ALTERED KALEIDOSCOPE

DISCLAIMER : I DO NOT OWN FATE. FATE BELONGS TO TYPE-MOON AND NASU KINOKO. I OWN ONLY MY OC. ANY RESEMBLENCE TO REAL PERSON OR PEOPLE ARE MERE COINCIDENCE. NO FINANCIAL PROFIT IS MADE FROM THIS. THIS IS FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY.

A/N And I'm back. Sorry for the long wait, but this new semester is seriously killing me. Anyway, here I am with a double update, done by my dearest and very much appreciated publisher, SPR. Thank you so much for being such a great friend. Enjoy the story, and do review. They fuel my day.

CHAPTER 2

"Dad, what are you doing?" Kiritsugu's voice was like a whisper, and his face bore no expression. It was as if nothing in the world that could awaken the emotions that had died in him when he had seen the horrifying scene before him.

Norikata stood up, and stumbled over to his son, kneeling down before him and taking the boy by his shoulders. "Kiritsugu, I finally did it. I will know now, whether my researches was worth the time and effort. I have to know, I need to know. The Emiya's research, it is time to know whether it has reached the result we want."

He tore his gaze away from his father. "Why..." That was the only thing he managed to croak out.

"Kiritsugu, please understand this. We are Magus. This is what we do. We are what the others out there call cold, heartless, and calculating." He tried to reason with his son, who was shutting his father's voice out.

"Father, would you do the same thing to me someday?" He asked, his voice flat, devoid of any emotions.

Norikata snapped out of his trance by the unexpected question. To the Magus, Kiritsugu was still a boy, and he had no need to know the cruelty of the world he had dealt with. "Don't be ridiculous, Kiritsugu. A Dead Apostle is what I'm after, but if..."

He gestured towards the writhing body of his young assistant, who was screaming in pure agony. It was a wonder his son had not fled when the sound began to fill their isolated workshop. "...the one serum I've created give rise to Dead Apostles that can't suppress its bloodlust, then it is a failure. Shirley here will tell me which end I have come across."

"And...if you fail?" He asked, not really caring about the answer.

The older Magus actually smiled at his son. "Then we'll escape. I'll continue my research afresh, at another place."

"Can we still escape?"

"I hid a motorboat on the southern coast, in case something like this happened." He answered, and turned back to admire his work.

Shirley continued to writhe in pain, her screams echoing in the wooden planked workshop. She got onto her elbows and snarled like a wild animal. Her eyes rolled back into her head, as her neck arched back like a wolf about to howl. When she turned her attention to the two of them, they were blood red in color.

"A Dead Apostle..." Norikata whispered in fascination, like a child.

Shirley snarled, baring her now sharp canine and pounced on the two of them. Norikata quickly pushed his son to the side, and the boy crashed into a shelf, the glassware showering down around him, shattering into pieces. Shirley landed on all fours, snarled and turned to Kiritsugu, who watched her with evident fear in his eyes.

"Ke... Kerry... " She croaked out, her voice hoarse, her pupils dilating.

He picked himself off the floor, taking a shaky step towards the girl. "Shirley?"

The older girl quickly scooted away from him, waving her arms in front of her frantically, as if warding off the devil itself. Her eyes watered at the sight of the boy with a blank expression. She couldn't bring herself to look at him, knowing that it was her who had scarred the boy.

"Kerry...stay away from me..." She hissed, the urge to drink blood clouding her mind from her rational thinking. No, I cannot give in to the desire. I cannot hurt Kerry...

Her body convulsed in clear desire for blood, but she fought the urge down, digging her nails into the floor, forcing herself to stay where she was.

"Ru..."

Kiritsugu took another step forward, trying to catch what she had said. "Shirley?"

"RUN!" She screamed at his face before springing up at the boy. He fell onto his back, the Dead Apostle pinning him down onto the floor, her strength surprising him. He winced from the pain in his wrists, and suddenly all the emotions he thought had left him flooded his systems again.

