Thanks to everyone that reviewed or simply read this, I am trully grateful that you liked it. Special thanks to gmsephiroth and Yuleen.

WARNING: Involves established fictional characters, which may or may not fit within the reader's preconception about said characters.

DISCLAIMER: Relevant characters and source materials belong to their respective copyright owners. The author lays claim to the rest. Use for non-commercial purposes only.

Turning back the pendulum
Chapter II – The Dawn of Departure

-."I can't change the direction the wind blows, but I can adjust
my sail to always arrive at my destiny.".- James Dean

-

It was a normal and peaceful Sunday morning at the Emiya residence. The birds outside were chirping happily and the sunshine began to fill the almost empty house. It wasn't until the bright rays hit his face that the young tracer woke up.

He opened his deep brown eyes and yawned lazily. Standing up, he went to do his normal morning routines before heating up some leftovers from the day before in the microwave. He ate in silence and thought about everything that had happened that week.

It's been more than a month since he last talked to Rin about his dream and the time travel idea. In that time, Shirou made sure everything was left in order before going on his little adventure. Rin spread the news about him going to England to study business and that he would most likely stay to live there. He had refused to take part of the lie at first but after been asked by his classmates he knew that he couldn't really tell them the truth, so he played along.

Fujimura and Sakura were another story. He talked to the older woman after he had finished his last exam, asking her if he could talk to her at the park after the end of the day. He remembered that day perfectly.

- - -

The sun was already setting, giving the whole park a mysterious glow that reminded Shirou of his fight with Rider, which already seemed so long ago.

"…And really! I can't believe you didn't tell me before that you were going to England!" Taiga exclaimed. She had been talking about his 'plans' the whole walk, asking questions and making jokes. The young man commented just when necessary, but overall, remained silent.

They reached a deserted part of the park and sat on a bench. "But anyways, did you want to talk about something?"

Shirou exhaled, "It's… kinda hard to explain actually… I think I'll start by telling you the whole thing from the beginning…" And he told her about how he became a master and how he fought in the War for the Holy Grail. She listened to him carefully, not interrupting him, her expression so neutral that Shirou was starting to get second thoughts about telling her where he was going. "…and that's all that happened."

She didn't speak for a while, looking at him closely to see if it was all a joke, but his expression told her otherwise. "Why are you telling me this now, Shirou?"

"You see… I'm not actually going to England like everyone thinks. The other day I had a dream; a voice told me to go to the past to help Arthur, and as I told you, Saber is Arthur and I just can't ignore this, so I asked Tohsaka what she thought about the matter and she told me she had a dream too, but in her dream the stranger told her to help me, so she agreed to help me and right now she's preparing everything for me to be able to travel to the past and help Saber out." He explained quickly and he hoped she got all that because he had a hard time putting it together.

"WHAT?!" She exclaimed loudly, standing up from the bench they were sitting on. Her face was as red as a tomato and Shirou could have sworn he saw smoke coming out her body.

He slid a little further from her in the bench. "ABSOLUTELY NOT! You are not going alone to who knows where after just having a stupid dream! ARE YOU CRAZY SHIROU!? Is traveling through time even possible?!" All she was saying sounded so true.

The tracer shifted his eyes to the side,"I...you see... hmm... well," He continued to release a nonsensical string of babble for several seconds as the teacher looked at him sternly.

Taiga exhaled and glared at him, "I knew it, you don't even know what you want. You can't affort such a great risk for just some girl." She spat the words out like poison.

And as if a spell was casted on him, Shirou's fear and insecurities were replaced by anger. He stood up and stared at her straight on, "She is not just some girl! She's… very important to me. You don't know all the things we went through!" He exclaimed, leaving Fujimura speechless at his sudden outburst, not used to see him like this. "Please Fuji-nee…" He pleaded in a lower and pained tone, "Understand… I must do this, if I don't… I will be asking myself 'what if I had done it' for the rest of my life."

