"Aarg!" Shirou collapsed in agony as the Command Seals on his arm writhed and ripped off.

"Come my Servant. Let us go home." Caster and the woman who had stabbed her faded from sight.

"Let her go!' Shirou charged forward, tracing forth Kanshou and Bakuya, like he had seen Archer do. Shirou had done Tracing before. The item never lasted more than a few minutes, But that would be long enough.

"Shirou stop - she must be Assassin!"

Shirou stopped, but only because his target had disappeared. At the same time Illya gathered herself back up, "Oni-chan, it is rude to leave without saying good bye."

Rin pulled out a pair of gems, "Yeah, well, this is goodbye!"

"No, stop!" Shirou interposed himself between Rin and her intended target, "Don't attack her - she's my sister!"

"Your sister?!" Rin asked incredulously.

"Luke, I am your father."

"What?" Everybody pivoted to look as Archer materialized, bruised and bleeding, but looking smug.

"Oh, sorry. I thought we were quoting Star Wars." He made small shooing gesture with his hand, "Go back to whatever you were doing."

Illya and her maid looked cautiously at the injured Servant.

"She's an enemy Master. She's a threat to you." Rin tried to step around Shirou.

"Not anymore. I killed Saber."

Illya's eyes widened as she turned towards Archer, "But not for long. Hercules has 12 lives."

"And can I tell you what a bitch it was killing him a dozen times over?" Archer stretched his back, "Sorry about the swearing. Where's Caster?"

"Gone - Assassin stabbed her and then they both disappeared."

The smile slid off of Archer's face, and he swore again. "Assassin must have a Noble Phantasm that steals control of a Servant. At least Caster is still alive, but I don't know what effect that kind of enslavement will have on her mind."

"I don't care about her mind, my concern is that she will decide to join Assassin," Rin retorted.

"She won't," Shirou burst out, at the same time as Archer said, "There is only so long any servant can resist a Command Seal."

Nobody seemed certain what to do next. "Let's head home. we'll take it from there." Shirou turned to his sister, "I am sorry we made a mess of your home. I would like to talk more, after this is all done."

Illya smiled, "I would like that as well." But something in her eyes said that it would never be.

Shirou stood there, not certain what to say, until he finally turned and started down the stairs. Illya continued to stand on the balcony, looking lost.

The trip back took much longer - the distance that took two servants (and one human passenger) about a half hour to traverse took four times that long for two humans walking.

Finally, Archer broke the silence. "We need a plan for how we're going to get Caster back" Despite looking like he had just wrestled with a steamroller and lost, he had materialized and was walking along side them. "But I am too drained of prana to do anything further tonight."

"Then dematerialize, baka! You will recharge faster!"

Archer gave Rin an annoyed look, "Sometimes, when there is nothing else you can do, walking helps with the pain."

She glared at him. She wasn't certain what he was talking about, but it was clearly wrong.

Archer sighed, "But you are correct" and faded from view.

"Baka" Rin repeated. Seriously, what was going through her servant's head? He should be happy that they had scored a major victory.

"Thank you for not giving up on Caster," Shirou pronounced.

Rin frowned, "I wish I could, but if we don't get her back, Assassin will turn Caster to her side, and then we will be facing two Servants. And a Caster / Assassin combination would be deadly."

It was eleven o'clock when they finally reached the Emiya residence. Rin had again tagged along to Shirou's house, but was very subdued.

"Sempai?" As Shirou opened the door, he was confronted by a sleepy looking Sakura quickly getting up off of the couch, "Is everything ok?"

"I'm Ok, Caster is not. How come you're here?" Shirou was too emotionally wrung out for a long explanation.

"We were supposed to go up to scout out Ryuudou temple, remember? Issei waited until dark, but when you didn't show up, I, ah, persuaded him to go home."

"And you waited up for me?"

Sakura blushed, "I was worried. We didn't know what had happened to you." She gave a huge yawn. Rin watched the two teens, and quietly slipped out of the living room, heading down the hall to where she had stayed before.

'Don't you want to stay and plan strategy?' Archer sent silently.

"No, I'm also too tired. We'll talk tomorrow." Rin replied. Besides, Sakura looked so happy to see Shirou, she didn't want to interrupt. Except, it would maybe have been better if she had been the one to stay with Shirou.

'That's what you get for not working out. I noticed Shirou doesn't seem too tired. He's actually in good shape.' Archer said silently as he floated at Rin's shoulder

'Yeah, I noticed that too,' Rin sat down on the futon. She froze as she replayed her words, 'I mean that he didn't seem tired, not that he's in really good shape…'

'I didn't say anything."

