Ten Years Ago:

"You are late," said gravelly the extremely tall, white as snow both in hair and attire, and nearly as pale, as well.

His guest made a small, apologetic smile. The old man still choose to interpret it as an insolent gesture, because that was the way he was. "Sorry about that, Herr Acht. I ran into a few old friends on my way here."

They stood before each other in a chamber one thousand years old, deep into a castle within the snowy mountains of Northern Gartland. The windows of stained glass portrayed miracles from the past in starkly colorful hues contrasting with the grim presence of the rest of the chamber. They told the long history of the Heaven's Feel rituals. A history the young tall man with the concealing cloak, the ragged coat and the generic, harmless looking face was no part of. Until that day.

"We are gambling the future of the Einzbern legacy on your performance, Maris Billy Animusphere," the humorless voice of Justabeicht von Einzbern echoed thunderously across the chamber. "The enemies you have gained must not interfere in your assignment. I trust you have understood the seriousness of this situation by now."

"Completely, Herr Acht," the man called Animusphere nodded. "Anything you say, Herr Acht!"

As he spoke, several male homunculi walked closer, one holding a sealed box, three others carrying a huge circular package, heavily wrapped around, which made the master of the castle fall reverently silent, the young man's insolence forgotten. "You have delivered…" he whispered, before pride overtook him again, and he stared harshly at the visitor once again, until another man spoke up.

"It doesn't matter. Should any of them appear, I will dispose of them as we agreed. Maris Billy," he nodded blandly towards the other man, who was carelessly shaking blood stained snow off the bruises all over him. "Thank you for bringing the catalysts, but maybe you'd like a bath and some treatment first?"

"Nah. I work better like this," said the visitor, handing this long coat over to a doll-like, dutiful maid of milky skin and ice red eyes. "You won't mind, will you, Sella dear? Thanks, you're a lifesaver." He looked at the slightly older than him black haired man, in a fine black suit and tie, and asked, "How's Illya?"

The other man managed a small smile, something Maris Billy had never seen him doing before. "Thanks for asking. Healthier and more beautiful each passing day. I'll take you to see her as soon as we're done here."

"Let's get on with it then," said the adventurous academic, rolling his sleeves up. For a moment, his gaze met that of the gorgeous woman standing by his associate, her arm on his. Wearing the rich ceremonial dress in regal purple and silver, her long white hair loosely framing her angelic face, she was the kind of beauty he favored, reminding him of his own wife, but even more delicate and yet elegantly sensuous. He shook those thoughts off shortly, knowing all too well what was in store and at play, and his excited smile returned, mostly to annoy the old magus king of this frozen castle. "It's always stupid making royalty wait!"

Soon later, he and Emiya Kiritsugu stood at opposite sides of an ancient large altar lit by dozens of candles, listening to the winds howl and roar outside. On its surface, two large chunks of old, rusty metal set before Emiya, and a gigantic, round dark shape taking most of the altar before Animusphere. Jubstacheit and Irisviel stood aside, flanked by several armed homunculi of ghastly pale and inexpressive faces. The conjurers extended their arms ahead and chanted the words, feeling the respective magus crests within their bodies pulse and vibrate. This was the power of two separate lineages manifesting through them, forcing to synchronize as they said each word at the exact same time, with practiced discipline and coordination.

Each summoning of a Heroic Soul was a miracle. But the Einzberns had always strived to take miracles even further.

"Set, set…"

Sixty years ago, the illustrious clan had failed to bend the rules they had set themselves in the first Heaven's Feel. Irisviel's eyes quietly rested, for a moment, on one of the stained windows, showing the family's prior representative standing before a dark, vaguely shaped figure with red eyes, an image that always made her shudder inwardly. But of course, she told herself, she trusted Kiritsugu not to commit a similar mistake. She had the utmost faith on him, and even her distrustful father had for once placed his confidence on someone. The Magus Killer and the scholar. A mismatched pair if there was ever one.

She was so distracted by such thoughts she missed on most of the chants, until she felt her father's hand squeezing her shoulder tightly, for support, the first sign of true humanity she had ever seen from him. Against all she had ever believed when briefly entertaining unlikely and laughable notions in that vein, however, that gesture of strange vulnerability from the tower of a man didn't make her feel any better. Just scared, because if he was shaken, even for a second, what did that mean for the world?

"—the hands to protect the balance!"

From each set of relics, a figure rose bathed on pure light, glorious and imposing. One of them, a gorgeous young-looking blonde in a long blue dress, with armor plates on her chest and gauntlets, her hair neatly tied back into a single white bun. By Animusphere's side, next to this impossibly beautiful armed female warrior, a dutiful looking young woman with light short hair, which fell in bangs that would hide most of her cute rather than gorgeous pale face. She wore a form hugging black ensemble of body armor that actually showed a lot of her curvaceous, surprisingly well stacked physique off, complete with tall boots. In a hand, she held a gigantic thick shield that looked like someone had taken a massive dark table apart and started carrying it around for protection. It was easily bigger than either young woman, and almost touched the room's quite high ceiling. That on itself was no shock, as most Servants were alleged to be superhumanly strong regardless of size.

The fact both of these Servants were females, however, had managed to reduce everyone around them into a stunned, disbelieving silence.

The blonde managed to speak a fraction of a second first, with a voice that was cold and devoid of feeling. Her green eyes fixed squarely on Kiritsugu, who only could stare at him in disbelief, despite all of the marvels and horrors alike he had witnessed until then.

"I am Servant Saber," was what she said. "I ask of thee, are thou my Master?"

And then she heard the gasp by her side, and she felt herself mildly startled for a split second, looking into a familiar face that stared back, wide eyed, at her. "I… I am Servant Shielder," the other young lady said, her earlier confidence upon summoning now replaced by a confused amazement as she found herself reborn along her lord and sovereign. "And… I am glad to see you again… Your Majesty? Do we, do we have to fight each other, now?"

The old master of the castle took a hand to the bridge of his strong nose, beginning to massage it sharply. For once he was at a complete loss for words and actions that would last far too long for his taste.


Fate Stay Night, Fate Prototype, Fate Zero, Fate Hollow Ataraxia, Fate EXTRA, Fate Extella, Fate Apocrypha, Fate Strange/Fake, Fate Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya, Fate Requiem, Fate School Days and Fate Grand Order all are the creation and intellectual property of Nasu Kinoko and Type-Moon.

All other featured and mentioned franchises belong to their respective copyright owners.

With Special Thanks to Shadow Crystal Mage, Darkenning, Kamenhero25, Moczo, Ol'Vesper, GhostXavier and The Infamous Man for the inspiration.


Lovely Magical Collectible Waifu Game of Death!


Chapter Three.


Old Wounds.


Fuyuki City, Now:

"Remember back then, Lancer?"asked the lithe, waiflike barefoot girl, sitting on the edge of a rooftop, the tall tower being one of the few left standing overlooking the bleak outline of the ruined city. She reached up to delicately rub the handsome cheek of the tall, lean but muscular man standing by her side, holding a fabled spear in each hand and fixedly looking into the horizon of a hellish red dawn. "Remember how I freed you from those two awful, horrible Masters, my Prince Charming?"

"I never could forget, My Dame," the dark haired man formally said, always the living picture of gallantry, and the petite pale girl in the white dress smiled. She swung her legs back and forth contentedly.

"It was all thanks to you, you know!" she chirped, moving her head aside so it could rub his arm. The tick, bulging red veins unnaturally creeping all over his flesh and contrasting with the solid black his body armor had been coated with only made his contact feel even better. "If not for you, I would have remained the failure my father was. I owe everything to you, all we have managed, all we will achieve from now on."

"Looking forward to it, My Dame," he smiled suavely, looking aside at her, and disspelling one of his spears so he could place a hand tenderly on her head, rubbing on it and ellicting a happy purr from her. "But it is you who has saved me from my tragedy. Truly, only thanks to you-"

"A true love story is never ending," said a voice from somewhere else on the rooftop, "but I'm afraid this one must pause while this humble retainer explains himself."

Lancer frowned, and his lady pouted, as they looked behind them, to face the sinister figure in black on the mask of the white skull. "What do you want, Assassin?" the short young woman asked.

Assassin bowed. "I have finished my sweep over the Four Schools. As expected, other than an earlier manifestation in Ohtori, all activity has concentrated around Mahora. Saber has had run-ins with three new Servants already. One is a Lancer who should interest you greatly, Lord Diarmuid. Another is a hooded woman, for all appearances a Caster. And finally, there is an armored Saber who engaged the King in a fairly even duel. Shortly before I showed myself to her, the King mentioned the name of Mordred..."

