Thanks to everyone who reviewed, +alert, +fav or simply read it, you made my day :) 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 III – Into the Furnace of War

-."Men are like sapphires, some of them shine for themselves, and others shine
with the light they receive.".- José Marti

-

Shirou's feet hit solid ground again. His forehead was throbbing and he was feeling awfully dizzy. Shaking his head and contending against the urge to throw up, he tried to adjust his vision to his surroundings, the sun's rays blinding him as he did so.

By the way the sun burned his skin, he noticed that it should be around noon and he had landed in some kind of high cliff. Said cliff seemed deserted, its green vegetation giving it an air of tranquility. The warm wind was hitting his face hard, bringing with it a funny, yet familiar smell.

The smell of blood.

Very suddenly, loud clashing of swords could be heard followed by battle cries, thousands of them. He tilted his head slowly to the edge of the cliff forgetting his dizziness and his chocolate eyes widened at the scene below.

Not too far away a war was breaking loose; thousand of men were killing each other without remorse. Shirou had only seen something like this in movies, it seemed awesome at those times but now… it looked horrible, not heroic or amazing at all, it was just a big massacre and the men fighting seemed like raging beasts. His eyes scanned a big portion of the battle and he had to divert his gaze elsewhere when a warrior cut an opposite team's head off.

The deadly sight of it was making Shirou's stomach turn again. He closed his eyes tightly and backed off a little, sitting down and breathing in and out. The screams and clashes were faint after a while.

The battle is probably settling down on this side, he mused.

"BORS, HURRY, ARTHUR'S SIDE NEEDS HELP!" At the sound of that name the young time traveler's eyes widened and he stood up and watched as the team with blue flags engraved with what he now recognized as Saber's coat of arms started to run to the left side of the battle field where the fight was far from over.

His first thought was one of joy; if his assumptions were true then he had successfully come to Saber's time.

Wow, Rin and Illya really did it! He thought with admiration.

"MOVE IT MEN!" A knight on a horse shouted and immediately a dozen of soldiers followed him.

Shirou completely ignored the fact that he understood perfectly what the guy shouted; knowing by now that Rin's translation gem was taking effect. He looked around for a way to follow them, trying not to look at the bloody corpses only a few meters away from him.

Finally, he found a narrow path that lead to where the warriors had ran to. He made a dash to it and began to go down to the battlefield as fast as he could without been spotted.

Down in this part of the cliff, the ground wasn't as grassy and the wind not as hard. The lack of wind just helped the sickening smell get stronger.

Discarting such thoughts, he continued his hasted descent and when he was near a new battle area he saw the knight on the horse from before fighting fiercely against two silver armored and green clothed spearmans. Shirou tried to get closer and almost tripped with a dead body. He took a look at the fallen warrior at his feet, who's chest has been pierced, then at the knight on the horse and an idea came up to his mind. Concentrating, he kneeled down beside the dead man and placed a hand on his armor, recognizing the components of it with his tracing abilities.

After a couple of minutes he made an identical silver and blue armor. It fitted perfectly and, thanks to him changing some components, felt lighter than it should have. The red-haired teen smiled a bit, proud of himself and without giving it much thought stuffed his bag inside his chest armor, took a deep breath, traced Archer's swords, Kanshou and Bakuya and dashed toward the fight.

The moment he stepped in view, one swordsman charged at him, his blade high above his head.

"Great," Shirou murmured under his breath. He parried his opponent sword with Kanshou and dealt a blow on his head with Bakuya's handle, successfully knocking him down, and his eyes went wide as he heard two more men charging at his back. Turning around quickly, he stopped both swords with his own and with all his strength, pushed them back. After horizontal slashing one of them at an arm and managing to make him throw off his sword, he kicked the other with all his might, making him fall to the ground where another soldier dealt the finishing blow. He tried to use this opportunity to turn around in hope of reaching the battle ahead but when he did, a warrior had already charged at him, his sword too close for him to parry.

He shut his eyes and waited for the inevitable pain. But after a minor pause in which the sword never made contact, he opened his eyes and saw how his enemy froze and then fell to the ground. The tracer stood in shock as the defeated man began to tint the ground with crimson blood. His savior turned around briefly to see if he was unharmed and Shirou caught a glimpse of his sharp sapphire eyes and long brown hair under his helm before the man ran towards the battle in front of him, slashing any adversary that crossed his path.