'Baka. I can hear you smirking. Go stand watch on the roof and give me some privacy.'

-FAR-FAR-

"My step sister didn't mean me any harm - she just kidnapped me because she wanted to get to know me better. Caster, Archer and Rin rescued me." Shirou was explaining the days events to Sakura. He was clearly not bothered by being kidnapped, and instead was more concerned for Caster, "You should go get some sleep. You look wiped," Shirou steadied the younger girl as she wobbled slightly. "Why don't you stay over in one of the empty rooms? I have plenty of space."

"No, I.. I don't want to trouble you for another night."

"And it isn't safe for you to be walking home at this hour, especially in your exhausted state."

Sakura looked like she wanted to argue some more, but she was swaying, and almost asleep on her feet. Shirou put an arm around her back and half led, half carried her to the guest room. Afterwards, Shirou went back to the kitchen and fixed himself some tea.

"Can't sleep?"

Shirou almost leaped out of his skin, spilling most of the tea as he whirled to face the speaker.

"Archer? what are you doing here - I thought you were exhausted? And where is Tohsaka?"

"Rin went straight to sleep, so I figured I'd pay you a visit. How come you're awake? I don't want you being half assed tomorrow when we go get Caster."

"Whatever Illya did to me, it threw off my sleep schedule. i don't feel the least bit tired."

"Good, because I'm here to teach you some magecraft."

Shirou shrugged embarrassedly, "You're welcome to try, but my old man tried, and nothing seemed to stick."

"That's because he was showing you the wrong magics. What I'll show you will be as easy as breathing. Come on." Archer led the way to Shirou's shed, "I will show you how to trace Swords."

"I already know how to do tracing. It's not terribly useful"

"Oh? That's good, but I'll show you how to make copies of Noble Phantasms."

In the next two hours, Shirou learned more useful magecraft than he had in the preceding two years. It was like filling shelves with books - Archer would trace a Noble Phantasm, and Shirou would duplicate it, filing it away in his mind for future use. Then Archer would go on to the next sword, and so on.

-FAR-FAR-

"Sempai, I want to help" Shirou, Sakura and Rin were walking to school the following day, and Shirou had just mentioned his plan to find and rescue Caster.

"It's ok - you don't have to." Shirou tried to dissuade the usually shy and quiet girl.

"But it will be dangerous if you do something like that on your own."

"That's exactly why I don't want you to get involved - I'm worried you'll get hurt. Besides, I won't be on my own - I'll have Tohsaka and her Servant with me." Shirou pointed to Rin, who had been uncharacteristically quiet during the walk.

Sakura stopped, forcing Shirou to also stop, "What?"

"Fine. I won't help you." Sakura tuned and walked off, leaving behind a confused Shirou. On the one hand, he felt he should run after Sakura and try to make amends for whatever had upset her, but on the other hand, she had finally agreed to do as he asked. If he talked to her more, she might change her mind, and he couldn't bear the thought of her getting injured.

As Shirou turned to continue on to school, Rin grabbed his arm, "Do you trust Sakura?"

"Well, yeah."

"Then trust her on this." Rin sped up and headed into school, leaving Shirou on his own.

-FAR-FAR-

"Emiya, are you ok?" Issei was the first to meet him (In part because the school was still half empty - Shirou always arrived early).

"Yeah, I'll tell you all about my misadventures over lunch, but the long and short of it is I have more family than I had thought. But right now I need to figure out any leads on where Servant Assassin could be hiding out. She kidnapped Caster. Are you certain that there is nothing unusual going on up on Ryuudou temple?"

Isseis eyes got big. "I wish I could help, but no, nothing there has changed in the past few weeks." As Issei walked with Shirou, he sighed, "I don't understand how you get into these things, Shirou. Last year you spent three days in Akatsuka's attic during the hottest days of July. And now this."

"That was different. Akatsuka asked me to help him rewire his house."

"And you did a good job of it. But you know that an electrician would have charged 50,000 yen for that. At least."

Shirou scowled, not quite understanding what Issei was getting at. "This isn't some underclassman that needs a little help. This time, lives are at stake. I can't just walk away."

"I'm not saying you should," Issei stopped in front of the Student council room. "All I'm saying is you should be careful. Especially of that Tohsaka witch. And I was right about her being a witch, wasn't I?"

"Yes, yes." Shirou smiled, 'He's never going to let that go, is he?' "We'll meet for lunch?"

"Yeah, and in the mean time, I'll keep my ears open for any rumors of odd goings on."