"That's... interesting!" the blonde smirked, a mischievous glint in her blue eyes. "Anything else?"

"Aye," the emissary of the Hundred Faces Hassan nodded. "The Mahora Einzbern Castle has been inhabitated, by a childlike elite homunculus and two drones at her service. Regrettably I couldn't take notice of her Servant, Princess Manaka. The castle is even more heavily warded than that of Fuyuki."

"Well, it can't be helped!" Sajyou Manaka sighed with a shrug of slim shoulders. "The dollmakers had to get wise after last time. What about the others?"

"As you predicted," Assassin informed, "Rider grows restless in Honnouji. I fear he will foolishly engage the area's controllers in a bid for their power, should he not be given someone else to battle."

"Must I think of everything myself?" Manaka rolled her eyes, clapping once. "Hello! Send Rider after Saber's spawn, then."

"That will hardly make the King happy, O Princess," Assassin pointed out.

"I know, I'm counting on that," Manaka smirked, wagging a finger. "Saber's bound to notice, and it'll be a race between her and Rider, that should be a whole lot of fun! Then... how about Berserker? It's weird we haven't heard of him since we cut him loose. Do you think he may have ran out of mana and burned himself down even before engaging anyone? That's not like him at all..."

"My other selves are looking for him as we speak, Princess," Assasin said, lowering his head, "but you are correct, we should have heard of him by this point. Asako holds the theory that, in his insanity, he might be under the impression he still needs a Master, and thus has tied himself to one, and that person is slowing him down. Perhaps, if you would think it wise, you could ask the Grail on-"

"Hardly worth the effort!" Manaka groaned, waving a hand at him. "See, Lancer, that is why I hate ugly mad dogs! And speaking of that, Assassin..."

The shadowy killer paused uneasily. "I fear Caster might be undergoing a similar case, Princess," he informed. "We do have a solid fix on his current location, and we have managed to contain him from revealing his hand too soon, but... it appears the main reason why he isn't lashing out yet is he feels the need for a partner."

"Hmmm," Manaka put a hand to her chin, nodding. "Yes, yes, that makes sense! Caster was very fond of his Master, and must be going through a baaaad case of separation anxiety, coming back without him. But, where could he find a fitting replacement for that kind of human beast...?"

As if answering this riddle, at the vague same time, far from the destroyed city and deep under Academy City, in a deep underground chamber between the Ohtori and CLAMP Districts, a large, hunchbacked figure with bulging, twitching round eyes and long, greasy wild hair breathed wildly, pacing back and forth across his dark, dank subterranean lair, an old abandoned train station that was part of a system ruined beyond repair fifteen years ago. This man also bore the signs of corruption from the Black Mud all over his flesh and his once colorful, now fading robes with a tall collar and long sleeves, but unlike the once noble Lancer, such influence had not changed his behavior in the slightest. Even for all Evils in the World, it is difficult to push certain individuals further past the limits of inhumanity.

"Ohhhhh, yesss.." he darkly intoned to himself, smacking his lips haphzardly with his purplish tongue. In his hands he held a yellowed, damp newspaper brought down his home by the rain, one he held onto with the feverish airs of a man struck by great inspiration. "Thank you, Ryuunosuke, for wherever you are, you have listened to me! I am moved to tears," he sniffled loudly, "by this selfless showing of your love for meeeee!" he hysterically howled, gesturing up with a hand, his bony arm rattling before it was lowered amidst fervorous pants.

Caster rolled the newspaper up, and aimed it aside, at two skewered children, torn apart and nailed to one of his walls. The first of many, whose disappearances would be all over the dailies and television news by tomorrow. "Do you see now, my angels? Do you see that, should randomness align itself and patience would suffice, great blessings would befall even upon the most blasphemous...?!"

He cackled haughtily while waddling towards them, unfolding the newspaper before the bodies to clearly show the picture of a man of sharp features and a wide grin showing off a multitude of teeth like piano keys, overcrowding the confines of a red mouth that stretched far up two starkly white cheeks. The Caster cackled from the bottom of his throat, each stray fish eye looking into their dead own, as if looking for their answers there. "This era has provided me with the great architect of pain I need. A COOL genius of the sublime exhaltation of widespread death! A man who, even among the many monsters of these troubled times, stands as the most infamous of them. I must know him! Yes, yes, I must..." he breathed in and out, raggedly, as if tired by his own intensity.

"Now all I need," Gilles de Rais finished, in a lower voice, "is a way to bring him from overseas. Any ideas?"


"I'll say this for you, Shirou," Saber contentedly said, while taking a final mouthful of her third plate, "you are a daaaaaaamn good cook! Best one I ever saw, perhaps! No offense, Caster's Master..."

"... I hear that a lot, so don't think you have hurt me," Miyu blandly said.

Caster nodded while taking another bite from her breakfast, more elegantly. "Indeed, Young Emiya, for once I have to agree with Saber. You will make a nice wife for someone someday, should you survive this ordeal."

"Ah ha ha, yeah, aren't you two a riot," Taiga said as Shirou, with a small drop of sweat attached to his head, pulled Saber's plate off the table and went for more as of her eager petition. "Do you really have to chow so much down, though, Saber? We are people living on a budget, you know...!"

"I normally wouldn't be this much of a glutton, that's more like Father," Saber admitted, "but to make up for Shirou's pathetic mana shortcomings, I need to devour like a hungry wolf just to barely keep myself going. Of course, if you'd rather have me go out and consume souls, I guess I can do that as well..."

"No, definitely not!" Shirou roared from the kitchen.

Saber shrugged. "See? His choice, not mine! I have to say, though, these meals do taste much better than any soul ever would! I'm surprised you wouldn't go with more yourself, Caster..."

"Us Casters have a more rational and effective way to assimilate the mana input from our Masters than the Knight classes on average," the hot witch remind her, her hood down and hanging from her shoulders, "and besides, Miyu-sama does have a better mana pool than her brother's."

"Another thing I've been meaning to ask," Taiga said, "don't you two have any other clothes on you? I must have something that fits you, and I'd rather lend you from my wardrobe than having you stench all over the place. Especially you, Saber, you must be cooking alive in that thing...!"

"Thank you, but I've never been fond of stripes," Caster turned the offer down with cold politeness. "Besides, our bodies are especially made by the Grail and lack several physical traits yours would have. No matter how long, we will never grow sweaty and smelly from the action of the elements."

Saber looked more receptive of the idea, as Shirou returned with another plate for her. "I wouldn't mind getting new clothes, I could change back and forth from them to this armor with only a thought." Her helmet was resting aside on the table, making for a curious ornament at the very least, but she still wore the rest of the metal suit otherwise. "Don't get me wrong, I love this armor. It accompanied me through all of my greatest battles, and a knight's armor is his lifetime mate, more than any living soul could ever be. And it just looks awesome, doesn't it? At the same time, I sort of hate it since it is a gift from my mother. That's okay, though, I'm powered by hatred so..."

"So you hate both of your parents," Caster pondered. "That is interesting, and didn't you say I reminded you of your mother?"

"Quite," Saber nodded, eyeing her dangerously. "Mother was a viper hiding in the grass, an indecent harlot preaching revenge based on virtue, a manipulative shrew, and I believe all those qualities apply to you as well."

"Just because she's a witch too?" Taiga asked. "In these times we call that profiling, Saber! It's something to be ashamed about!"

"I thought you disliked her too!" Saber protested.

"She must since she keeps calling me a witch, despite the fact I've warned her I dislike that moniker..." Caster quietly brooded, only nodding at Shirou as he poured her tea. "Thank you, Miyu-sama's Brother."

"We could go out and buy you some clothes after classes, so you don't have to borrow from Fuji-nee," Shirou said, sitting back down to start eating his lunch again. "That's okay, the budget hasn't been stretched that far yet..."

"No need for it, we won't be staying that long," Saber shook her head. "Especially her!" she poked a thumb towards Caster.

The sorceress glared. "Don't speak of my plans for the future in my place, Saber. If that is fine with Miyu-sama, I would not mind, I suppose..."

"Yeah, well instead of wasting time with frivolities you should worry about the War itself!" Saber told her. "If you're going to be of any support at all, you'd better start doing... I don't know, whatever at your workshop! Do you even have one yet?"

