[[earlier]]

The magi were all cramped together in the booth at the Sushi restaurant, discussing the plan Rin had woven for the upcoming raid on Zouken (drawn from Sakura's knowledge of the mansion), when Shirou interrupted.

"Here." Shirou projected a crude sword. It was poorly made, with hardly an edge to it. "After what that Shinji revenant did to Saber, I got to considering how I would deal with an enemy like him. This is my solution" He held the sword out to Rin.

She examined it for a moment before recoiling, "It's doing something to my spells."

Shirou nodded, "the original of this sword was made from one of Dad's rib. I exhumed his body and used his bones to create a sword."

"Why?" Alberto asked, less disturbed by the concept than the others - he wasn't Japanese so he didn't have the same reverence for his ancestors.

"My stepfather's origin was Severing and Sealing. Anything cut by this sword will be magically cut off from the rest. As a weapon it is nothing special, but if it hits a magus who is using a spell, his mage circuits will be severed and sealed from use."

[[now]]

Shirou plunged the bone sword into the skeletal remains of the girl lying in the shallow grave. The sword snapped in the cadaver' chest.

As it did, the blackened Rider staggered just short of Rin, dropping to one knee on the stairs as something inhuman screeched. Before she could recover, the Tohsaka braced herself and drained a gem: "Blitzvorhang!"

Rin eyes crossed in concentration as she condensed the lighting into a single narrow cone which rippled over Rider. The Servant tried to dodge, but the shock from Shirou severing the spell had slowed her enough so that she was struck by multiple bolts, with others smashing into the stairs by her feet, blasting apart some stones and scorching others.

"No!" Zouken materialized, off to one side, holding something red and pulpy in his hand. A moment later, a giant glowing shape appeared next to him. It looked like an hourglass, or a crude challis.

At the same time Assassin somehow managed to slip past Archer and lashed out at Sakura with his knife. Luvia spotted him at the last moment, deflecting his arm up so that his knife missed Sakura neck by inches. In such close quarters Assassin was able to latch on to her arm and twist. Luvia defended by shifting her weight, so that instead of getting thrown off of the stairs, she threw Assassin. But the Servant was able to maintain his grip, pulling Luvia down as well, so that they both fell twenty feet, landing hard.

Assassin rolled back to his feet, but he wasn't quick enough – an arrow hit him in the lower leg, punching through his calf muscle.

But Luvia lay still.

Immediately, Rin jumped down to her friend.

Luvia was covered in blood.

While Assassin squared off against Archer again, Shirou charged Zouken.

Light poured from the partial materialized Grail, and the floor responded in kind, rippling with color as Zouken used the Grail system to take control of the rogue portal.

Shirou barely avoided stepping onto a tendril of the portal (and dropping into some foreign reality), throwing himself into a roll to his right as the portal pooled up from the floor.

Zouken made a flourish with his arm, and the air was filled with winged blade worms. They came out of the walls, creating a swarm that swirled like a tornado through the entire room.

As the swarm expanded, Sakura jumped down next to her estranged sister and raised a dome of ice over the both of them, to act as a shield.

Rin nodded her thanks as she desperately searched Luvia for the stab wound.

Archer leaped up to a ledge on the far side of the room. Assassin tried to follow her up, but the poison in his leg wound caused it to buckle. As he stumbled, three arrow impacted into his torso. The first two spun him around, and the third pinned him to the ground.

At the same time, Shirou flung himself at the wall above the dimensional pit. Flipping over at the last moment so that his feet hit first, he pushed off like a human cannonball right at Zouken. The mage was mildly surprised, but not overly perturbed as Shirou smashed through him. The redhead rolled to his feet, covered in biting larvae from where he had passed through Zouken, and slashed at the worm mage with the crude weapon in his hand.

Zouken again dissolved into a chittering pile of bugs. But as the sword swept through the Zouken swarm, he screamed in pain, his top half returning to human while the rest was still a swarm of bugs.

As he collapsed to the floor, screaming, Shirou materialized another copy of the Kiritsugu rib sword and sliced his head off.

The bug swarm hurricane immediately collapsed.

"So, it's over," Sakura looked at the source of so much of the misery in her life. Even if he wasn't the exact same person, he was still evil.

"Not yet." Rin looked up from Luvia. She had managed to stop the bleeding, and Luvia was still breathing, but Rin was exhausted - she didn't have enough reserves to do much more than that. "I still need to close the portal. Shirou, bring the Grail over here so I can disentangle it from the portal."