He heard a battle cry at his back; the man he cut in the arm earlier was about to attack him but before he could block it he heard him scream in agony. Another fighter was piercing his enemy in the chest as if it was nothing, not even looking at him and running off to kill other foes.

Shirou stood still, his eyes as wide as they could, adrenaline running through his veins. But although he was shaken by his recent experience, with a shook of his head, his coherent side snapped his body out of his stunned state and he rushed behind the skillful long haired knight and helped him clear the way without killing anyone.

He knew he was not ready for this kind of situations and he cursed his luck for making him arrive at such troublesome location.

To reach the center of the fight he had to dodge and parry, sometimes slash arms and legs or simply stun his enemies with kicks and punches; he didn't make it untouched though. Even if he had received sword injuries before, some of them a lot worse than this, mind you, he didn't think he could ever get used to it; so when two of his attackers managed to cut him at his left arm upper part and at his right leg, he yelped in pain. Luckily, his companion saved him around three more times.

When they finally were able to defeat around five more enemies, Shirou had to contain the urge to face-palm himself. At the center of the commotion were even more foes. At least thirty of them were surrounding a small group of blue clothed warriors that was reducing slowly. And that's when, above the clashing, screams and shouts, Shirou heard a feminine battle cry and time seemed to stop.

Taking a deep breath and with renewed determination, he kicked and slashed the enemies that were slowly clasping the group and managed to break through until he saw her.

He hold his breath as his senses took in everything about her. His weak human's memories were not making her justice.

Her smooth golden hair, messily up in her usual braided bun moved faintly against the whispers of the wind and piercing emerald eyes were scanning her opponents like a hawk, as if daring them to come closer. Her armor was the same she had while she was his servant and she was clutching a weapon she only used to ultimately finish off her enemies: the Holy Sword, Excalibur.

Saber... no, Arturia was really in front of him.

He would have jumped in joy if he wasn't limping like a street dog. And for a moment he almost sighed, thinking she was unharmed until he saw her left shoulder covered in her own crimson blood and a slight pained expression on her face.

He was so mesmerized to see her there that he didn't completely dodge a blade that swung dangerously close to his head, managing to scratch his nose. After kicking his attacker away with his good leg, he quickly stepped next to Saber, raising both swords and feeling a bit happy even at this situation.

"I came to help… Your majesty." He whispered fondly, high enough for her to hear while a grin spreaded on his dirty face. He knew she didn't know who he was, but he didn't care much either, as long as he was with her.

She eyed him for a second, her expression unchanged and nodded.

"CHARGE!!" She shouted, advancing first at the nearest enemy with audacity and swiftness and successfully piercing his abdomen with Excalibur. The rest of the warriors roared and mimicked their leader, fighting as hard as they could.

Shirou fought too, eying Saber now and then as large number of allies started breaking through the enemy's defense and were reducing their numbers at a quick pace. And soon enough, the battle died down and an almost complete silence filled the battlefield.

The king looked around for a while, breathing hard.

"The victory…" She started, loud enough for her men to hear, "…is ours!" She finished in between breaths, raising Excalibur. Roaring shouts and cheers filled the battlefield and it seemed ironic for Shirou how everyone could cheer and celebrate in this situation. The smell of fresh blood was making him sick again and he had to look up to divert his gaze from the gore that was on the ground.

"You there," A grave voice called at his back above the cheers. He turned around and saw the man who saved his life before, sky blue eyes now more clear with his helm off, "Just who might you be?" He asked plainly, his tone inquisitive and sharp. His armor was silver like everyone else's but the material used to craft it seemed finer and better polished than the rest.

Shirou's only guess was that this man was very important.

"Pardon?" He answered, faking surprise.

"I requested your identity. It is the first time I see you and you are carrying two swords that are unlike anything I have seen." He stated, getting closer and narrowing his eyes. He was young, maybe six or eight years older than him. The red-haired tracer looked down at his Chinese falchions, mentally cursing himself for being so reckless and squeezed his brain for possible solutions. "Well?"

Taking a deep breath he said, "I'm Sh-Shin."

Shin? What kind of Old English name is that?! He reproched himself mentally.

The knight raised an eyebrow, and asked impatiently, "Shin from where?"

"From Britons." He lied, saying the name of a city he had seen in a book.

"Oh, and how come you have those swords Shin from Britons?"