Caster nodded. "As a matter of fact, I was working on it all night long, in Young Emiya' Dojo."

Taiga spat her tea out all over the table. "Wha- Whaaaaaaa?!" she cried. "What have you done to our training hall?!"

"It is now a first category magical atelier prepared for the deadliest tactics in magical warfare," Caster informed proudly. "While still a work in progress, and lacking many of the materials I used to favor while in more favorable environments, I am still fairly satisfied with the results so far." There was a pause. "Would you know where to find housepets that nobody would greatly miss in this neighborhood?"

Taiga turned to the little girl. "Miyu-chan! Let me kill her!"

"Don't fight, don't fight..." Shirou groaned, closing his eyes.

In the house next door, Akashi Yuuna huffed while slinging her backpack over her shoulders. "Are they still arguing?" she grumbled, overhearing their voices from the entrance. "They'll make us tardy, geez..."

"I was more than half serious when I said you should move into the dorms," her father said, while straightening his green tie. "Not only you wouldn't need to wake up so early, but I'm not sure you should be sleeping here anymore over the next few weeks. You'd be safter staying over with Ako and Akira..."

"Dad, if trouble's going to chase me it'll keep chasing me no matter where I go," the girl grouched, still evidently upset at him. "Get that in your head already. Or what, do you think I'm going to be much safer around Negi-kun at all times? If Misa, Sakurako, Misora and Asuna are hanging at all times with him and the two social outcasts now, the only sane explanation is he's dragged them into that world somehow. Unless you want me joining their little social club?"

"You must be imagining things," the man said. "Negi-kun is a prodigy mage, no way he'll have left his guard down around so many girls."

"Daaaaaaad!" Yuuna complained. "You don't know them! There's no way those girls would be spending any time together without a reason like that, they've got literally nothing in common! Madoka has complained Sakurako and Misa will often take badly explained leaves of absence from their room, and that makes no sense, they've got much more in common with Madoka than with any of the others." Then she stopped herself, frowning at the sudden thoughtful look on the man's face. "Dad. You aren't going to rat Negi-kun out to the Headmaster, are you?"

"The rules say, if I have a suspicion on any member of the staff breaking any laws concerning the maintenance of the secrecy, I am to report them. It's bad enough I'm keeping the Emiyas' involvement into a Heaven's Feel a secret, and that's not only as a favor to Taiga and Kiritsugu, but also because they have registered properly to the authorities on the subject."

"Well, they aren't your suspicions, they're mine!" Yuuna argued. "Do you know what will happen to me if because of me Negi-kun is pulled away and turned into a rat or something? Iinchou would tear me apart alive, and that's before the rest of them get their hands on me! Please, Dad, if you respect me at all, don't-!"

"A moot point, since there's no way what you are imagining is true!" he huffed, reaching for his keys. "Think of my proposal anyway, Yuuna. You'll be much safer in the campus, it is much more protected than this area..."

Sitting on the rooftop and monitoring the activity below, Sella would be the first to argue on the subject, but instead only said, from her well hidden surveillance spot, and as the car was driven away towards the academy with the Akashis, the Emiyas, and two Heroic Spirits inside, "Leysritt, the target is on the move. You know what to do."


"And she told me, 'Sorry, Miss, but we can't grant you a license until you have taken a test with our supervisors, and you are eighteen'," the pink haired petite girl commented, sitting around a fountain with Yuuna and another friend, a pale, frail looking girl of short and grayish hair who was barely any taller than the pink haired one. "Do you think that's fair at all, Yuuna-chan?!"

"I told you it wasn't gonna work, Makie-chan," Yuuna rolled her eyes, then looked around. "I wonder what happened to Akira-chan?" she changed the course of the conversation, much to the relief of the third schoolgirl having lunch. "Ako, wasn't she with you?"

"Ah, yes, she was, but she was approached by this new friend of hers, Aino-san from the volleyball team, and she took her aside, I don't know exactly why," Izumi Ako said, taking another small bite from her sandwich. "Apparently they'll be away for a while on some errand, so Akira asked me to excuse her to Negi-sensei through the afternoon..."

"Aaaaaahhhh," Sasaki Makie said, pulling her head back so she'd look at the sky, "She did it again! I don't like this, that girl's taking Akira-chan away from us! Now I'm starting to understand how Madoka feels..."

"It's kind of even worse," the normally extremely kind Ako said, with a small frown. "I wouldn't mind that much if she were hanging out with Negi-kun, but a girl from another class...?"

"Come on, guys," Yuuna groaned, "we aren't Akira's owners! What if she wants to find herself another friend? It's not like she's gonna forget us! She lives with you, for Pete's sake, Ako-chan!"

"But that girl is a flirt, and I don't like her!" Ako pouted, as Makie nodded firmly and with great airs of faux wisdom. "And Akira-chan is too innocent for her own good..."

Then a tall, very busty woman with milky pale skin and the wavy white hair to match approached them, looking at them with large red eyes that, while very beautiful and serene, were also slightly creepy in how little they blinked. The woman, overall, as Yuuna noticed, was strangely like a living doll, much like Chachamaru, but in a way that was less warm and, while more organical and far less mechanical, also much more antinatural. Or maybe she was just seeing things where there weren't any, after the last couple of days?

"Excuse me, please," this stranger said, after taking a moment to verify there wasn't anyone else in the immediate vicinity. Next, she stared straight at Yuuna, and asked, "Are you Emiya Shirou's next-door neighbor?"

"Uuuuhhhh, yeah, what's with that?" Yuuna asked, feeling a small trickling sensation at the back of her neck, one both warning her to run away and warning her it'd be totally useless to do so. "Who wants to know?"

The woman bowed very deeply. "I am Leysritt, a humble vassal under the commands of Emiya Shirou's sister. I have come to take you to her."

Yuuna blinked. "Miyu-chan? Since when does Miyu-chan have any servants, I mean, vassals?"

"What is a vassal?" Makie asked.

Leysritt shook her head. "I don't represent the interests of, and I strictly quote my mistress on the topic, any unworthy dogs pretending affiliation with the Emiya name. I come in the name of Mister Emiya's older sister."

A question mark appeared over Yuuna's head. "Tiger-sensei? But she loves Miyu-chan dearly, she'd never call her a dog..."

Leysritt paused, then added, sounding slightly tired of making herself clear by now, "I don't represent the interests of, and I strictly quote my mistress on the topic, any hysterical old women passing themselves as caretakers for any of the Emiyas, either. I am here under orders of Lady Illyasviel von Einzbern. You will come with me to her castle in the woods."

Yuuna, Ako and Makie all blinked cluelessly at this, then stared at each other in a baffled silence.

Leysritt half sighed, wondering if this was how Sella felt all the time. "Please forgive me. I'm going to kidnap you," she said, and rushed the girls over.

A short while later, shortly before the bells rang to mark the return from lunch break, a much similar woman, but with shorter and straighter hair, a much flatter bust, and more human and emotional eyes, approached Shirou and Issei while they ate together.

"Emiya Shirou?" she asked, stopping before him, and he felt Saber's presence shifting alertly behind him.

"Yes, that' me," the redhaired boy looked up, blinking. "Excuse me, I don't think I've had the pleasure, Miss...?"

"Sella," she dryly introduced herself. "Please come with me, there is something we need to discuss in private."

"Oh..." Shirou frowned. "Excuse me, but maybe you could leave your phone number and I'd call you after classes..."

The woman shook her head. "I'm afraid this matter must be dealt with immediately."

Issei sighed. "Don't worry, Shirou. If it takes long, I'll try covering for you to Sensei..."

"Uh... Well, thank you, Issei," Shirou nodded, following Sella a couple of blocks' distance, until they stood in an old lot apart from eavesdroppers. "Listen, if this is about that bar jump back then, my family's policy is to-"

"We have kidnapped Akashi Yuuna, Izumi Ako, and Sasaki Makie," Sella curtly told him, making Saber materialize right behind him with a seeth of warrior anxiety and a psychotic glint in the eyeholes of her helm, moving around to level her sword at the pale homunculus, who did not even blink. "I feel I also must inform you that, while I am easily replaceable, any failure of mine to return to our headquarters will result in the execution of one of the prisoners. Master hates wasting valuable resources into creating new vassals as long as there are others available for the task, I will let you know."