"We need to make our wish," Archer pronounced as she landed on the floor. "The Master needs to initiate it."

Sakura nodded. She wasn't certain what to wish for, anymore. So much had changed in the past two days. She glanced at Rin. Did she still want her dead? Or... maybe in this world, they could have a normal relationship, like real sisters?

"Don't touch the Grail until I deal with the portal!" Rin insisted as Shirou carried the glowing lesser Grail over to their side of the room, skirting the portal carefully.

"But that could destabilize the whole system. It's only powered because of the portal."

"That's a risk we're going to have to take," Rin squared off with Sakura. She didn't want to fight with her sister. Even if it wasn't actually HER sister. But this Sakura was the closest she would ever have. And getting a second chance at having a relationship was not something she would waste.

"Look, I will do the best I can to keep the Grail intact," Rin pleaded, very unlike her usual confident manner.

Sakura nodded tentatively.

Twang

The arrow took Sakura though the throat.

As Sakura dropped, Rin looked up in shock, first at Archer, and then at Shirou, but they were equally surprised.

Thunk

Alberto dropped down the from the ruined stairs to the floor, staggering slightly in pain. "She was responsible for almost killing Megumi." The magazine on his crossbow automatically loaded another quarrel, and he kept it targeted steadily on Rin.

"That wasn't on purpose. You know that!" Rin dropped down to Sakura's side as Shirou edged himself towards the two women.

"Archer! I am the last master. If you make a covenant with me, you can get your wish!"

Shirou launched himself at Alberto. He wasn't certain what Alberto's wish was, but he was a threat to the people he loved.

Thunk! The crossbow bolt ricocheted off of Shirou's coat. The runes lit up as they dissipated the energy.

Shirou projected Kanshou and Bakuya. He rarely used these, but he needed something stronger than usual to secure the future for Sakura and Rin.

As he was about to cut down Alberto, he felt more than saw a pair of arrows coming at his back. He dropped and spun around, slashing them from the air as he landed on the ground just shy of Alberto.

"I agree," Archer called out.

Alberto lunged for the Grail. A light washed over him, and his eyes lit up from the inside. A moment later, he pronounced "I wish that Megumi... no," he glanced at Luvia, "that everybody is restored to health." The Grail pulsed and the portal pulsed back. Archer gave a start. She had time for one panicked look before she was sucked into the Grail. Then, with a huge rush of force, something ripped out of the portal, tearing it into pieces that flew apart.

"What was that?" Shirou asked as something began to scrabble at his mind. He focused past it, and the sensation withdrew, "did any of you feel that?"

Albero looked confused, "No, that's not…"

Rin broke out in a cold sweat sweat. "That was an attempted possession." She stood up from Sakura's body as she poured prana through her magic circuits, a quick defense against whatever was attacking her.

The Grail gave another pulse, and another gust of something was expelled from it, filling the room momentarily before swirling up the stairs.

Shirou wasn't certain what was going on, but it was not good, and the Grail was the source. He recreated the married swords and slammed them into the Grail, to no effect.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Alberto called out, his voice panicky as he stepped between Shirou and the Grail. "We can get control of it."

A Gandr sphere struck him in the chest, knocking him to the ground, "Hit it again!" Rin yelled.

Shirou focused all of his energy and projected the last weapon that the crazy Archer from the previous war had shown him.

With a great cry, he swung Excalibur around, smashing through the grail and into the ground.

^lost^

"This is not good." Rin was standing on the balcony that jutted from the gabled third floor of of the Matou mansion, past the drooping eves. Her eyes weren't reinforced like Shirou's but even she could see the revenants – the 'living Dead' - shambling through the streets. "Whatever tried to possess us must have decided cadavers are easier prey – it is raised the dead. We have to find some way to put those things down before they destroy the city."

"Or more – we don't know how far that spell reached." Shirou held on to the jutting roof as he stood on the railing. "On the plus side, all of the Dead appear to be heading towards us." There was a muted banging from the other side of the house. "What?"

Rin ran back inside only to return a moment later. "Damn, there is no window on the other side!" She ran back to the balcony. "Shirou, help me up onto the roof."

Shirou boosted Tohsaka up onto the roof before following her up. As they clambered onto the small flat section at the very top, there was another bang from below

"What the!" Rin swore, "Why is there a graveyard in on the Matou property?"