He stared, wide-eyed and scared at the elder girl above him, who bared her canines and brought them close to his neck, her breath hot on his nerves. She licked his neck, eliciting a whimper from the frightened boy. She brushed her canine against his jugular, feeling his racing pulse.

At the sight, Norikata tried to pull the girl off his son, but her monstrous strength had her overpowering the middle-aged man, pushing him to the side with little effort. The Magus watched in fear as she pulled herself away from his son, licking her lips, then leaning in quickly, almost biting Kiritsugu's neck.

Before her canines could do any permanent damage to the boy, she pulled herself away and dashed out from the door, leaving father and son in the workshop, along with the shattered glasswares. Norikata picked his son up, and searched for any visible injuries and found none, much to his relief.

"Come on, Kiritsugu, we have to leave this place."

The boy looked at his father in the eyes and voiced the obvious question. "Why?"

He sighed, not wanting to continue the conversation. "Shirley has to lead me to the end result I've been trying to find. It seems that my research is headed in the wrong direction. Everything will have to start from the drawing board. Even the theories I've worked on has to be left behind. It's time, to start anew."

"Like what we have been doing? Going from place to place? Never having a true home? Always on the run?"

He let out a louder sigh this time, but his young son didn't seem to get the meaning. "Kiritsugu, I have to be on the run. There are people out there, coming after my head. I don't want to drag you into this. Plus, it's time to end things on this island. Sorry Kiritsugu, but I don't think we have time for you to pack your things. "

"Ah..." He murmured as if in a trance. "...it's time to end things."

If Norikata had paid more attention to his son, he would have noticed the tone his son was using. Just like what Shirley had done, the boy dashed out from the workshop. His father rushed after the boy, who made a run towards the house and stopped abruptly at the front door.

The elder Magus slowed down and cautiously came closer to his son. "Kiritsugu?"

The answer he got came in the form of a hit to the head. Kiritsugu had picked up one of the potted flowers sitting on the porch. He swung the heavy thing against his father, and the elder man fell with a sickening thud to the cold floor, pressing a hand to his bleeding scalp, his eyes glazed as he looked on with a surprised look at the dented pot in his son's hand.

"... ..." Kiritsugu stood there, heaving, the pot still clutched in both his hands.

"Ki... Kiritsugu... What's the meaning of this?" His father asked through the haze of pain.

He took a step nearer, staring down at his father's dark eyes, filled with fear. His own reflected no emotions. "Remember what I said? That it's time to end things?"

"What?" Norikata slurred.

"You, a Magus, who dedicated his entire life, seeking immortality by turning people into Dead Apostles. Of all the places we've been to, all the places we left in a haste, how many of them were turned into the blood-sucking abomination by your hands? It's time to end this meaningless research."

"Kiritsugu..."His father began but never got the chance to continue whatever he had wanted to say. Kiritsugu straddled him, and brought the pot over his head slamming it down, again and again.

Norikata brought up his arms to protect his head, but the force of the hit soon fractured his arms, leaving them limp and useless. Unprotected, the pot hit his head again and again. Bones cracked, and gave away under the force, cerebrospinal fluid oozing from the cracks, mingling with the blood which flowed freely from the man he called a father. His eyes were wide open, filled with a fear. Blood trickled from his nostrils and ears, but he was quite dead.

The boy let the pot go, and the dented thing rested beside him once dropped from his grasp. His face, arms, and clothes were drenched in blood, but he didn't seem to notice as he got up from his father, his breathing fast and short. He let himself fall onto his back, eyes boring into the ceiling above his head, his mind trying to process what he had done.

He felt no remorse in killing his father. He felt no sadness from the death he had just witnessed. He did not feel disgusted at the blood he was covered in. In fact, he could feel nothing. It was as if he had become a machine when he decided things needed to end. He knew, that if he let his father leave the island, he would continue his research somewhere else, and the same thing would happen all over again.

He sat up and murmured. "Dad, were you the one who caused mom her death?"

No answer. His father was dead, killed by his own hands.

He stood up, and kicked his father in the side once, twice, thrice. No answer, no whimper. He crouched down and closed his father's eyes. He might have come to hate his father, but he was his father nonetheless.