"What?!" Shirou gasped, while suddenly snapping from his shock enough as to gesture for Saber to stand back. "Yuuna-chan, Ako-chan and Makie-chan?!" he yelled, then sobered and asked, scowling, "But, who are Izumi Ako and Sasaki Makie?"

Sella shrugged. "I'm just relating the news I was given by my partner in this mission. You are invited to come to their rescue in the ancient Einzbern Castle in the mountain woods." While saying this, she emotionlessly handed him a folded map, which a stunned Shirou accepted with stiff hands. "There you will engage in deadly combat against Master's unbeatable Servant, the mighty Berserker, and also probably partake in several colorful minigames. However, you are to attend this invitation alone with your Servant. Bringing anyone else will result in the instant execution of all three prisoners."

"That... That's just fiendish!" Shirou screamed. "What kind of depraved, vile, repulsive man is your Master?!"

"She is your adorable long forgotten older sister, Mister Emiya," Sella said, just as flat in delivery as ever.

Shirou's eyes shrank to black dots. "... what."

Saber sighed, shaking her head. "See? Family, always ruining things, it's what I always say!" Then she addressed Sella directly, waving the blade at her. "Tell your Master we will be there on the double, pawn! Fast, or else I will cut you down! Tell her Saber doesn't ever run away from a challenge, and that today is the day she and her Servant die! Mwa ha ha ha ha!"

"... older sister?" Shirou faintly repeated.

Sella nodded. "Should I include the 'Mwa ha ha ha ha'?"

"Especially the magnificent 'Mwa ha ha ha ha', woman!" Saber boasted.

"I shall do so. Thanks for your time," Sella said, nodding and then quickly running out of sight, accelerating and esentially flashing out of sight as soon as she was far enough.

Saber grinned to herself, slamming her clanking fists together. "Yes! I will begin my victorious campaign by besting the brute, Berserker! What better way of striking fear into Father's heart? I will drag the savage's corpse before him, as proof of my superiority before finishing him as well! Aren't you excited, Shirou?"

"My-" Shirou was still babbling, but then shook his head and cleared his thoughts off, clenching his fists. "Okay! I don't know what's going on here, or why I have another sister, or who are Ako and Makie! But they are people to rescue, and rescues are what heroes of justice do best! Saber, you are a hero of justice, aren't you?!"

"Um, well, yes, technically, I am an antihero, but as long as I believe my brutal cause of bloody personal retribution is fair and noble, then I- Of course I'm a Hero of Justice, what kind of stupid question is that, dolt?!"

"Then we'll go, right now! To Einzbern Castle!" Shirou growled, unfolding the map and looking at it... then grimacing deeply, as Saber got a look at it as well.

"Was this thing drawn on crayons?!" Saber asked, disbelieving.

"I... I think this might take a little bit longer than I thought..." Emiya confessed.


"Sorry I'm late!" the tall, gorgeous, black haired Ookuchi Akira apologized eagerly, rushing back into Junior High 3-A classroom with a noticeable blush on her cheeks. "I know I shouldn't have absented myself, Negi-sensei, Iinchou, but, as Ako-chan told you-!"

Negi Springfield blinked, stopping writing the English lesson of that afternoon on the blackboard, and staring back at Akira, much like the rest of the class but the napping Evangeline "Ako-san?" he asked. "But, we thought she, Yuuna-san and Makie-san would be with you, Akira-san?"

Meanwhile, Shirou trudged up a narrow and treacherous mountain road, with Saber walking behind him, consulting on his crudely drawn map and frowned as he pointed, up and ahead. "Okay," he said, "after a lot of thinking on the meaning of these geographical designs, the fact this structure stands in the middle of these woods, so uniquely as to have no local equal, makes me think this has to be our destination."

"Oh, Heavens," Saber said sarcastically, staring up at the gigantic European castle standing before them, and formerly well hidden by the lush thickness of those wildlands. "I'm sure glad my Master is a man of such peerless brilliance!"

Shirou scoffed. "Look, I know you must be thinking me an idiot for running directly into such an obvious trap, but-"

"What?" Saber said. "No, no, not me! Why would I think something like that?! I mean, I get why others would, but it's right what I'd do, too! What's the point of trying strategy when you don't have a way of knowing the battleground, and when you will fight a Berserker to boot? What's a Berserker going to do, outthink you? No, a Berserker will use raw strenght, and so you have to beat them at their own game! And if we'd called that Caster for backup, odds are she'd just betray us, I can tell. If I called you an idiot it's just because you state the obvious too much."

"Will that be okay, though?" Shirou worried, keeping the boken he'd borrowed from the Kendo Club before coming tightly in hand, already Reinforced. "You said you would need more mana to move than I can provide..."

"That's mostly something I said so Caster won't suspect my real strenght until it's too late for her," his Servant boasted. "It's true you need to become a better mana supplier, but I'm sure I can fight just fine by this point. The real question is, now, what are we supposed to do be given access?" she wondered, looking up at the tall, wide, closed gates of the sinister fortress. "Should I just break them down, or do you think that's too risky?"

"The latter, definitely!" Shirou said, then called out, "Hey, you in there! It's me, Emiya Shirou! I came as you asked me to!"

"Despite having to figure out a map drawn on crayons first!" Saber added her shout.

There was no answer at first.

Shirou rubbed his chin. "Maybe we got the wrong humongous castle in the woods after all...?"

"Oh, for God's sake!" Saber growled. "How many castles can there be in this forsaken piece of shit island?!" she moved ahead and began violently slamming a foot on the doors, howling her challenge. "Berserker, come out and face your death like the mad dog you are! If there's something I hate, that's reckless loose cannons abandoning themselves to their rage! Come out so I can gut you out like a pathetic insane beast!"

Shirou sweatdropped. "Maybe I have the Berserker right here with me after all..." he quietly told himself.

The doors slowly went open with a rusty, metallic and long pitched creak, and Saber and Shirou leapt back, prepared to do combat. Out stepped Leystritt, keeping both hands folded before herself and bowing delicately. "Good afternoon, Emiya Shirou and Servant," she humbly greeted. "I am Leysritt, Sella's sister. Please come with me, Illya is waiting for you."

"Uhhhh... Thank you? It's a pleasure, really..." Shirou doubted.

"Ah, I get it. You wish for a duel indoors!" Saber said, as she and Shirou followed the white skinned maiden inside, the doors coming closed again behind themselves. "No doubt you believe you have just shut the jaws of the trap after us, but you haven't locked me with you, you have just locked yourselves with me..."

"My apologies, but I can't confirm or deny the accuracy of your statement," Leysritt said, guiding them down long hallways decorated with ancient suits of armor and large portraits of severe old men with strong noses, ornate robes, red eyes, and long hair as pale as their flesh. "It is not my role to call the strategy for this duel, that will befall upon Illya and Berserker."

Saber chuckled. "A Berserker, thinking of strategy? It is to laugh!"

Leysritt finally led them to a huge room, strikingly similar to a throneroom, at the end of which sat a tiny albino girl with long silver hair, wearing tall boots, a dark purple blouse of long sleeves, and a knee-lenght white skirt, on a comfortable and wide couch. By her side stood Sella, dutiful and expressionless. "Ah, Emiya Shirou, face to face at last," purred the little girl, crossing her legs in a way that would have been seductive in an older woman, but only managed making Shirou feel uneasy as it was. "The son of Emiya Kiritsugu, Magus Killer! And now you'll fall to a magus, what a precious irony! Wait a moment, please, let me laugh at it before we continue! Oh ho ho, oh ho, oh ho ho!" she laughed haughtily, taking a little hand to her mouth. "That was a nice, ironic, laugh of superiority, wasn't it? I'm sure the scion of certain other families from Europe could learn a lot from me..."

"Ummm, good afternoon, Ojou-chan, pleased to meet you too," Shirou said, even more uncomfortable now. "Sorry we can't stop and play right now, but I was told by Sella-san here my older sister, of whom I knew nothing before today, would be waiting for me here, if you could please call her..."

"I am your older sister!" the little girl indignantly said, hopping from her seat with a hand on her chest. "Illyasviel von Einzbern herself!"

"Ah!" Saber said. "A dwarf!"

"I'm not a dwarf, you impertinent horned monstrosity!"

Shirou just frowned. "No, seriously, Ojou-chan, just call her over, please? Good little girls shouldn't lie, and there's no way you could be any older than twelve..."

"I am eighteen, you idiot!" Illya snapped.