Shirou didn't bother to state the obvious – that it made disposing of murdered people easier.

"I think they just broke the door." Shirou projected a bow and took a shot at the nearest Dead. As expected, the arrow ripped through the cadaver without unduly inconveniencing it. "I can't do anything against these from here. I'll go guard the door while you dispel them."

Rin scowled at Shirou, "Just like that? That's pretty arrogant."

"No, I just trust you. You're the best at what you do." Shirou gave Rin a bright smile.

Rin blushed. From anybody else, it would have sounded mocking, but Shirou was too straightforward. If he said it, he honestly meant it. "Ok, baka. I'm depending on you to keep me safe until I get it done, got it?" She was about to start her spell when she turned back and gave the idiot a quick peck on the cheek. "For luck," and darted back out onto the balcony.

With a nod, Shirou turned and leaped down the stairs, four at a time.

He met the first cadaver as it shuffled into the kitchen. Despite the press of combat, Shirou couldn't help noticing that the the kitchen looked abandoned – there were cobwebs everywhere, and dust covered everything save for the sink and a lone plate.

Shirou stepped past the reaching grasp of the zombie and used Kanshou to strike at its arm. The sword bit deep into the zombie, but the Dead didn't care – it kept reaching for Shirou, forcing him to strike it twice more in quick succession to disable it. During that time, more of the revenants had forced their way in through a window.. He couldn't afford to let them into the house – Rin was depending on him.

It took a dozen blows to stop those, and by then two more had shuffled their way in through the smashed in back door, and there was a monotonic pounding from the front door, as something there tried to break its way in. The Dead were not much threat one on one, but they took so long to destroy that Shirou was getting mobbed.

Shirou retreated to the staircase leading up to the second floor, so that anything coming in the front wouldn't be able to get past him and attack Rin. Luvia was still down in the basement, and he hoped she was safe, but there was nothing he could do for her right now. He existed to protect Rin.

He decapitated another zombie, but that didn't slow it much either.

"Shirou!" Rin wailed. The redhead whipped around to look up the stairs towards Rin

"Are you ok?"

"I'm sorry, I can't dispel them. Whatever the Grail did, its holding too tight to the bodies." She looked distraught. "I could hit them a massive fire spell, but that would cause a lot of collateral damage." She stumbled down the stairs towards Shirou.

Shirou was confused why she had called out – she appeared to be safe, but he didn't have much time to think, as he turned back and kicked a zombie that had made it onto the stairs back down, tangling it with its brethren.

"It's ok."

Rin nodded, relieved. She was a scholar, not a warrior. She wasn't used to having no time to plan and problem solve. This non stop improvisation was throwing her self confidence out of kilter. She shook her head. She didn't have time for this. "We need to get out of here. We can't fight them without a plan."

"We need to get Luvia."

"Right. I'll go get... Watch out!" Rin interrupted herself as a zombie stepped forward, impaling itself on Shirou's sword and wrapped its arms around him. Shirou tried to cut it off with his other blade, but it was too close in. Their combined weight toppled him back into the stairwell.

Rin let loose with a blast of lightning that cleared their immediate area. With the pressure reduced, Shiru managed to push himself free, having cleaved the revenant into twain with his other sword. Unfortunately, the Dead were pretty much immune to lightning - most of the zombies got back up a few moments later, singed but otherwise fully mobile.

Shirou quickly stepped in and cut to pieces one of the smoking zombies, but then Rin staggered into him as more zombies pushed down the stairs.

The pair were forced down the stairs, step by step. "Why are they so fixated on us?" Rin gasped, as she sent another blast of lightning past Shirou.

"It's not us, it's the mansion." Shirou replied as he chopped another zombie.

Rin started, "Of course! They aren't heading for the Matou mansion – they are heading for the portal. Shirou we need to get back down to the bottom cavern."

Rin turned and raced down the stairs, as Shirou fought a more measured retreat. She leaped down, past Luvia and raced for the illuminated side of the room, where the portal had been.

"Wh'ts going on?" Luvia slurred. She was awake, but she wasn't going to be much help.

"You need to get into that corner over there!" Rin pointed to a small alcove on the far side of the room. It was as much 'out of the way' as this open chamber allowed.

Luvia nodded as Rin began chanting, pulling together the remains of the portal. At the same time, she sketched a rudimentary pentagram, not worrying if the spell was perfect.

It was actually so far from perfect that it was a joke .