She looked at him for a while longer, her bottom lip standing out in a deep scowl. "It's too dangerous. What if you are not even sent to the right time? What if that dream is just a coincidence after all?"

"I already had the dream three times in less than a month; I don't think it's a coincidence." He replied more sharply than he intended to, avoiding the first question.

"But it's still too dangerous to go alone Shirou! Tohsaka is just a girl, she can't actually be able to do something like that." She winced, still pouting.

He put a hand on her shoulder, "Listen, I must do this. I can't sit here doing nothing and not listen to my heart. I trust in Tohsaka, I know she'll find the way."

She looked away from his eyes, "But… you can go to a well known college and…-"

He shook his head slowly and gave her a tender look, "Thank you, for always worrying about me Fuji-nee, you are really like a sister to me but… my place is not here anymore, please understand."

He felt her tremble slightly, "I... I don't want to... I don't want to lose my little brother..." She whispered with her eyes downcast. He squeezed her shoulder reassuringly.

"Sorry that I have to leave you..."

She trembled under his touch and shook her head, "No, I... You can't leave. I'm your guardian! I have to look after you!"

Shirou watched her and with determination he said, "I made my decision."

She wiped some tears away, "I… all right… If this is something you are sure you must do then I won't stop you, I'll support you even for the little time you have left here. But if you die there, I'll kill you!"

He laughed at her joke, hugged her like a brother would hug a sister and whispered a low "Thank you."

The teacher broke their embrace a bit and looked at him, "By the way... Don't you even think that you'll get away without answering me some questions about that Holy Grail war thing." She finished, giving his chest a soft poke.

Shirou chuckled nerveously and sweat dropped.

- - -

Now that he thought about it, she took it pretty well. She didn't even ask him why he didn't tell her about the war before, although she said that she knew something was odd and the only troublesome part was that he spent at least two hours answering her questions.

After their conversation, the next days passed like bliss; the results of the exams were out and he was glad that at least he could leave as a high school graduate.

All the seniors were hosting parties and little meetings every day and Shirou went to a few of them, enjoying himself at the fullest.

It was after the end of the last meeting that he decided to talk to Sakura about where he was going. He invited her to the last party, which was the graduation official's and she happily accepted the invitation.

- - -

The party was nice and they were having a good time talking and joking with everyone else but when some people began to leave Shirou used the opportunity to ask her if she wanted to take a walk. She agreed and they stepped out into the night streets.

He had to admit that she looked beautiful in her light blue dress and her high heels; her hair was in her normal fashion and she had applied some light make up.

They walked in silence for fifteen minutes until they reached a hill that oversaw part of the city. He sat down in the grass and motioned her to do the same. "I want to tell you something important." He started after she sat beside him.

She looked at him innocently, tilting her head to the left slightly, "What is it, Senpai?"

Explaining everything to her wouldn't be as hard as it was to Taiga, after all, Sakura knew about the Holy Grail and everything that had happened seeing that she was somehow involved. She even had been taken hostage at some point of it, leaving Rin, Saber and himself to rescue her. He shook the memories away and took a deep breath, "I am not going to England like everyone thinks… well, yes, I'm going to England, but not the one everyone knows." He babbled.

She looked at him with confusion, "What do you mean…?"

"What I mean is… I had this dream…" He told her about the dream and his agreement with Rin but didn't mention anything about his desire to see his servant again. "… and that's why I'm going to the past soon."

"Is this about… Saber?" She asked in her timid way, her eyes casted to the ground. Was he really so predictable?

"W-what? No, well, not entirely, I mean, I'm going because of the dream I had and-"

"You don't have to hide the truth from me, Senpai, you are a terrible liar…" She interrupted, looking at him with watery eyes.

Shirou frowned, sad to see her like this. Even if he was dense, he knew about his younger companion's affection towards him, that's why he thought it'll be fair to let her know the truth. "I'm sorry, Sakura."

"You don't have to apologize, you are just following your heart… like you always do… that's the reason why… the reason…" And she started sobbing uncontrollably. Shirou's heart sank at the sight, even if he didn't return her feelings he still cared a lot about her as a friend.