"Yeah, sure, 'everyone in this game is eighteen years of age or older'," Shirou quoted, then blushed as everyone in the room, Saber included, stared intently at him. "Or, um, that's something I overheard in passing once, from, ah, Shinji! It's not like I've ever played- Look, if you got the reference, you aren't that innocent either! Even you, for shame!" he chided Illya. "So young and yet knowing about that kind of things, what will your mom think...!"

"Don't feel too bad over her lost innocence, Shirou, I'm still convinced she's a dwarf," Saber said.

"I'm not a dwarf, I simply have a case of Magical Systemic Hypoplasia!" Illya shrieked.


"Oboy," Makie said as they sat in the darkness of the dungeon. "This will really put a dent on my plans to get that license."

Actually, saying it was darkness might be an exaggeration. The room was decently well lit, just not too much by mere virtue of being a room inside of an old fortress built by people who originally had not had much use for electricity and wiring. And it was a stretch of sorts calling it a dungeon, too, even if Illya had labeled it as such; the true dungeons were in the basement, but Sella and Leysritt had lost the keys, so Illya had settled for locking them up in this room that was boring, but not all that unpleasant. It even had a few magazines lying around, even if they were from a decade ago.

Ako frowned, flipping through the one she had picked up. "Why women back then had such bad taste in hairstyles?" she wondered aloud before the room's door was opened from the inside, and in strode the smirking little devil who had taunted them upon arrival, followed by her two maids, and...

"Sempai!" Yuuna cried out, throwing herself into the open arms of a softly smiling Shirou. "Oh, I'd never been so glad to see you! Oh, and you're here as well, Saber-san," she added more detachedly, looking at the Servant by Shirou's side.

"Well, yes, since I didn't have anything better to do..." Saber replied.

Shirou patted Yuuna's shoulders and stepped away from her, under Illya's frowning glare. He approached the other two girls and asked them, "Sooooo... are you Ako and Makie?"

"Yeah!" Makie beamed happily, raising a hand. "I'm Sasaki Makie! You must be Emiya-sempai, the guy from the bar jump, right?"

"Izumi Ako, thanks for coming for us, Sempai," Ako bowed her head. "I don't understand what's going on, but Yuuna-chan has told us about you..."

"Yeah, and I always tell him about you guys too!" Yuuna smiled. "Don't I, Sempai?"

"No, he had no idea whatsoever who were those two until we came here," Saber bluntly stated.

"Ah?!" Makie cried out while Illya rolled her eyes and tapped her foot down on the background. "Yuuna-chan!"

"I have, though!" Yuuna protested. "Sempai, you know I talk about them all the time in the car!"

"W-Well," Shirou scratched himself on a cheek, looking aside, "you know my memory isn't that excellent, I mean, I remember how you'd talk about Akira-san, but..."

"Akira is your favorite?!" Makie told Yuuna.

"Well, duh!" a now annoyed Yuuna said. "Isn't she yours, too?!"

"Ah, well, she is, but...!"

"She is my favorite too, I have to admit..." Ako said bashfully, looking at the floor before asking Saber, "Excuse me, Sir, and your name is...?"

"I am the lethal Saber!" the Servant growled. "Heroic Spirit of the Sword! I have come to this decrepit castle to slay the evil beast that dwells in it! Berserker, that most primitive of heroes! They shall fall before my blade so I can lay my hands on the Holy Grail!"

"...!" Makie and Ako stared at her, suddenly hugging each other and having backed away until their backs touched the other end of the room.

Shirou sighed. "It's okay. S... He comes with me, and he means well... I think..."

"Okay, enough of that!" Illya pouted and clapped, walking out the dungeon and gesturing for the others to follow her down a long flight of stairs sculpted on the bedrock. "Shirou, at first I thought of paying Father's home a visit, but then I thought better. After all, I'm an aristocrat and shouldn't be seen in the company of my lessers. So I arranged for Leysritt and Sella to invite you to enjoy my hospitality instead. As you can see, as I promised, I didn't touch a single hair on the ladies' heads, since you came here under the stipulated terms. I'm glad to see you are, at the very least, a fellow person of your word."

"I don't get it." Makie said this so often it might as well have been her catchphrase, but this time it was truer than ever. "What are you to this Sempai, Illya-chan? I can call you Illya-chan, right?"

"No, you can't," Illya said.

"Then how should I call you?" Makie asked.

"I'd rather have you never addressing me at all," Illya confessed. "As for your query, I suppose it is valid. I am the first child of Emiya Kiritsugu the Magus Killer and Irisviel von Einzbern, heiress to the Einzbern clan. Ten years ago, I was left behind by my parents, who never returned to me. I could have forgiven my mother, who apparently died shortly after her arrival to these lands, but I never could forgive the man who left me after so many loving promises!" she gestured grandly, and Makie discreetly glanced at Ako, twirling a pointer finger several times around her ear. "That is why I swore I'd destroy the two inferior children he sired with God knows who in this barren excuse for a country."

"Actually," Shirou said, "just for the record, Miyu-chan and I are adopted..."

"Adopted?!" Illya shrilled, stopping and turning furiously back to him. "That... That only makes it worse, you ginger monkey! To think he'd reject me, his own flesh and blood, for two strays he picked off some filthy street...!" she shuddered in visible outrage, her pale face turning crimson. "Unforgivable, that's just plain impossible to ever forgive...!"

"I feel your pain, kid," Saber sympathized. "Parents are a bitch like that. I'll tell you what, maybe you should just let me kill this Berserker of yours and take me as your Servant? Berserkers are useless after all, you'd do much better with a-"

"Saber!" Shirou and Yuuna growled at once.

"Fuh!" Illya fumed, as they finally reached the bottom of the stairs, leading them into a huge round arena. "This is where you will face my Servant, Saber. Berserker!" she called out, clapping again. "Kill this ugly walking tin can and then this unsightly boy!"

"Yes!" the Amazonian beauty appeared out of invisibility then, startling Ako and Makie to the point of screaming, and growled "Achilles!" swinging her massive chain and spiked ball at Saber, who welcomed the attack with a deranged chuckle echoing through her helm.

Illya put her hands together and smiled placidly. "The Amazons were the most feared army in Greece. You face their queen, a daughter of Ares, God of War, Saber. There is no way your pedigree can compare to hers."

"I will let my pedigree speak on its own!" Saber swore, leaping back from the ball that had just smashed where she had just stood, opening a gigantic crater on the floor. Then she took an impulse on her heels and leapt forward, to meet the charge of the incoherently screaming Berserker rushing to meet her heads on. "I don't fear you, animal...!"

"SABER!" Shirou shouted, alarmed, and then-


"Howdy theeeere, Sa-ku-ra-chaaaaaan!" merrily greeted the girl who looked just like her but with much longer hair, skipping from around the corner as if the encounter had been casual. Someone paying more attention to her speech might have felt the strange need to somehow imagine a heart emoticon attached at the end of her sentence, but as it was, Sakura was only too startled by the sudden run-in to do anything but stopping and gasping.

"M-Moon Cancer-san!" the girl trembled, even though her mirror self's expression kept on being a wide, pleasant smile. "Wh-What are you doing here?!"

"Oh, you know how it is!" Moon Cancer said, matter of factly, shrugging and tossing a hand around in a circle. "Shinji-kun wanted me to be good for something and patrol for other Servants, so that's what I'm doing, it helps that unlike others, I can pass for a perfectly normal girl!"

"B-But you still shouldn't be seen in public!" Sakura stammered, looking in all directions, although the closest visible person was passing by two blocks away and minding their own business, not looking at them before disappearing down another street. "Especially if we're seen together, Grandfather will be furious!"

"We always can say I'm your sister," Moon Cancer said mischievously, throwing an arm around Sakura's shoulders and moving her down the sidewalk with herself, towards the Matou house. "You'd like having a sister, wouldn't you, Sakura-chan? Well, now you have three! And I could introduce you to even more, should things work out fine, that is. A big happy family of Sakuras, a large tree in full bloom!"

Sakura looked down. "I... I'm thankful for having you around, of course, but... Grandfather told me I shouldn't attach myself to you, you're Oniisama's Servants now..."

"Oh, come on, Sakura-chan!" Moon Cancer prodded her shoulder. "I'll let you into something, true control over a Servant doesn't come from Command Seals, much less from this," with her other hand she made a motion of flipping a book's pages in a pompous, stuffy fashion, so much like Shinji's that Sakura briefly felt a smile tugging at her lips. "For us, it's easy to work around those. It's like trying to put reigns on the wind. Only very stupid Servants will fall for those."