"Thanks, you're a good friend."

-FAR-FAR-

As the school day drew to a close, Shirou was no closer to figuring anything out. He still didn't know where Assassin was based. He wasn't certain what to do about Sakura. Or about Tohsaka - that girl kept glaring at him. Issei at least had done his best to be helpful without trying to put himself in harms way.

-FAR-FAR-

'Ask him out, already.'

"What!" Rin started at the silent message.

'You keep staring at Shirou any more, and you'll burn a hole through his head. You two are already working together, so why not ask him out? At the least you won't be so distracted all the time.' Archer felt weird playing matchmaker for Rin and his younger self. But if what Caster said was true, it might save the world. And besides, Rin was getting seriously annoying.

'You stay out of this. You don't know anything. I am NOT interested in that second rate magus.' She didn't mention the real reason that she wasn't going to make a move on Shirou - Sakura. Sakura was… there was something wrong there. She hid it well, but Sakura was too much like Rin for her to keep it secret from the Tohsaka heir. Sakura was unhappy. And if that idiot could bring a little joy to her existence, Rin wasn't going to interfere with their friendship.

Archer just rolled his eyes.

-FAR-FAR-

As soon as class let out, Shirou made his way to Sakura's locker, only to find that she had already left. So a few minutes later, he also made his way out and headed towards the Matou home. It was a longish walk, as they lived in the foreigners section, an upscale neighborhood on the edge of town. It was actually just a couple of streets over from where the Tohsaka mansion was as well.

'I'm not going to apologize for trying to keep her safe. I'm just going to apologize for hurting her feelings.' Shirou wasn't certain why Sakura had gotten so upset that morning, but he wanted to - no, needed to - fix it. it had been gnawing away at him all day. And she was obviously still upset with him if she had rushed home without waiting to walk part way with him.

Shirou just wished he knew WHY she was so angry.

-FAR-FAR-

It was already getting dark as he approached the street that Sakura lived on. Shirou had just reached the corner when he heard the sound of growling and saw a flurry of motion as a pack of wild dogs attacked somebody right in front of Sakura's house

Shirou ran towards them. "Trace On" He pronounced, like Archer had showed him. He felt the slight burn as prana poured through his arms to produce a pair of Chinese broadswords.

As he got closer, he saw that the dogs were attacking a man in blue - it was Lancer. Despite his speed, he was hard pressed as the dogs appeared to be rabid, attacking without heed of injury.

Shirou stopped and watched. Maybe this was a good time to take Issei's advice and just stay out of it. This wasn't his fight.

But then he saw Sakura hiding behind a pair of garbage cans at the edge of the battle, and a pair of dogs had lost interest in Lancer and were sniffing her way. Shirou darted forward, "Hey, yah!' he called out, trying to draw them away from Sakura. Unfortunately, he was more successful than he intended: Those two dogs, as well as several that previously been attacking Lancer, turned to leap on him.

Shirou reinforced himself and just barely deflected the first attacker. He tried to keep the others back with swings of his swords. The dogs were more cautious with him than with Lancer, as his weapon was more effective against them.

"Thanks for the assist, kid. Ciao!" Lancer took the opportunity to retreat, leaving Shirou facing the entire pack.

As Shirou struggled to keep the dogs away, Sakura grabbed a shard of broken glass from the trash and sliced her arm so that it bled. "Leave him alone!" She flung droplets of her blood at the dogs. Whenever a dog was struck by the blood they yipped and howled in pain as the blood dissolved away their flesh, leaving behind a seething pit of shadow in its place.

"Are you ok, Sempai?" Sakura ran up to Shirou as the last dog turned tail and fled.

"That's my line," Shirou looked anxiously at her bleeding arm. Sakura tried to hide it behind her body, but he gently took it and pulled it out into the light. "We need to clean this before it festers."

"You don't need to worry. My wounds don't fester." Sakura replied, turning away slightly as she applied pressure to the cut to stop the bleeding.

"Well… ok. Um.. Lets get you inside, and I'll help you bind your arm."

Sakura smiled over her shoulder at him, "it's ok, sempai, I can handle it from here."

Shirou sighed in frustration, "I came out here to apologize for pushing you away when you were trying to help. And now you're doing the exact same thing."

Sakura looked guiltily at Shirou, then nervously at her house, "I guess.. I guess you can come in." She led him into the home. It was the first time Shirou had been inside, despite having been friends with first Shinji and then Sakura for almost five years. The decor was richly stained wood and dark, Victorian style wallpaper. Sakura led him to a sitting room off of the front entrance. "Please wait here. I'll be right back with the first aid kit."