"The end, huh? Not quite, though..." He remembered what the elder girl had said to him on that night, when they had been together, enjoying the night time scenery.

The power to change the world...and one day, it will be yours...

"It is mine now..." He said, looking down at his father's corpse. He knew the Emiya crest was on his father's hand. To him, he felt that having a crest at the arm gave enemies a bigger chance to cut the appendage off to get the crest. "Fool..."

He searched around him and found a knife stashed away in the toolbox. He ran a finger down its blade, then placing the blade on his father's arm, he surgically cut off the appendage, facing some difficulty when the bone got in the way. Growing frustrated, the boy let out a grunt and tossed the knife aside, ripping the appendage until the thing came off.

He smiled at his trophy and stood up, picking up the bottle of kerosene in the corner, pouring it over his father and the floor. A small fire was it needed to start a big fire. Kiritsugu fished out a lighter and set the place he called a house on fire.

Kiritsugu then headed into the workshop and rummaged the place over, looking for something. The boy got frustrated when he couldn't find what he was after, and kicked one of the shelves hard. A leather bound notebook fell onto the ground, the pages opened to a certain page. He picked the book up, and read the contents. What he read left him wide eyed. But he regained his composure fairly quickly and poured kerosene over the place, pouring a trail out into the open, and ignited the flames.

He took off into a run after his actions, standing at the edge of the forest while looking back at the rapidly burning house and workshop. The eternally blooming flowers swayed, as if saying goodbye to the boy. A stray tear found its way down the boy's cheek, but he hardened his heart, turned and ran into the forest, leaving the burning house, his memories behind.

A motorboat sped its way towards the island, heading for one of the steepest cliffs on the island. Once the engine of the boat was heard as a low rumble on the island, the woman killed the engines and let the motorboat move on with its momentum. It was halted by the boulders lining the bottom of the cliff, which covered the entire south part of the island.

The woman on board jumped down from the boat, holding a coil of thick rope in her hands. She secured one end of the rope to her boat, and the other to a boulder. All the while, her eyes darted around, keeping watch on unwanted visitors. Pulling at the rope, she tested the fastening, convinced that the boat would not drift off with the waves, pulled some of her gear from the boat, and stuck a cigarette in her mouth.

Lighting the cigarette, and letting it dangle from the corner of her mouth, she stared up at the cliff, which proved to be a difficult climb. The waves crashing against the waves caused the surface to be slippery. The mosses were in abundance, as the secluded cliff receive little light. Not to mention the number of handholds and footholds on the cliff. A novice could take one look at it and peed his pants, but not the huntress. She knew, any other "people" who attempted to climb the cliff was on the way to suicide, but not her.

A smirk made its way onto her face. In her field of profession, she was known to have a poker face. A woman knew with a pale countenance, more aptly described as expressionless than cold and cruel. But now, with no one but her around, she could afford a smirk every now and then. She spits the cigarette from her mouth, and ground the stub under her heels, eyeing the top of the cliff to let her estimate the distance. She flexed her muscles, and she could feel the adrenaline rushing through her veins, urging her heart to beat faster, and enjoy the hunt in front of her.

Bending her knees, and channeling mana through her body, she prepared herself for the action. Taking a deep breath, she jumped as high as she could with her reinforced legs, and held on to a protruding ledge. With her face to the cliff, she swung inwards, her soles coming into contact with the rocky surface. With another heave, she back flipped upwards, grabbing another boulder and repeating the process until she landed on the top of the cliff, straightening up and eyed her surroundings warily.

It was too quiet for the experienced Enforcer to know that something was wrong. Very wrong. There was not even the sound of crickets singing or owls hooting. The only sounds she could hear was her own breathing, her heart beating and the rustling of leaves in the cool, night breeze. She pulled out her holster, trained eyes scanning the surroundings. There was nothing except trees and bushes around her. The forest seemed to be devoid of any other life forms.

Natalia took a step forward, her boot snapping a twig, and the sound sounded like a gunshot in the silence. She abruptly stopped, waiting for a sound, any sound, and again heard none. Instead, the smell of burning wood assailed her nostrils, and at the end of the forest, she could see orange flames. Instincts overrode her, and the mercenary dashed forward, agilely dodging around the trees, low branches and roots.