"Um, Rin, " Luvia called out, sounding a little better "Is it really a good idea to create another portal?" She glanced to where Alberto was sprawled. She couldn't tell if he was unconscious or dead, but she was I no shape to check. It took all her energy to sit without throwing up.

"Fight fire with fire, I always say." Rin grinned as she took a break. Inside the pentagram was an unstable quicksilver ripple, "Besides, we need to siphon up whatever the Grail spewed out, so I am supercharging the remains, making it into a lodestone for anything that came through." At Luvia's sudden intake of breath, Rin continue, "No, it's not a good idea, but its better than the alternative!" The statement turned into a yip as the upper half of a zombie fell off of the stairs and landed right next to her feet. She bombarded it with a barrage of Gandr until it stopped moving. "I hate zombies."

"A little help up here!" Shirou called out as he was forced back another step.

Rin nodded, and with with a short incantation raised a fog.

"Not helping!" Shirou was forced back more.

"Its an exorcism. I tried it when I was on the roof. It's not strong enough to stop the revenants, but it should slow them down a little."

"Yeah, but it ruins my visibility," Shirou barely blocked a clutching hand.

"Just hold out a little longer!" Rin cast another spell on the portal, the quicksilver surface bean to ripple, and then boil.

A silvery 'something' was ripped from the closest zombie, and into the portal. The zombie collapsed, dead.

Shirou was forced to leap down to the ground as more Dead pressed in on him. He retreated, fending off any zombie that came close, but with all the open space, more and more of them began to make their way around him. But as they got closer to the portal they staggered and collapsed, sometimes falling apart into disjointed body parts, if they were in bad enough condition.

"It's working!" Shirou smiled, as he edged towards Rin, who was trapped between the edge of the portal and the cavern wall as she avoided getting grabbed by the zombies.

Rin smiled. This is the way it was supposed to be – the two of them working together. It didn't really matter what they were doing, but as long as it was with Shirou, it was good. 'I'm in love again.' Except this time, she was fine with it. "Shirou, I know that this really isn't the time," Rin ducked back from a zombie and gave it a shove towards the vortex, "but you want to give it another try?" She smiled at his incredulous look.

Shirou was just opening his mouth to reply when a feminine voice rattled "You always ruin everything!" Both magi looked up to see Sakura running towards them, her hands stretching into claws. Shirou dropped into a defensive stance, batting aside a swipe. As he did, he realized that he wasn't Sakura's target – she was racing past him, towards a bewildered Rin. He turned and leaped at the zombie? Possessed Magus? Dead apostle? Shirou wasn't certain what she was, but he knew that he couldn't allow her to hurt Rin.

He threw himself into Sakura just as she reached Rin.

The undead magus tripped and fell, spinning into the portal.

The half-constrained portal flashed bright red, then orange before exploding into a tower of energy.

"Oh, shit." Rin tried to contain the broken portal, taming it down momentarily, but that made it worse, as then it exploded upwards, bursting up through the Matou mansion and lancing the clouds.

The pillar of energy began to spin, sucking at the souls around it.

Shirou took a defensive stance next to Rin, in case she needed help. But other than that, he was uncertain what to do.

He was standing just watching Rin when Sakura was flung back out, claws outstretched, her mouth gaping wide and filled with rows of needle sharp teeth as she leaped for his throat. Shirou caught the monster bare handed, barely keeping her away from him. The horrible thing was that she was still recognizable as Sakura.

Shirou barely had time to dodge, and Sakura's claws threw sparks from his enchanted coat. He pushed her arm aside and projected Kanshou, but before he could strike, Sakura spun all the way around, grabbing his coat as she went, yanking him towards the vortex.

The redhead barely managed to avoid falling in, but as he did, he smeared out Rin's hasty pentagram. The tornado that had been contained inside gained more force, drawing itself higher and then spreading out sideways, enveloping everything in the room before imploding with a deafening boom.

There was silence.

Nothing moved in the destroyed room. Rubble from the mansion was littered on the ground. Dead cadavers lolled on the ground, no longer moving. Part of Alberto jutted from under a support beam.

"Um, guys? Is anybody here?" Luvia pushed the broken remains of the table off of her and looked around the chamber.

She was the only person there.

END

I have one more story in mind to conclude this trilogy, but I am having a hard time figuring out how to make it the story that I want to tell. So it might be the summer before I post the next part.

It will be titled B'Derech