Shirou sat. The room was poorly lit by two small lights to either side of an ornate fireplace. The only furnishings were two old armchairs and a set of empty floor to ceiling bookcases. The house was eerily quiet. 'This house feels like some old person, waiting to die.'

A few moments later, Sakura was back. "Here" she gave him the first aid kit. As he cleaned and bound up her arm, Shirou asked, "How are you holding up, with Shinji being... gone?"

"I'm ok. We were never close. Especially now, with how he had been chasing girls all the time." Sakura didn't look at Shirou as she answered, for fear that he would see the joy in her eyes, joy that Shinji was finally dead.

"Oh? And your grandfather? Is he at work?" Shirou tied off the bandage around her arm.

Sakura shrugged, "Thank you your help. But you should go." She stood and made shooing motions towards the door.

Shirou frowned in puzzlement. Sakura was usually so warm and friendly. This tense, anxious girl was a stranger. 'Is she having family problems?' "Ok. Um, if you ever need a place to stay, you're welcome at my house. And Fuji-ni can also sleep over, if that would make you feel better."

"Thank you," Sakura smiled as she walked him out the door. As they stepped out of the house, She cast one more nervous glance over her shoulder, "Actually, why don't I come over right now. That way I can help you with what we talked about earlier."

Shirou quirked an eyebrow. He wasn't certain what was going on, but there was no way he was going to turn Sakura away under these conditions, "Ok, great!" And turned to head for home.

Sakura brightened visible as she followed.

They were halfway to his house when Sakura finally said, "Sempai - my Grandfather also has a Servant. He has Servant Berserker."

"Oh… Was that why Lancer was there?"

"Yes. The dogs are somehow connected to Berserker.:

"We'll discuss that when we get home." Shirou sighed, 'This is getting complicated. I thought being a Hero would be simple.'

-FAR-FAR-

"I have made up a list of potential bases of operation for Assassin or other Servants" Tohsaka sat at Shirou's dining room table. Shirou and Sakura sat on the other side, and Archer leaned nonchalantly against the wall, looking bored. She passed her notes over to Shirou for him to take a look. As Sakura and Shirou went over the list, Rin watched the two of them, her lips pressed tight to keep from saying anything. On the one hand she was happy that Sakura had a friend like Shirou, on the other, she wanted him to pay attention to HER that way.

"Issei's already checking out Ryuudou Temple. What about the sewers? Are we going to have to go crawling in there?"

"Ugh. No. I sent some familiars to check them out. And if there IS a Servant down there, they are probably by the river, near the water treatment plant. There's a lot more room in those tunnels.

"At least we know where Berserker is."

"We know where berserker WAS. I doubt Zoukan is dumb enough to stay in his home when he knows Servants are looking for him."

"Actually, he lives in the basement." Sakura volunteered. She had mostly sat quietly at Shirou's side, leaning slightly towards him.

"Basement? Isn't it kind of dark and damp down there?" Shirou asked

"His body is made up of worms. He doesn't mind," Sakura replied lightly, as if he had just said something completely normal, like 'the sky is blue'.

"Worms!?" Rin looked horrified, "How does he retain his sentience?"

"I.. I am not certain. I really would prefer not to think about that." Sakura whispered.

Rin gave the younger girl a hard look. 'There's more here than she's saying.'

There was a knock on the front door. Shirou rose to deal with it.

"Sorry I'm late" Issei came in, "I looked around the Temple like you asked, but there is nothing out of the ordinary. I even checked in the storage building." He sat down at the table next to Shirou. "I got a little delayed because Kuzuki-sensei's fiance offered me hot chocolate, and I didn't want to be rude."

Shirou looked surprised. "He never mentioned having a fiance." But it really wasn't that surprising, given how private their homeroom teacher was. He was the polar opposite of Fujimura.

Rin looked troubled for some reason, "Where is Kuzuki living?"

"Oh, at the temple." Issei answered, but was cut short by a cough. "Sorry. I think I'm coming down with something."

Rin cast a concerned glance at Shirou, but he was busy passing the tissues to Issei. Sakura on the other hand matched her sister's expression. "And where does Kuzuki-sensei's fiance live?" she asked tremulously.

Cough, "Oh, she lives with him at the Temple." cough.

"And you didn't think that was unusual enough to mention?" Rin asked.

"Now that you mention it," cough, cough. Issei started to convulse. The other teens rose to their feet and Shirou tried to catch his friend before he collapsed.

Which is when the spray of orange smoke burst from his mouth.