"Then, what-"

"Ahhhh, for true control, you want a communion with the Servant you are bonded with," Moon Cancer interrupted, wagging a finger. "Do you know why your grandpa's so upset?"

"Of course I do," Sakura quietly said. "I failed to summon the Gorgon."

"And what did you get in trade?" the Servant smirked, almost nuzzling her face against Sakura's neck.

Sakura felt herself heating inside, the clsoe contact with someone so similar to her somehow prickling the worms squirming inside into a peak frenzy. She unesaily crossed her legs and rubbed them together quickly as Moon Cancer all but dragged her along, holding her steady. "Y-Y-You, naturally..."

"And we," Moon Cancer completed, "are you, in a way. That much is obvious. That is the real reason why Gramps is furious. We have shown him you are much more than he would give you credit for, and he knows that made you realize it, too."

"That, that..." Sakura stammered, "is wrong, Moon Cancer-san... You are you, and our resemblance must be a coincidence, but there's no way an useless girl like me..."

"Call me BB," BB breathed warmly on her cheek, all but blowing enticingly on it. "And do you know what those two letters mean?"

"N-No... How could I..."

"Black Blossom..." the Servant said, as the hand on Sakura's shoulder tightened its grasp on it.

"Bu-ra-kku..." Sakura gulped, remembering her English lessons, "Bu-ro-ssumu..."

BB shrugged. "You need more practice, but yeah, basically! Think about it, Sakura-chan. I'm sure you will eventually get it. In the meanwhile, tell me, about this Gorgon, the Medusa."

"Y-Yes? What about her, by now it's a moot point, you were summoned already..."

"Oh, I know, I know! But, would you have been happy with her as your Servant? Would you feel more comfortable with a Servant who is not literally you... or what you don't want to see about yourself?"

"That, that doesn't matter either way, I'm not fit to hold Servants, all of them would go to Oniisama..."

BB sighed in exasperation. "A slow learner if I've ever seen one!"

This show of contempt, suddenly and for some reason, finally made something within Sakura kick in, and when she next spoke, she was irritated, as well. "Of course I'd have liked having a Servant of mine, anything to call my own, really, but if it can't be anyway, why do you feel like torturing me so? Why to tease me with honors I'll never have? What have I ever done to-"

"Aaaaand that's what I wanted to learn, see how it wasn't that hard?" BB was sweet again, placing a fingertip on Sakura's lips. They had all but reached the old manor, and BB let go of her at last, smiling and flipping a happy salute. "Well, I've gotta keep doing this thing, so I'll leave you to our own thing, and I'll see if I can do something to help you with that other thing! You didn't see me, I didn't talk with you, I've been working hard all day long for Shin-chan with no breaks, okay?"

Sakura blinked at this latest bout of strangeness from the Servant who now walked backwards away from her, but ended up just waving at her. "Ahhhh... Okay, thank you for that... thing. I'm sorry, I'm sorry if I sounded pushy, if you want to be friends I-"

But BB already had disappeared in the ether.

Sakura shuddered, then entered the house, for once without any hesitation for even what was inside was less unnerving than Moon Cancer. As she went up the stairs to her bedroom, she saw one of the Alter Egos, the small and slim one, making the rounds across the house, and taking a second to stare angrily at her, as if threatening her with her eyes. Sakura trembled again and rushed up, quickly locking herself in her room, only to find Shinji sitting on her bed, reduced to his underwear.

"Oniisama," she breathed out.

He glared up at her, not that distinctly from how Meltlilith did it. "You're late again."

"I... I'm sorry, Oniisama, I was just going to leave my schoolbag here, and then I'll go, I'll cook din-"

"I'm not hungry," he growled, getting up and beginning to rip her skirt down her legs. Even for him, he was being rough, as if taking out on he what he couldn't do on something else.

All the same, the worms boiled and partied inside of her, gnawing and demanding for release, and Sakura surrendered to them. She grabbed Shinji's cheeks between her hands and pulled him to herself, mashing her lips against his as his hands moved up, undoing her pink bra and firmly holding onto her large breasts even as they poked free, his fingers pinching on the hard nipples.

Down below, Meltlilith hissed and growled, dragging her stilletto legs against the mansion's floor, leaving scratch marks all over them.


They clashed as brutally as expected, with Saber getting a cut through one of Berserker's shoulders, and Berserker taking hold of Saber's neck, exerting each inch of her monstruous strenght to try and twist it around. The armor mostly protected her from this, much as the thick muscle prevented the blade from going too deep, but now in close quarters, and with Berserker having gotten a steady hold on Saber, the advantage had fallen on the mostly exposed warrior.

Berserker wrestled Saber down to the dirt, snarling savagely onto her face and starting to strangle her. "Saber, no!" Shirou shouted, trying to leap into the arena, only to be held by Leysritt from behind.

"Did you ever think this would be a harmless sport, Brother?" Illya taunted him, pointing to the pool of blood gathering under the combatants as Berserker bashed Saber's head down repeteadly. "How naive...! If the middle brother is like this, the little sister will be a cakewalk, tee hee...!"

"Why are you so bloodthirsty...?!" the livid Shirou asked, even as Saber kicked Berserker off herself, rubbing her throat for a moment and struggling back up, supporting herself on the sword. Berserker flipped back to a standing position easily and, true to form, jumped on her again without any prior consideration. "Why do you blame us on anything, we didn't even have any idea you existed!"

"Even if that's true, the children must still pay for the sins of their fathers," Illya solemnly said. "That is something Grandfather taught me well."

"Die, damn you..." Saber growled, stabbing her sword through Berserker's breastplate, in an attempt to get to her heart, but the metal had been forged in such a way, and from such origins, the sword got stuck there, its tip barely sinking into the Amazon's flesh. Berserker grunted and slapped her, sending her flying away from her, and then pulled the blade out of herself, throwing it aside while not paying any attention to her bleeding wound.

"Dammit, girl, you've gotta stop this!" Yuuna told Illya, as she and Makie held the downed Ako and fanned her face, attempting to revive her unconscious friend, who had fainted at the first sight of blood. "You're going too far now...!"

"On the contrary, I'm only starting. I'm not satisfied in the slightest yet," Illya coldly said. "Berserker! Taking too long! Finish him now!"

"Achilles!" Berserker roared, swinging with a mighty arm at Saber, who ducked and rolled under it, making a dive for her dropped blade. It was successful, and she regained hold of it right in time as to swing at Berserker while the larger woman dropped onto her, slamming a fist down on her face so badly it dented the helmet inwards, in a way that made Shirou, Yuuna and Makie sure she had just had her face and skull caved in. At the same time, Saber got another cub through Berserker's exposed ribs, but the Amazon kept on seething and hissing on top of her while the armored knight just lied motionless.

"Penthesilea, Queen of the Warrior Women," Illya smirked gleefully. "An expert on open warfare against the best champions of men. Survived even a battle against Heracles, son of Zeus, himself. She only could be felled by an invulnerable man! You made your mistake by bringing a man to fight her, Emiya Shi-"

"Not just any man!" Saber roared, reviving and pushing Berserker off herself, so strongly that she made her fly upwards, as concentrated mana burst through the body in the armor and surged up, flaring and burning into a renewed battle frenzy. She sprang back to her feet as Berserker hit the ground with a thud, and leveled her blade at her, growling. "The best of men under an undefeatable army! By leaving them, I sapped their strenght away! By opposing them, I sealed their fate! Men or women alike, it doesn't matter! As long as you oppose my rage, you shall perish! Even your fury is nothing compared to mine! Berserker!"

Penthesilea drooled like the insane beast she had been reduced to, eyeing Saber with bloodshot eyes as the horned warrior pulled the now deformed helmet off their head, since it had been twisted too much to be anything but a liability already. Blonde hair was tossed around and proud green eyes sparkled. Saber's revealed face was covered in bruises and soaked in her own gore, but still retained a majestic beauty that was unmistakably feminine, even if a bit androgynous. This seemed to mildly baffle Berserker through the haze of her savagism, but after a short pause, she only roared again, hands clawing before herself. Saber acknowledged this with a smirk. "So it makes no difference to you either. I commend that, sister..."

"Uwaaaa! So cute!" Makie gushed. "I mean, other than all the blood and that...!"