"I'm a blacksmith," he tried to sound casual, after all, he is some kind of blacksmith, "These swords are something I've been working on."

The young knight watched him closely, not believing him completely, "Is that so? Then tell me, why did I not see you before?"

"Huh…" Shirou uttered looking elsewhere, "Well you see…"

"Ah! There you are lad," a tall, gray-haired old man interrupted, walking towards the knight. His armor was exactly the same as the other knight's and he was holding his helm bellow his right arm.

"Sir Ywain, this man is probably a spy; I have never seen him before." The young knight said, still eyeing Shirou with distrust.

"Aye, I have never seen him before either," he replied calmly, "But let us interrogate this kid later; we have bigger problems to worry about." He added with a serious tone, monitoring the brown haired swordsman to follow him somewhere. Said swordsman didn't budge, making the old man sigh. Shaking his head disapprovingly, he glanced at Shirou instead, "You promise you will not try anything funny, lad?"

Shirou nodded slowly, "Yes my lord, I promise."

"You heard him, Lancelot. He promised, now, let us go." The young tracer's eyes widened when the old man said the knight's name and watched him with his mouth half open.

Lancelot stared at Ywain in disbelief, but after a little while he clicked his tongue and walked away.

Shirou sighed when they left, and his eyes instantly searched for Arturia. He spotted her giving a few orders to a couple of warriors and spaced out again, taking in her sight. Watching her was like been in a dream, a bloody and painful one, but still enjoyable. Unfortunately he was kicked out of his daydreaming when she followed the two knights he encountered behind a big boulder.

He sneaked behind the rock carefully, noticing other knights arriving to the little meeting. Casually, he leant against the boulder, opened his bag and started putting some bandages around his upper arm injure while he eavesdropped their conversation.

"…Can we not talk about this later, my king? Someone can overhear us." Shirou heard a voice said and by the way it sounded, he seemed to know he was listening. He gulped.

"That does not matter sir Gawain, everyone will know sooner or later." A silence followed after the king spoke in her commanding tone, "I have grave news: I do not have it anymore. Avalon is gone." Gasps and whispers followed that, even Shirou had to contain his own surprise. Avalon was Arturia's scabbard, the same one he had inside of him for who knows how long before he gave it to her in the war for the Holy Grail.

"God's eyes Arthur! What do you mean it's gone?! Did someone steal it from you?"

"I do not know. I had it with me when the battle started; I believe it is impossible that it just fell off while we fought. At some point it was gone, however, I do not recall when exactly."

"But-This cannot be! If Avalon were to fall in the enemy's hands-!"

"I think we are all aware of what could happen, Bors." Shirou heard Ywain, the old man from earlier say.

"You do not actually think that the enemy has it, do you, my liege?"

"No, I do not think they do. If they did, we would probably be still fighting right now." More silence. "For now we have to be more cautious than before; I already made some of our men search for Avalon. All we can do now is pray that they find it."

Shirou recognized the next voice as Lancelot's as he said, "How can you stay so calm…? You know what will happen… now that you do not have Avalon, my king, you will surely-"

"Die, I know." Shirou's eyes widened as she said that, just thinking about her death gave him a headache, but it was just common sense, after all, Avalon was said to give King Arthur inmortality.

"But so do all of you and you have not. I just had that little advantage, now we are truly equals." She said solemnly and Shirou heard complains and more whispers. "Do not worry so much about it; I shall not die, not yet. Now, let us get going, we have much to do before returning to Camelot."

Another pause followed before he heard them all say in unison "Yes, Sire."

He quickly walked off the rock carefully to avoid being spotted and went to get his wounds treated.

After a healer cleaned up his wounds and bandaged them, he started helping carry the dead bodies. He already felt that he wanted to help and protect, it was his nature after all. He watched as a knight checked Arturia's injury before applying some herbs to it. She winced at the contact and after a little while glanced at him and he didn't have the will to look away. Her eyes were stern and curious while her face held a neutral expression. They stared at each other until someone asked him to help an injured warrior walk to the healers and he sighed, somehow dissapointed.

He eyed Lancelot now and then too and felt excited. Besides King Arthur, for obvious reasons, Lancelot was his favorite knight and he had been looking forward to seeing him with his own eyes. He watched as the young talented knight gave orders to the other warriors while helping carrying an injured guy. If what he read was true, Lancelot was a kind hearted man with a strong and honorable will, but avoiding him was the best choice; he didn't want to be asked troublesome questions for the time been.