"Out of the room!" Rin yelled, as she ran for the exit.

Archer grabbed Issei and leaped out through the window, smashing it open with his shoulder..

Shirou pulled Sakura along as he ran for the kitchen and out the back door.

-FAR-FAR-

It was several minutes before everybody managed to reconvene outside.

"Issei is dead - his internal organs were liquified when he spewed forth that gas" Archer pronounced. Sakura hugged Shirou to comfort him for the loss of his friend.

It took Shirou a few moments to compose himself, but he then rasped, "Are you two ok? I heal pretty fast, so the gas didn't affect me." Cough, "much."

"It was some sort of corruption spell" Sakura volunteered, sounding perfectly normal, "But such things do not affect me." She did not mention the reason for her immunity - that the Crest worms injected in her body were a so much stronger force of corruption that they had simply destroyed the gas as it came in contact with her body.

Which is the point when Rin collapsed.

"Tohsaka?" Shirou ran over to the other girl.

"I'm fine" she rasped quietly. She tried to stand back up. "Ok, maybe I'm not."

Archer leaned over his Master, "She inhaled some of the gas. Enough so that it has begun to destroy her from the inside out. We need to counter this quickly, or she will die in a few days."

Rin started coughing, and Shirou took her hand to help steady her. "Can you do anything?"

"Unfortunately, I am a force of destruction." Archer frowned, "I lack any healing skills, except for self healing." He looked up at Sakura, "How about you, Matou-san?"

"I…" Sakura began and stopped, continuing only in her mind, 'but I don't WANT to heal her.' She wasn't certain if she could force her Crest worms to eat away the corruption in Rin's body. It would not be easy. And was saving Rin really worth the effort? She looked at Shirou holding her sister's hand. 'She'll just steal Sempai away from me'. Several seconds passed in silence. "I think so." But if she didn't try, she wouldn't deserve to have him in the first place.

"Sempai, can I borrow a knife?"

"Trace on," Shirou created a small dagger from thin air.

"This will… My magic is pretty horrible, so please don't be shocked." Sakura said, looking at Shirou intently, "Please sempai, No matter what happens, just let me finish, and then…" She looked away. Sakura took the knife and cut a gash on the inside of Rin's forearm. She then made a similar cut on her own, and pressed the two bleeding wounds together. "Hurry, bind them together.

Archer handed Shirou a length of cloth, which he wrapped around the girls' arms. For a few moments, nothing happened, except that Sakura sat at Rin's side, eyes unfocused as she concentrated on some internal struggle. She chanted under her breath, so quietly that Shirou couldn't make out the aria.

Then Rin began to convulse. Shirrou and Archer both quickly pressed down on her, so that her arm would remain in contact with Sakura's. This went on for five, ten then fifteen minutes, as Sakura sat impassively at the other girls side, and Shirou and Archer struggled to keep her immobile.

Finally, Rin lay limp, and Sakura's eyes opened. Shirou was startled to see them completely black, with no iris or whites visible. "It's done. You can carry her to bed now."

Archer went into the Emiya mansion and returned a moment later, "It's safe to go inside" He picked up Rin and carried her inside.

-FAR-FAR-

"I think it is safe to say that Assassin is staying up in Ryuudou Temple," Archer volunteered. He had just returned from taking Issei's body to the hospital, entering him as an 'unidentified young male'. Shirou hated the idea of just abandoning his friend like that, but they couldn't do anything to call attention to themselves until they had dealt with Assassin.

"She must have some sort of spell or bounded field that makes people not notice her" Sakura added. They were again sitting in Shirou's dining room, except for Rin, who was resting in her bed.

"We should make our move tonight, before she realizes that her assassination attempt failed." Shirou was barely containing the anger boiling inside of him. Issei had been a good man as well as a close friend. He shouldn't have been part of all this. It was his, Shirou's, fault for getting him involved.

Archer nodded, "agreed"

"So let's go!" Shirou stood up, followed by Sakura. "Are you certain you want to come?" He desperately didn't want her to place herself in jeopardy. Not after what had happened to Issei. But... it was wrong to put his own desires ahead of others, and Issei had been her friend as well.

Sakura nodded, looking more determined than she felt as she channeled her inner Tohsaka. "Just let me grab a bow from the Dojo"

"Then I am glad to have your help." Shirou smiled at the younger girl and took her hand.


Notes:

I had intended for Issei to play a big part in this story, but then he got himself killed. I was really surprised at that, but in retrospect, I really shouldn't have been - he was just a regular teenager, without any special abilities to keep him safe.