Illya herself was mildly impressed. "... well," she said after a moment. "I am really intrigued by who your Servant is now, Brother. I think I will torture you for that info are we're done here. Berserker!" she clapped. "Your Queen commands you, Noble Phantasm!"

It was not an order expressed through a Command Seal, despite the phrasing. As long as Berserker held her faith on this little girl as the successor to Hippolyta, those would not be needed. Flexing her muscles back, she shook and howled, ""U... Uaaaaa! Aaaa... Uuaaaaa... Kill, kill, KILL!"

"Saber, be careful!" Shirou screamed at the top of his lungs, still held from behind by Sella and Leysritt. "Let me go, damn it, you two...!"

Saber chuckled raspily, a faint reddish aura starting to appear around her. "So it comes down to this. So be it. I don't care. Nobody will be left a witness, so it doesn't matter whether I show this or not." Moving the sword down and channeling the energy into it, manifesting it as flames blazing around its edges, she muttered, ""This for sure will be the wicked blade that will destroy my father..."

Berserker, meanwhile, exploded into an even bigger combat frenzy, propelling herself towards Saber as if surrounding herself all over with hellish flames. "Outrage Amazon! UuuuuUU, uUUUUUU! ...ACHILLESSS! ...FuaA...!"

"Clarent Blood Arthur!" Saber shouted just as manly, raising the sword, which became all black and red all over, and summoned blood and lightning from above onto it, blowing holes through the upper levels of the castle. Shirou and the Mahora girls yelped, overcame by the ghastly vision, as Saber brought the sword down, unleashing all of this gathered power on Berserker even as the feral Amazon reached her, and both forces collided in a gigantic maelstrom of fire.

Shirou screamed, feeling a great pain ripple across him, flowing from the heart and his hand, and he rattled in the maids' arms, fainting even as everyone watching over the fight, and Ako, were sent flying back, bowling over each other, and Saber and Berserker were thrown off each other, the Berserker taking the worst part as she was literally blasted many feet into a stone wall, leaving her twisted and twitching, stuck in the rock foundations, bleeding copiously.

Yet Saber was not in a much better form; while her attack had been more successful, she had less endurance to withstand the opponent's barrage of instant blows within her fire, far less damage absortion than the maddened Amazon, and so she had collapsed onto a bleeding heap that regardless, still stubborly squirmed and struggled to get back up, pulling herself on the damned sword that was returning slowly to its original colors. "Do you want..." she coughed up thick splurts of red, "... more of that... bitch...?"

"I can't believe it," was everything that Makie could mouth off quietly, blowing dust and debris off her face with the hand not still tending to Ako, and Yuuna couldn't agree any more. Even Saber's earlier battle against the other Saber had been nothing compared to this, but it was clear, as Berserker staggered back out of her hole, that neither of the Servants was in any condition to fight anymore. So, now what...

Illya smiled with narrowed eyes, held her fist up, and thought of her first Command Seal as it burned on her, executing her absolute will. "Berserker," she softly asked. "Heal back, right now, so we may finish this at once."


A miracle happened then, right before the unbelieving eyes of Shirou, Yuuna and Makie. Berserker stood upright and shook, while her wounds all healed in the blink of an eye, her perfectly fit physique regaining its flawless beauty even before they could process what was going on.

Shirou himself was just starting to come back to his senses, and he groaned, "Sa... ber..." while trying to reach for her. Berserker had already covered the distance separating them in a couple of forceful strides, and grabbed her by the blonde hair, slamming her face down against the cracked ground, and then grinding it with augmented savagery. "Saber...!" Shirou screamed, finally pulling free from the maids, and only managing to cover a few steps before his still wobbly legs collapsed under him.

"Achilles...!" Berserker howled, pulling Saber back up and headbutting her, a moment before Saber smirked wearily and shoved two metal fingers into her eyes, forcing her to drop her. "Agh...!"

"You... must be mistaking me with someone else, sister," Saber coughed, trying to measure her up with her blade. "Don't think your eyesight will improve anything with that, but-"

Eyes bleeding but still functional, Berserker bellowed and lunged back for her, receiving only a weak stab on a side as she grabbed Saber again and began pummeling her furiously, over and over, hammering her down to her knees. "Kneel! Kneel! KNEEEEEL!"

"Saber... no..." Shirou gurgled.

Illya approved with a nod and smile. "Do it, Berserker. Finish her! Fatality! Show no mercy on-"

"Mistress!" Sella shouted abruptly. "Look out!"

"Ah?" Illya blinked, and then shrieked, as a rain of bolts and blasts fell on them from an upper section of the castle. It was concentrated all on Illya, who had come to stand away from the others, further ahead to behold Berserker's triumph, but moving faster than her counterpart, Sella had jumped up to intercept most of the barrage dropping on the small homunculus, receiving impacts all over her body, pieces of white cloth and bleeding flesh flying from her as she was all but drilled through from all sides. Illya yelled in pain as two stray projectiles of concentrated magic Sella hadn't been able to block hit her, one in an arm, the other on the opposite leg, drawing blood as well and forcing her to fall sitting down, whining loudly even as her maid dropped by her side, grievously wounded but still moving. "Ahhhhhh! Ah, it hurts, it hurts so much...! Who...?!"

"Queen!" Berserker gasped, immediately dropping Saber and leaping to her fallen Master's side, cradling her against herself with incredible tenderness and care. However, the rage returned a moment later, as she stared up to the two figures slowly descending onto the arena. One of them a hooded female, and the other...

"Daddy!" Forgetting everything else, Yuuna left Ako and Makie behind and rushed past everyone else, jumping into the arms of her grimacing father, who held her firmly against himself. His wand aimed directly at the seething Illya and Berserker. "Oh Daddy, thank God you're here, I-!"

"I'll handle this, Illya," Leysritt offered herself, dashing ahead with her halberd, but before she could swing it on the newcomers, Saber had, against all expectations, moved in a flash to block her way, twisting her sword around and slicing Leysritt's armed arm cleanly off her shoulder. The maid came to a silent halt, only watching her severed limb roll across the dirt before turning her eyes to the bleeding stump. "Oh my," she quietly said, "this might prove being an inconvenience."

Saber kicked her in the the stomach and sent her flying back.

"Caster!" Shirou coughed, getting back up to his feet. Sella sprang back to life despite her injuries and tried to leap onto him, but he turned around and whacked her on the face with his reinforced boken, then hit her again when she kept on advancing on him, and finally, as Makie pulled out a long pink gymnastic ribbon out of her sleeve and swung it around Sella's legs, the maid lost her balance and fell flat on her back. Shirou grunted, moved onto her, and slammed the boken on her one last time, knocking her unconscious. He looked back at Makie and nodded, huffing. "Thank you."

Makie shrugged her shoulders. "I do what I can!"

"So," Illya venomously told Caster, a hand gripping on Berserker's arm to keep her in place. "You are that girl's Servant..."

"This place has very good defenses. But not good enough for me," Caster flatly told her. "I'm sure you will reinforce them after this either way... but that is only if I allow you to live. Which I won't," she finished, outstretching a hand before her and-

"Caster, no!" Shirou shouted.

Illya chuckled grisly. "Listen to him, Caster. Do you really think you can blast me before Berserker has separated your head from your body...?"

"What... What is going on, I had a nightmare that I..." Ako stirred back to life, blinking through her cobwebs and confusion, and then getting a more or less clear view of what was going on before her, in a tense standstill. "Oh, it's still on," she decided, dropping back and closing her eyes again. "I think I'll wake up later then."

Illya breathed in and out laboriously. "I will tell you what will happen, now," she informed the others. "Berserker will kill you all before you can mount a defense. But that will still probably take long enough we will bleed to death, and Berserker will disappear. Hence... no one will be left to avenge themselves on this witch's Master," she coughed, starting to apply a healing spell on herself, and cursing herself for not studying more on them when she had the chance. Still too slow to work while stalling them, she would need more time...

Her mind made up, she capitulated. Of sorts. "Go. All of you. You have earned a reprieve. The father and his daughter, especially, I won't ever bother them again."

"Ah?" Makie asked, already propelling Ako up against herself, with a strenght not common on high school girls that petite. "Why Yuuna-chan and not us?!"

"Do I see your father here?!" Illya snapped at her, then motioned with a hand for them to leave. "Stop dirtying my beautiful castle with your presence, before I change my mind. If Caster knows the way in, she also can take you out."