- - -

By the end of the day, they had finished pilling up the corpses and aiding the injured. The battle had been a huge success and the soldiers were all cheering and eating by the fire. Shirou kept his distance from the groups, not wanting to attract too much attention due to his two uncommon swords which he hadn't dissipated.

After they settled down in small camps, the knight known as Gawain, the one that healed Saber's injury, approched everyone.

"I congratulate everyone again in the name of the King and the Knights of the Round Table. Surely this battle will serve as a warning for the Saxons to plot against our people no longer." Everyone cheered and gave approving comments, "Now, let us pray for the sake of our fallen comrades..."

When they were all dismissed, Shirou picked a spot next to a tall tree. He couldn't help glancing at his former servant from the corner of his eyes; she had the cold mask that he knew she used to seem strong. And it was when her eyes met his for like the fourth time that he decided to stop staring, he didn't want her to think he was stalking her or something. He almost laughed at his stupid preoccupation and went to grab some bread and water.

While he took a bite of bread he thought about the conversation he overheard and realization hit him. If Avalon was gone, then, according to all the books he read about Arthurian legends, this must be the battle of Camlann because Arthur lost Avalon before the battle… and if that's how it is then… Arturia should be dead…

Shirou's skin paled. No way. He has just changed the past by helping Saber a couple of hours ago? He arrived at the day she should have died?! But if that was the case… then everything would be changed… No, no, NO! He just screwed everything up, not that he wanted her dead but he didn't want to change anything major like this either.

He was still thinking of this when a voice called him. "Soldier," the voice said while he was deep in thought, "Oi," it continued. Still no answer, "Oi!"

"Oh! I'm sorry, I…" Suddenly he was in loss of words. Before him was Arturia, looking down at him sternly. He quickly stood up and saluted. "M-my king." He said awkwardly.

"I ask of you: Who are you?" She inquired, the same way Lancelot had earlier, circling him. The way she said it brought back so many memories...

Shaking his head, Shirou swallowed the rest of his bread dryly and looked down at her petite form.

"I'm Shin from Britons." He replied firmly as convincing as possible, trying not to grin like an idiot at her.

She glared at him, "Were you under the impression that you could sneak in without my notice?"

Shirou looked at her dumbfounded, "Huh…" Was his ingenious reply.

"Sir Lancelot already told me about you. Are you a spy from Saxon?" She asked, raising her sword straight to his throat. By now everyone was watching the scene with curiosity.

Shirou looked at her confused, "No, I'm not."

She glared at him harder, clearly not believing him. "You are a suspicious fellow. But," she continued lowering her sword, "You saved my life and for that, I am grateful," Shirou smiled and nodded, "However…" She added, looking at him coldly and making his smile disappear, "I am going to keep an eye on you until we reach Camelot, perhaps there you will give me an explanation, and I hope it is a good one, Shin from Britons."

He shivered, "I swear I will… Your majesty. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. And forgive me." He bowed lowly without taking his eyes of hers.

She gave him one last glance before walking away to the other side of the camp. Shirou sighed in relief, sat down and leant to the big tree tiredly. The crowd of curious people dispersed whispering among themselves and resumed whatever they were doing.

He yawned loudly. This has been the longest day, literally, and he has seen, heard and done too much. He tried putting in the back of his mind the disturbing images of the battle and the thoughts of his already too late major mistake and prevented the urge to trace a pillow.

Laying down and resting his head over his good arm, he closed his eyes slowly and fell asleep quickly.

That night, nightmares haunted him. Images of men dying by his hands, asking for mercy before being sliced in half by a sword plagued him. And he wished that the days to come in this new life weren't as dark as his first one and that maybe, just maybe, he would never have to take anyone's life.

- - -

To be continued...

Done! Phew... Hope I filled everyone's expectations.

Side notes:

1. The battle of Camlann is the last battle that King Arthur fought before his death.
2. Lancelot, Gawain, Bors and Ywain along with other knights are all 'Knights of the Round Table', which were King Arthur's most trusted men.
3. Avalon, as you all should know, is King Arthur's scabbard. It was said that he lost it just before the battle of Camlann and that's part of the reason he died.

Chapter 4 will be uploaded soon :) Please review!

-Arkueid