My heart skipped a beat as I turned to look in the direction of the man I could never forget. Archer stood not fifty feet from me talking animatedly with a young man who couldn't be much older than Shirou. He had dark, well-kept hair that accented his mystifying purple eyes. His expression was awfully serious for one so young. The young man wore a school uniform but judging by the fact that he wasn't in school, I wagered he was in college and had skipped today for some reason. My eyes didn't linger for very long on the stranger and soon were completely focused on Archer. He was whispering furiously to his Master about something that obviously didn't please him. The temptation to hear his voice again was too much and I found myself drawing closer to the pair. I stopped within a few feet of them and listened to their conversation.

"-if I attacked him now I would have to kill everyone in sight."

The man shrugged. "I was just stating that attacking him now would be beneficial to us. I never meant to follow through with my observation. Besides, casualties will occur whether we want them to or not. That's the consequences of war, Archer."

"Your complete lack of concern for other humans is astonishing Master."

Archer suddenly looked up and glanced around him. I silently gasped and quickly turned my back and walked away as fast as I could. He must have picked up on my prana signature; why else would he have looked up nervously? Was that why Lancer was able to recognize me without being in my 'Servant' clothing? There had to be some way to avoid being detected by other Servants. I would need to look into it when I got the chance.

Once I was sure I was far enough away from Archer, I stopped for a moment to catch my breath. A few people glanced at me curiously as they passed but didn't say anything to me. My mind now turned to the issue of Archer. It hadn't hit me until now but at some point I might have to fight Archer. My stomach got tied up in knots just thinking about it. Could I go all out against the man who had been my rock and anchor during my own war? Could I kill the man I loved? If I didn't wish for my own death then I had no choice in the matter. I began walking towards Shirou's house, my mind still mulling over the prospect of me fighting against Archer.

This war just got a lot more complicated.

~xXxXx~

DD 62: And thus this chapter comes to an end. I apologize for how long this one turned out to be but trust me it's better than the first attempt. Not a lot of action in this chapter but I hope to more than make up for it in the next. Okay, maybe not a ton of action in the next but I digress. Reviews are welcome and appreciated. Until next time!