Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own PJ or FSN

Fuyuki City

Japan

Universe 616

December 19, 2009

3 months Post 5th Holy Grail War/ Last Grail War

11:45pm

The young man stood atop of Mount Enzou, among the collapsed ruins of Ryuudou Temple, looking down upon the ruined district of Fuyuki with eyes filled with sorrow on what he had wrought here. But not regret. Never regret.

"So this is where you're hiding, onii-chan," spoke a voice from behind him. Its tone soft and sympathetic.

The young man turned to the owner. His messy black hair swaying in the brisk winter breeze, dark crimson trenchcoat turning to follow his solid six and a half foot frame and his almost metallic green eyes focused firmly on the speaker.

"I am hardly hiding, Ilya," he spoke. His voice firm, deep and with a hint of amused reproach.

The now identified Ilya, also known as Ilyasveil von Einzbern, swept her long white hair back behind her childish doll-like body as she looked at the young man. Her scarlet eyes piercing his own.

"Well you certainly didn't tell anyone where you were going and when you would be back, Shirou," she reproved.

Shirou turned back to the sight of the destroyed city.

"I just wanted to get things in perspective," he sighed.

"Can you believe it has been three months. Three months since the end of yet another three month long war. Hidden from the eyes of men in a city cut off from outside contact, a free for all between over 50 Heroic Spirits and their partners. All for a wish they would never get. All for the amusement of a now destroyed deity and a golden tyrant. All because the deity was losing his access to the the world through the Grail and wanted to leave his last piece of spite. The end result being nothing more than a ruined city, an immense loss of lives and a land cursed to be little more than a graveyard for those bodies that had been CONSUMED BY THE MONSTERS OF THIS WAR." His voice warped and rose as reached the end of his rant and brought a fist down on a piece of still standing wall that shattered upon contact. Seeing Ilya flinch slightly at his actions and words, Shirou took a deep calming breath.

"It is nothing but a sick joke" he finished bitterly.

Ilya looked at her brother with concern. She knew he took it hard that he couldn't save everyone here. Even the vaunted [Second Magus Killer], the [Strongest Steel], he who crossed the world with his swords leading the way was anguished at what happened. Even with all the experience he had walking with their father Kiritsugu after the 4th War, even with all the power he had to make the Church, Dead Apostle Ancestors and the Association itself give him a wide berth, even with the understanding that he could not save everyone. It still tore away at his soul. Saving people was second only to one thing in his life, his family. If he would kill one to save another, he would destroy Heaven itself, despite the consequences at large, to save his family.

"I agree. It is a very sick joke." a soft voice spoke, surprising the homunculus but Shirou didn't even twitch.

"I was wondering when you would appear... Zelretch." Shirou said calmly turning to eye his sometime mentor and user of the Kaleidoscope.

Old was the first thought that came to both sibling's minds as they looked at him. The usual wild humour was absent in his solemn red eyes and his tall frame seemed bowed and shrunken under the weight of the formal coat he wore. It seemed as if a brisk wind would make him fall, never to rise again.

"What brings you here Marshall?" questioned Shirou as he reached to rub the hollow of his right shoulder and the scar there. A parting and lingering gift from a Dead Apostle Ancestor he had slain. A gift which twisted his existence slightly towards one of Apostles. Thankfully he was barely touched. Only a leaning towards the night, small instincts and a liking for rare meat seemed to be left. Except in dire circumstances.

"I just finished my investigations into the phenomena you have been experiencing." Zelretch answered, striding toward the man to stand alongside him to also view the remains of the city.

Shirou frowned to himself, brows furrowed. Recently his magecraft had been slightly off. Whenever he had enacted his Mysteries he had felt Gaia respond. Normally this would be of no concern as all Mysteries enacted by any magus would eventually by rejected by Gaia. However, his had, for the last six weeks or so, seemed to almost be specifically targeted. To the point that the spells enacted lasted less than minute in comparison to lasting many hours or days in some cases. He had been using work arounds to avoid the problem but it seemed Gaia had learned and crushed those aswell, by which time he knew something was up and had contacted Zelretch.