She soon neared the bounded fields near the area, and casting a quick spell, she familiarized herself with the structure of the field before moving on to tear it down. She removed the bounded field without much effort and made the way towards the burning house. The flames were beginning to spread, and despite the intense heat, she noted something amiss in the fire.

A body lay on the burning porch, and reinforcing her eyes only verified her guess. Judging from the body size, it was no doubt the body of Emiya Norikata, the man she was hunting down. His head was heavily battered, and he seemed to be missing one arm. Natalia stepped back from the flames, and edged back into the woods, lighting another cigarette and put it in her mouth.

Someone came here before I did, and killed him? How? And who was it?

The thought kept bugging her mind, but she could not come up with any explanations. Even the flames were of the mundane type, unlike the ones started by Magus with an Elemental Affinity for fire. It was crude, simple and mundane. Natalia knew deep inside her that it was not the work of a Magus, at least not an orthodox one.

She kept an eye on the burning house, the other on the workshop, where it was welcoming the embrace of the flames. Magus from the Association would have extinguished the fire to save the researches inside, no matter how heretic the Magus conducting them might be. But not her. She would rather see the researches being burn than to clean up the mess that would be caused by other Magus after getting their hands on the notes.

She blew smoke into the air, letting her thoughts wander, and waited until nothing was left of the heretic's workshop.

Shirley madly dashed through the forest, her bloodthirsty mind making it difficult for her to focus on the task of getting away as fast as she could from the boy she loved dearly. To her, Kerry was more than just a friend. He was her brother. Her family. No matter what were the changes overcoming her body, her instincts told her that the boy was the most important person in the world to her, that she must protect him at all costs.

Kiritsugu was her everything. She never quite understood why she had warmed up to the boy so quickly when he first arrived on the island. He looked like any other average Japanese boy, though his name was quite weird in a way. She always had a hard time trying to pronounce his name right, so she ended up calling him Kerry. The name was soon used by all the other children on the island. Thinking back, perhaps it was his warm smile which drew her attention in the first place and his carefree way.

She stopped, panting for breath and let herself slid down to the ground with her back against a tree. With her enhanced senses, she could smell the burning wood in the distance, and hear footsteps coming towards her way. The enhanced senses had her more self-aware, knowing that she was no longer a human. She was an abomination. The footsteps sounded louder by the minute, and she knew who it was before the person even came into view. She could smell him before he got close, and a pair of crimson eyes met a pair of night black ones.

"Kerry..." She whispered, fighting down her brain's desire to lunge forward and sink her fangs into the boy's neck. She knew she was changing, she was no longer a human, and there was nothing either of them could do about it, but the boy still came for her, like it was the most common thing to do.

"Shirley." He responded in kind. The blank expression he previously wore gave way to a soft smile, the smile that she loved, and he dropped the appendage to the ground, taking a few steps towards the older girl. " Finally, I have the power..."

"The power?" She echoed, not really understanding what he was talking about. The suddenly it clicked, and her eyes widened in horror at the appendage by his feet. "Kerry, you...you killed sensei?"

He looked up into the canopy of trees over his head. "Ah... I did. He was a worthless man. If I let him leave this island, nobody knows how many people will suffer the fate you've suffered... In fact, I have no idea how many innocent lives he'd taken so far."

Her eyes blurred, her bloodlust momentarily forgotten as she sank to her knees and cried. The boy walked over to the girl, crouched down, and wanted to hold her in an embrace, but one look at his blood covered hands stopped the boy in his actions. Instead, he sighed, not sounding like the young boy he was. He sounded too mature for his age.

"Shirley, I'm a Magus, but it doesn't mean I have to like one. There's no telling how many heretics are out there, conducting similar researches and pulling the innocents into this. You said it yourself, didn't you? This is a power to change the world, and I will do so, in a right way."