"I can," Caster nodded icily. "Farewell then, until our next encounter, Sister of Miyu-sama."

"So that's her name, huh..." Illya's anger bubbled, even as Akashi-sensei gathered the girls and a hesitating Shirou who wouldn't stop looking at Illya's prone form, biting on his lower lip. The boy still protested even as Caster and the teacher pulled him along with themselves up the stairs, Saber going back to to her spiritual form to keep her remaining energies.

Before too long, they had disappeared from Illya's sight.

"Idiot..." Illya grouched, half sleepily, while Sella and Leysritt helped each other to stand as well as they possibly could under the circumstances, bleeding all over the ground.

"And to think we'll have to clean this afterwards..." Leysritt mused contemplatively, looking down.

"You should have let me kill them, my Queen," Berserker said then, softly, cradling her in her strong arms and rocking her back and forth like a mother.

Illya shook her head. "Today, for the first time... I have seen a father really loving his daughter. That is... enough for me to call this a good day..."

Night was starting to fall, and rain was also beginning over the woods surrounding the Einzbern Castle.


Saber rested on Shirou's bed now, covered up to her chest in white blankets. Her armor had been taken off, and so she lied in the skimpy red garments with black highlights she had been wearing under it, pouting and fuming at the attentions of those around her. Miyu sat on a small chair by her bedside, applying her hands on her and whispering prayers, while Shirou tried to spoonfeed her from a bowl of admittedly delicious pudding. Caster stood slightly aside, smirking to herself, while Akashi-sensei was discussing something with his daughter, Ako and Makie, by the door. Taiga stood right behind Shirou, holding onto his shoulders with her hands as if never meaning to let go.

"How did you find us anyway?" Saber grumbled after another mouthful from Shirou's pudding. "It was Caster's doing, wasn't it?"

Caster nodded. "Miyu-sama, wise for her years, asked me to keep surveillance on you, which I did though one of my spy familiars. It is thanks to her you draw breath yet."

"Miyu-chan...!" Shirou paused, blinking at the black haired child.

Miyu opened her eyes and gifted him with a little warm smile. "Don't mention it, Oniisama. If it's for you sake, I-"

"Yeah, yeah, that's very heartwarming and all," Saber grumbled, "But, did you have your critters trained on us the whole time, Caster? Even when Shirou was in the toilet and he told me to keep out?!"

"Ah, what was that?!" Taiga yelled while Shirou blushed.

Caster nodded. "That was very unbecoming of a lady, Saber," Caster chided. "You should be more respectful of a young man's privacy..."

"I'm not a lady, and neither are you, if you kept on looking!"

"Yeah, for once I can agree with the edgy psycho, what the hell, Caster?!" Taiga demanded.

"The means through which I learn on subjects don't matter compared to the subjects themselves!" Caster waved that off, then asked Shirou. "Young Emiya, you listened how Saber called upon her Noble Phantasm, didn't you?"

Shirou blinked. "Her Noble what?"

Saber facepalmed. "He doesn't even know what's a Noble Phantasm...!"

"Did you ever stop to explain that to him?" Caster asked.

"Did you?!" Saber shot back.

"He is not my Master," Caster reminded her, before telling Shirou anyway, "Noble Phantasms are the ultimate sublimation of a Heroic Spirit's legend, the means through which we reached the Throne of Heroes. They are the tools and weapons that gave us fame and power among men. Generally, for them to be summoned, we must call upon them, but that is a liability as well as a strenght. The name always implies or directly reveals the identity of the Noble Phantasm's user, and if you learn your enemy's true identity, you also can infer the means to defeat them, their patterns and weaknesses. Today, Saber has revealed her as one Clarent Blood Arthur, which only can mean she has direct ties to the Arthurian mythos from long after my times..."

Makie approached them, blinking. "So she's actually Maid Marian?"

Saber blinked back. "Maid- what?!"

"You know, Robin Hood's girlfriend!" Makie said innocently. "Robin Hood and King Arthur were pals, right?"

"I'd be terribly angry at you right now, if you only had any idea what are you talking about!" Saber yelled at her.

"Think about it, Young Shirou," Caster calmly told Emiya. "She claims being a man, harbors a deep hatred against a father identified as a King, and is an accomplished swordsman with a flaring temper. What person in the Arthurian lore fulfills those conditions?"

"Prince John?" was Makie's new guess.

"Could you please stay away from any future discussions involving history, young lady?" Caster requested of her as cold as politely.

Shirou scratched his head. "Let's see... I'm not that big on Western history, but out of all the knights of Camelot- you mean the one nobody liked, the one who-"

"Mordred, I'm Mordred, okay?!" Saber shouted, tossing her hands up. "I can put it in the newspapers too, if you want me to! Sheesh! What a bunch of annoying people!"

Akashi-sensei was walking closer to the bed now, adjusting his glasses with concern. "Mordred, known as the Knight of Treachery...?"

"Treachery is a relative thing!" Mordred huffed. "I only repay the same way I was treated! It's true I tried to overthrow my father, but I had my good reasons for it and I don't regret it! Surely now you're going to lecture me on treachery, too!" she snapped at Caster.

The other Servant shook her head. "Not me. Not on that."

Mordred sulked at the Witch of Betrayal for a moment, insecure of her sincerity, before folding her arms like a stubborn child. "Now you're all getting weird ideas, no doubt! Listen, Shirou, when I offered my services to that dwarf, I only was joking, okay?! I wouldn't stoop as low as to backstab someone who hasn't offended me yet!"

"What about when you offered being my Servant, was that a lie too?" Yuuna asked.

"Are you still interested?"

"Not now that I know you have 'Treachery' as part of your name, no!"

"It isn't the name, it's the title!" she turned to Taiga next. "See, now they're pulling that profiling thing you mentioned earlier on me! It's also bad when it's put on me, isn't it? Just because I grew famous over being a betrayer, it's not like I'm going to betray you!"

"Are... Are you really listening to the words coming out of your mouth?" Taiga asked her.

"Okay, okay, time out, please!" Ako held her hands up. "So, what is going on here is, magic exists after all, and Yuuna's papa and Emiya-sempai and this girl here are mages too-"

"I got some training from my birth family, but I was never officially graduated as a magus, and neither was Oniisama..." Miyu began.

"Same difference!" Ako said. "And these two are dead people you brought back to life to be your bodyguards, and that crazy little girl was your long lost sister who is also a mage, and where's your papa's magical dead bodyguard then, Yuuna?!"

"It's not like most of us have Servants, Izumi-kun!" her friend's father said.

Taiga reached over to pat Ako on a shoulder. "I'm sorry, kid. But it will NOT get any easier the more you think about it. Anyway! Shirou, Miyu-chan, this can't keep going like this! This War thing is definitely too dangerous, and we've seen the school isn't safe either after all! You'll hand these Servants to someone else, and I'll move you over to Grandpa's for a while until these weirdos kill each other off, and..."

"But Oneesama," Miyu pointed out, "that girl hates us for reasons unrelated to our being Masters. She'd keep coming after us, but now we wouldn't have Servants to defend us..."

"And she came all the way from Europe, it's not like going somewhere else in Japan is going to change things for her," Shirou added.

Taiga blanched out. "But, but then, what...!"

Shirou sighed and clenched a fist. "There's no other way! We must either find a way to put a non-violent end to this war or win it ourselves!"

"With the same Servant who got a pounding today?" Yuuna critically asked.

"Shut up, girl, that was only a fluke! I'd have won if only that abominable brat hadn't used a Command Seal right then, but now that she's down to only two-!" Mordred barked.

"You'll get two more beatings?" Yuuna snarked.

"Being beaten down is a key part of being a hero, how can you get back up and kick ass if you aren't punted down first?!" Saber asked. "Honestly, why do I bother to explain these things to people like you?!"

"Wait, so what you've been trying to say is King Arthur was a woman?!" a bewildered Makie asked, the other shoe finally dropping.

"The King! Father was the King, genders are irrelevant when it comes to these things and I don't like talking about them, do you get that, dumb girl?!" Mordred told her.

Makie blinked. "Are you a futanari? Like in Haruna's manga?"

"I DON'T HAVE A PENIS, BUT WHAT IF I HAD IT ANYWAY!"

Several houses away, Tohsaka Rin rolled around on her bed, trying to block her ears with her pillow. "Who the hell keeps on shouting so much?!" she complained to herself. "Honestly, they could wake the dead up...!"


End of Chapter Three.