Not knowing what else to do, he quickly hugged her and rubbed her back with his right hand to calm her down. "I'm really sorry, Sakura…" He felt her cry harder against his chest as she held his shirt in a firm grip. He continued to hold her like this for a while longer, not saying a word until she calmed down.

She backed away from him looking dreadful, her makeup messed up, "I am such an idiot…"

"Of course you are not! You are a very good person! You always went to my house and helped me with the chores, cooked for me and-"

"Because I'm in love with you!" She shouted exasperated. Shirou mouth was half open but no sound came out. She sobbed a little bit more, averting her eyes again. "But I know…" She started again, still not looking at him, "I know that you don't love me like I love you. I've known for so long… but still I…I…" Shirou put a hand on her head and stroke her hair.

"Please don't say any more, Sakura…"

She looked at his apologetic eyes for a moment and then chuckled a little, "You are so kind, Senpai. This has to be awful for you, I'm sorry."

Shirou shook his head, "Nothing to be sorry about." And he smiled a little too.

"I… guess I won't be seeing you again?"

"I can't say that for sure but, I won't deny that you probably won't." He looked away with a sad expression.

"I understand…" She whispered, sniffing a bit. It broke his heart, but he already made his decision. "I'll never forget you… Shirou." She said in a calmer and firm tone.

Shirou looked at her surprised but smiled, "I won't forget you either, Sakura."

- - -

That has been a sad night. It was hard to leave the people he cared about but he didn't want to start regretting his decision so soon. Even if he didn't see them again, he would never forget them, they were part of him, and that will never change even if he went back a million years to the past.

As for the other people, although he is friendly he didn't have too many close friends, so he didn't need to tell anyone else the truth. Everyone was convinced that he was going to England, some of them even wanted to throw a farewell party for him, which he declined; he didn't really like farewells.

But what was making him worry the most was that he hasn't talked to Rin much that month. Every time he asked her when everything would be ready she shooed him away saying that she will tell when the time comes and for the looks of everything the time hasn't come yet, as he was still in this time plane, heating food on a microwave and sitting in a Japanese style table. The waiting was making him anxious but he promised he'll wait so he has to be patient.

He didn't have anything planned for that day so he decided that he would relax in the house, clean it a bit maybe. He sighed; he knew that he will need all the rest he could get before going on his quest. He didn't want to be unprepared if Rin suddenly popped in and tell him that everything is ready.

So the rest of the day he stayed in the house doing chores, sleeping extra hours, looking at some medieval books he borrowed from Issei that he already knew back and forward and slacking off for a change. The day moved on and before he knew it, it was dark outside. He yawned after cleaning the dishes and putting them in place. He took a glance at the clock; it marked 8:27PM.

He sat down in the living room and started reading one illustrated medieval book. He was so engulfed in it that he jumped when he heard the doorbell.

Asking himself who could be looking for him at this hour, he went to open the door. A black-haired girl smirked at him at the other side of it.

"Rin!" He exclaimed, not hiding his surprise. "I wasn't expecting you."

The mage prodigy frowned. "So you were expecting someone else?"

"What?" He looked at her confused, "Of course not, come in."

"No, I want you to come to my house. It is time." She replied in a serious tone.

"Huh? Really? Now?" He asked her with a bit of excitement. Good thing he slept extra hours today. She looked at him incredulously and nodded, "Can you wait for me? I have to get my stuff." She nodded again and waited for him outside. After a little while, he gathered everything he was taking, which wasn't much and took a last glance at his enormous house, "Father, good bye..." He whispered to the portrait of his foster father, Emiya Kiritsugu and then he closed the various doors and walked out. "All right, I'm ready."

"Did you… finish everything you had to do?" She asked looking at him.

He nodded, "I told Fuji-nee what to do with all that is left in the house."

"What about saying goodbye?"

"I did that too…" He said with a hint of sadness.