Her eyes pleaded the boy to contemplate his actions. She did not want to lose the sweet little boy she had knew and loved. The person in front of her was Kerry, but at the same time, he wasn't Kerry. "Kerry, please, don't do this... Don't..." Her hands moved to grasp the boy by his shoulders.

"I'm sorry..." He apologized and smiled. "You asked me, what I want to be when I grow up? I guess, I still don't know the answer. But will you still keep your promise?" At the questioning look in her eyes, he smiled. "That you will see with your own eyes on what I will become?"

She nodded, her face melancholy. "But... Look at what I've become..."

He smiled and gently caressed her cheek fondly. "Ah, don't worry. You'll work your way around it... Father didn't select you to become his assistant just because you have magic circuits. He knew more than you know about yourself."

"Huh?" The girl asked, blinking in confusion.

"A Magus does not let one into the family secrets. But you, Shirley, you know far more of our magic when compared to the fellow practitioners out there, including those who are after us. Father, he knew all along, that you are the key to his success. That's why he chose you."

"Kerry? What are you talking about?" She asked, holding him by the shoulders. He didn't sound like the boy she had known. After he found out what his father had been doing, something inside him snapped.

He smiled, and hugged the girl. "Shirley..."

Natalia watched the place burned down into rubbles, and turned to leave. She had lost all her interest when her target had been taken out by someone else. Some sort of amateur, no doubt. She thought to herself bitterly and pulled the cigarette from her mouth, blowing out smoke. Her blue eyes never stopped scanning her surroundings, as she found her bearing and made the decision to return to her boat.

Fallen leaves rustled to her right, and she immediately pulled out her holster, aiming it at the shadow emerging from the sea of trees. Her eyes widened at the sight of a boy covered in blood. More sickening was the appendage he held in his hand. It was roughly cut off, judging from the jagged surface, and the blood was just beginning to crust. She swore under her breath but said nothing.

Kiritsugu smiled, not really afraid of the gun aimed point blank at his head. "Is that your way of greeting people? Kinda rude of you, no? Especially after you trespassed my property first."

"That burning house. Yours?" She asked, containing her surprise at the boy standing before her. She could sense a weak flow of mana from him. Hence, there was no doubt that he was a Magus.

"You can say that if you want to. It was my home."

Natalia narrowed her eyes. She noted the use of past tense used but decided not to press on the issue. Instead, she focused on the piece of broken limb in his hand. "And that?"

"Oh, this?" He asked casually, waving the appendage. "A souvenir. You know, you can't hide things from me. Are you after a Sealing Designate?"

"And if I am?"

He smirked. "I guess you underestimate what a boy can do, don't you? The Sealing Designate you were hunting was my father, Emiya Norikata. I can guess why he pissed the whole lot of you off since that was the reason I killed him."

Natalia lowered her holster but didn't put it away. "You killed him? For what?"

His eyes seemed to burn with hatred. "He had killed countless people on his so-called quest to reach Akasha. Even if reaching Akasha is what every Magus wish for, such tactics shouldn't be used. He's dragging innocent lives into things, and I can guess, this island is not his first stop. We had traveled all over the world for these past few years, with you hounds hot on our tails. If I don't stop him now, I have no idea how many people will be dragged into this."

"That's your reason for killing him?" She asked.

"Ah..."

She put the holster away. "That's a poor reason for a son to kill his father."

Then, as if the full intensity of his actions hit him, Kiritsugu sank to his knees, and threw the bloody appendage at the woman in front of him, his frame shaking wildly. His tears were dry, no matter how much he could cry over the situation.

His father, dead by his hands...

His house, burnt by his hands...

And...

And Shirley, an Apostle, freed by his hands...

Kiritsugu looked into those icy blue orbs and forced a smile onto his lips.

"You really are a good person."

Natalia didn't reply him. Instead, she stooped to pick up the appendage, then turned her back to the boy. "I'll get you off the island. After that, you must decide things for yourself. Anything you want to take with you?"

Kiritsugu smiled at the question, and stood up. "Nothing..." He mumbled, slipping back to his emotionless self, trying to bury the pain he was feeling back into the deepest corner of his heart.