"Am I going to like the news you bring?" he asked the fanged man warily. He hugged his sister to him gently, seeking comfort. Ilya gladly gave it with her own embrace. Her hands around his thighs and face buried into the top of his stomach.

"No." Zelretch answered bluntly, his sorrowful eyes looking into the swordsman's own unflinchingly.

"The reason your spells are breaking down is because Gaia is rejecting you."

Puzzled, Shirou raised an eyebrow in question.

Zelretch continued, "It seems that your existence is not native to this dimension. Not just reality, but dimension,"

The brother and sister pair looked at him utterly shocked at this bombshell. Ilya recovered slightly, a testament to her maggus training, and asked,

"What do you mean dimension?"

"Realities are simple to understand. A reality is the difference between a man going left and a man going right. That slight change is all that is needed for a reality to exist. Due to the small differences this is what allows me to shift beings and objects between realities without getting bitchslapped by the Counterforce or Gaia. Dimensions are a different kettle of fish entirely. The differences may seem small on the outside from Gaia's perspective initially. Human dominant, declining magic ecetera ecetera However the difference lies beneath the surface, like the iceberg you don't see. The fundamental laws of how the world functions. Gravity, evolution, creation of souls aand things of that nature." Zelretch explained to a progressively more stunned pair.

"The problem," he stressed, "is that Gaia is treating you as a foreign body and trying to burn you out of her system. The only reason you have yet to cease to exist is because of your reality marble which places your thinking in an alien line og thought thus making it hard for her to directly target you. If you fully manifest your marble now, however, she would crush you from existence with zero warning."

Shirou embraced Ilya tightly, feeling her tears roll down her face through his shirt. Crying, because her brother was death row by the planet herself. Face hardening, he looked directly at Zelretch, grim determination lining his features and asked for solutions.

Zelretch sighed, " The only way for you to live, is to leave. Return to your home dimension and cut your ties here. I can do this right here, right now. If you don't, I would give you maybe a week, two at the outside, before she crushed you."

"I can't just abandon my sister," Shirou growled.

"And you won't be," Zelretch interupted, "I can easily send her with you and alter her dimensional signature so that it is the same as yours thus allowing her to exist there. The reason you were not destroyed when you came here by whatever means, is that your body passed through the nexus of dimensions which scrambled your signature. As you got older though it has begun to wear off thus leading to this situation."

Shirou was silent for a moment before he knelt in front of his sister and looked her in the eye. Tears were still trickling down her face causing a twinge in his heart. Gently his rubbed his thumbs along her cheeks, wiping away the tears and smiled softly and sadly at her.

"What do you think, Ilya? Want to go on another adventure?" He asked.

"We have nothing here. Our Home was destroyed, Sakura and Rin and Taiga are dead, all our knowledge and objects we own are in the sheath." She answered before tremulously smiling at her brother before finishing.

"My answer is yes."

Standing tall and gripping Ilya's right hand in his left, the man who could slay Servants, the man who was both praised and reviled, the man who was called the [King of the End] and the [Hero of the New Age] nodded tightly to the Old Man of the Jewels.

"Do it." he said firmly.

Without another word, Zelretch passed his hand over a space in the air which oddly enough created a black portal surrounded by green lightning which seemed oddly familiar to the young man.

Striding in step the siblings walked forward and as they pass Zelretch, he briefly touched Ilya with a murmured word causing her to glow briefly. Without slowing they walked calmly into the portal which snapped shut after they passed.

Zelretch looked at the now empty air and murmured into the winter breeze before disappearing with a rainbow light.

"Fare thee well, Warrior. You will be missed."

New York City

America

Origin Verse

December 20, 2009

12:00am

The portal spat them out in an alley on Broadway. Not that they knew that at the moment. Picking themselves off the ground and looking around, Ilya asked the obvious question.

"Where are we?"

And that ends this chapter. Hope you like the explanation. sorry if it is a bit rushed but I wanted to get to he interaction between someone raised in FSN and the current world of Percy/Shirou's birth. Monsters beware, someone worse than Artemis stalks the night. Please review, Peace out.

kujikiri21