"What about Sakura?" She asked this in a low and pained tone. Shirou discovered not so long ago that Sakura is Rin's sister, it was a shock but it solved the puzzle between the two girls' connection.

"She… understood."

"That's… good, I guess." She looked around uncomfortably, "Well, let's go then."

- - -

When they arrived at her house, Shirou didn't know what to expect. He had no idea how this was going to work. He noticed on his way to her house that Rin wasn't in her normal shape; dark circles had formed around her eyes, probably from the lack of sleep, her hair was a little messy and she was a little… thinner? How so many flaws were obvious in such little time was beyond him, maybe it was because she was always gorgeous, who knows.

"Follow me." She told him when they were inside. He followed her down the stairs to the basement.

After she opened the door with a key, they walked in and as Shirou tried to take a peek inside she closed the door, getting rid of the little light that was coming from upstairs and leaving the room in complete darkness. Shirou flinched a bit as he felt her grab his arm and drag him somewhere.

He walked blind for a while before she let go of his arm and told him to stay still. He heard her footsteps as he stood perfectly still, not wanting to mess up. He heard her whisper something that sounded like one of her spells and suddenly, a faint light that resembled the moon's filled the room and Shirou's eyes widened at what he saw.

The whole room was empty but at his feet a gigantic magic circle was shining, filling the room with a faint purple glow. The complexity of it was greater than anything he had seen. He noticed that inside the circle was a shape of a six tipped star, red glowing gems placed in each tip of it. Around the circle were complicated magic scriptures that he had no idea what they meant.

Shirou glanced up at Rin, "This is incredible." He told her in awe.

She smirked and stepped in the circle beside him, looking around to fix any imperfection, "Of course, what did you expect?"

"You are late, Rin." A childish voice said.

Shirou's eyes widened and a joyfull smile spreaded on his face, "Illya!"

The little girl smiled sweetly at him and ran towards him, hugging him tightly, "I missed you, onii-chan!" The tracer hugged her back and stroked her silver blonde hair affectionately.

After a few seconds they broke apart and Illya's smile was replaced by a deep scowl, "When were you planing on telling me about your little trip, huh?" She scolded him.

Shirou sweatdropped and scratched his cheek, "I'm sorry Illya, I didn't want to cause you trouble."

Illya smiled, "Well, I know it now, no harm done, right Rin?"

"Yes, whatever." Rin replied with no interest while she looked around the room.

Shirou laughed softly, "But hey, now that I think about it, what are you doing here Illya?"

The child started passing around, "Rin asked for my help." She replied simply.

The older girl growled, "Unfortunately, my powers alone are not enough to help you. That's why I asked Illyasviel to come and lend some of hers."

Illya laughed playfully, "Rin is weak, so she needed my help." Rin glared at her and Shirou sweat dropped.

"So... Why now?" The red-haired teen asked looking around the room, "Why is now a good time?"

The older female master stopped walking and sighed, "First of all, we need to have a full moon for this to work. This room's roof resembles the night sky right now, so the moon rays can fill it." Shirou looked up and gasped as he noticed for the first time that the roof was indeed like the sky, clouds and all. "Second, today's luck reading is favorable." She stepped closer, now face to face to him. "And lastly, it gave you time to settle everything, didn't it?" She gave him that know it all smirk of hers and tapped his shoulder.

He just rolled his eyes, of course she needed time too, and he knew she was just too proud to admit it. "Yeah, yeah."

"Okay, let's get ready." She ordered.

"Good luck! I'll miss you. Say hi to Saber for me." Illya said, giving Shirou one last hug and running towards a spot near one tip of the star.

He waved Illya good-bye and glanced at the black-haired girl, "So, what do you want me to do, Rin?"

"Just stay there. Oh! I almost forgot. Eat this." Rin said and she handed him a small blue gem.

He looked at her and then at the gem on his hand with a puzzle expression. "W-what?"

"Eat it. It'll help you a lot, trust me."