The two of them headed back to Natalia's motorboat, and the mercenary ignited the engines and roared away from the blazing island.

The fire, started by the young Magus Killer, had turned into a blazing inferno. The island, engulfed in the flames, radiated a beauty he couldn't describe. Deep inside his heart, he held on to the belief that the island was where his ideals were based on, and he would chase after them, no matter what the cost might be.

Shirley had pointed out the path he should take, and sacrificed herself in the process. But, things were not over yet. Even if her mind was controlled by blood-lust, so long as mana flowed through her veins, Kiritsugu knew that it was not the end for Shirley.

He turned to the woman driving the motorboat, and the box beside her, holding the appendage he took off from his father.

"So what now? You can go and take the reward since I have no use of the money. But what about the crest?"

She didn't even spare a glance at the boy. "Your father was a Dealing Designate, or have you forgotten? His researches mean a lot to the Association for them to want him under custody while continuing on with it. So, naturally, his crest must be handed over to the Association"

He tore his gaze away. "I just, remember what a friend said to me, that whatever that man was working on, it was a world changing power..."

She eyed his out of the corner of her eye, and sighed. "I'll work something out..."

As the duo left the island, they didn't realize another boat leaving the island in a completely different direction, carrying a certain Dead Apostle Ancestor, who went by the alias, Crown. The centuries old Ancestor had his arms around a shaking Shirley, who was looking at the boat her dear friend was on.

Merem was looking at the boat as well, but he signaled the Executors to get them away as fast as they could before the mercenary on board knew of their presence. The boy knew about them and has entrusted the young girl in his arms to them.

"Kerry... if this is your answer, then I shall keep my promise..." He heard the girl whispered.

"What answer?" He asked, intrigued to know.

She shook her head, looking at him with her blood red eyes. "It's a promise between us."

Merem grinned. He may be an old Ancestor, and also a traitor, but there were still certain things for him to care about in their world. The girl in his arms was one of them now. She wasn't the treasure he had come after for, but with the right nourishment, she might bloom into something great.

"I guess, you are with me now, Tiara..." He called her by her new name.

She bowed. "Indeed, dear Master..."

After fleeing the island, I made my mind to stay with the woman by the name Natalia Kaminski. That meant, following down the same path, the path of a hunter.

But I bore in my mind, that whatever promises I made with Shirley back on Alimango Island, I will fulfill them. And she will be watching me until my ideals bear fruition.

I entrusted her to Crown, one of the few Burial agents out there. And I made a pact with him. He was the Devil all right, but at least he agreed to my terms. He would keep Shirley safe, and teach her to control her thirst for blood. Hopefully, things wouldn't turn on me in the long run. Appearance wise, Crown and I might be of the same age, but mentally wise, the both of us differ by a great margin.

The both of them might not know it yet, but Shirley, she's special.

Her Origin.

The starting point that defines one's existence and direct one's actions throughout life. It is the driving force from the inside of Akasha, the Origin of everything, that managed to stream out from the source and take material form. All humans match their actions to be in harmony with the driving force that that originated from them the moment they enter into the world.

Kiritsugu, my name itself had been a symbol of my own Origin. Severing and Binding.

But...

What was it that had driven the girl in her life so far? The carefree girl I had come to love more than as a sister in his short stay? That was the one and only thing I would never share to anyone.

Oh, am I glad to see you all still here? I hope I don't bore you all.

And here we are, at the end of the incident which would make Kiritsugu into a different Magus Killer that you all know. He still has the hatred towards the Magus who conducted experiments on innocent Humans, but his hatred now is even deeper.

Why? Because he saw a Magus forcing a Human to drink a potion. And that Magus was his father, the Human his dear friend. Such tragedy broke him, emotionally and mentally.

But perhaps there is still salvation for him. Shirley. She's not really out of the picture yet. With Crown with her, I cannot imagine what future has in store for this domain of the Kaleidoscope.

Now, youngsters, do you wish an old man like me to continue with the life of this boy, or shall we leap through time to see the lives of the other chosen seven? I shall await your answer in patience.

Til next time...

R&R plz~