He looked at the gem again and gulped, slowly putting it in his mouth and swallowing it. It didn't have any taste but it made him feel weird.

"Ew..." Illya exclaimed making a disgusted face.

Rin brushed her off, "With that you'll be able to understand and speak English perfectly; the effects will start in a couple of minutes." She said simply, grabbing some more gems from a table, "Don't worry, it won't hurt." She added in a mocking tone. He glared at her but nodded.

He silently waited for her to do something for five minutes, but when she didn't move he started to wonder, "Rin?"

"I'm sorry. I… it's just that I don't know if this will work, we could really mess up." Rin said in a low tone.

Shirou frowned. He wasn't used to see her afraid of messing up and he didn't like it, "Hey, don't worry, everything will be fine, I'm sure you two won't mess up!" He tried to sound cheery, but he was feeling a fair amount of uneasiness himself and he frowned deeper when she didn't reply and looked at the floor instead, "Listen, Rin, for as long as I've known you, you haven't made a fatal mistake in the magic department even once. Trust in yourself, I trust in you. Even Illya trusts you right?"

The young master looked at him with surprise and frowned, "Eh... Yes, of course." She said without much interest.

Rin looked up at his smiling face and gave him a smile of her own. A genuine one for once.

"You are such an idiot," she said with humor and walked up to him.

Shirou looked away, faking to be upset, "Well excuse me for been such a-" He felt a couple of hands hold his face and her lips touch his cheek. He felt panic, but was too shocked to move. Rin slowly pushed back from him soon after, her trade mark smirk on. "W-wh-what was that for?!" He uttered, looking at Illya's direction nerveously, the little girl seemed ready to kill Rin at any given moment.

"A good-bye gift." She said, winking an eye at him and walking away from the circle. Shirou scowled at her lame explanation, but decided to let it slide. Seriously, sometimes, women are too complex, he thought. "Aren't you going to do something about your clothes?" She asked, interrupting his thoughts and eyeing his choice of clothing: a white shirt, brown shorts, running shoes and his school bag.

"Oh, right." He closed his eyes and changed a few components of his clothes here and there and soon enough, his shirt and shorts were changed to a simple linen shirt and leggings, his shoes were now riding leather boots and his bag was a simple linen traveling bag. "How do I look?" He asked the girls jokingly.

"You look handsome onii-chan!" Illya beamed happily.

"You look like a cosplayer." Rin retorted, laughing softly."Now, remember Shirou: Don't get too involved with the things of the past, you going there is a big change by itself, I hope you at least studied a bit about the place you are going and its culture." Shirou nodded firmly, "Right. Well then, shall we begin?" He nodded again, too nervous to utter words. "Illyasviel, get ready." The little girl gave an approving sound, closed her eyes and a red aura started to radiate from her body while she murmured something lowly.

"Anfang einer neuen Reise." Rin began chanting. Shirou closed his eyes, hoping with all his soul that this would work. "Eine Reise das geschehen vorher. Führen diese Seele." By now, he knew the whole room was glowing and he could hear a high pitch sound. "Tapferkeit, Liebe und Krieg." The ground started shaking. "Heute sie geöffnet es von neuem." She finished with a shout.

Suddenly and very unexpectedly, he felt as if a rope was wrapped tightly around his waist and someone gave it a strong pull, knocking the air out of him. He opened his eyes widely at the pressure he felt. In one second he saw a glimpse of Rin falling on her knees and Illya passing out, a second later they were so tiny that he couldn't even tell them apart, then a lot of colors passed by his eyes at such speed that he had to shut them again. He couldn't move an inch and his whole body was tense.

And he prayed, prayed to every God he knew that he could make it out this strange experience in one piece. He prayed that he could land in the right place. And most of all, he prayed that he could see Saber again.

- - -

To be continued...

Rin's chanting: Beginning of a new journey. A journey that happened before. Guide this soul. Bravery, love and war. They open it anew.

And that's that. Next chapter will be uploaded soon and that's where the real story begins :) stay tunned.

-Arkueid