Rin slumped down into a corner, cradling her head and feeling simply empty.
"They have stopped fighting over here for now," Caster told her. "I have not had to interfere." That last had been made reproachfully.
"Keep watching," Rin instructed. "Try to trace Shirou to his lair."
"Understood."
The magus sighed and expelled a breath as her eyes took in the lump of putrid flesh and bones that had been Shinji Matou until now. That represented the death of the image she had of her sister's happy life among the Matou. Kirei's betrayal was dwarfed by that discovery.
Rotely she gathered the edges of her torn blouse together to cover what the slime had revealed. Her own moment of vulnerability bothered her, but it was memories of Sakura that were dominating her right now. Rin found herself wondering just how many times Sakura must have wanted to say something, to ask for help maybe. While Rin sat in her magus's pride ignoring the younger girl.
For Sakura's own good.
Maybe if Rin had been more selfish when they were younger, then things might have been better.
Her head had started ringing again. The surge of clarity she'd received when Shinji had attacked her was fading and she felt tired and sore. There was a rising nausea and she just wanted to go to sleep until it was all gone. Part of her knew she should be working on a self healing spell, but it was hard stringing together the thoughts necessary to do that.
Grimacing, she pulled herself together and roughly started walking back outside. The trip back to her home was vague and lurid. Unlike the images that had come up from Lancer's comparatively innocent antics, the images assaulting her now were not arousing or embarrassing. They were violent, horrid and disgusting.
She wandered in her thoughts from Kirei murdering her father to Shinji brutalizing her sister and sometimes intermixing it all with putrid worms running in and out of the images. She saw herself in these daymares, striding through the mire obliviously regal.
She must have looked quite the sight, torn blouse, bruises and cuts. Still no one bothered her. Part of that was just Japanese culture, the other was her choices of travel directions, looking for the most obscure paths that she could find in her still addled state.
Then it felt rather like she'd fallen down and was lifted up and carried. Caster probably disobeyed her instructions to come find her. Though the feel of these arms was different from that of her Servant's somehow. Eventually, she was carried them within a structure of some kind and laid her down on what had to bed of some kind, maybe a futon.
One moment, Taiga was practicing with her shinai to burn off some nervous energy and the next there was a tall purple haired woman with a blind fold carrying a vaguely conscious, quite bloody Rin Tohsaka into the building.
"Assassin!" Sakura gasped in surprise.
Taiga's eyes widened as she moved to stand between Sakura and the woman. "Stand back, Sakura!"
The purple haired woman turned to look toward Taiga with a slight smile at the teacher's gesture. Not that she doubted Taiga's skill at all, the woman had an excellent stance and seemed to have a lot of training. Assassin's background had less to do with training than with bloodthirsty instinct, but she'd learned to recognize humans that could potentially be irritating. However, when it came down to it, the woman was a very skilled human with no magecraft and no weapons to speak of.
It didn't matter how skilled she was, her offer of protection to Sakura was simply amusing.
"Are there bandages?" Assassin asked.
"It's okay, Fujimura-sensei," Sakura said from behind Taiga. "She's with us."
"Bandages!" Taiga agreed. "We've got those. Put her down over there, please?"
"What happened, Assassin?" There was a curiously bland tone to Sakura's voice just like when they had talked about the death of their kyudo-club friends earlier in the week.
"She went to the Kotomine church," the woman explained calmly as she moved to set Rin down. "Your brother and the priest were there. They assaulted her. She was able to escape due to another party."
Assassin gave her rather spotty report as Taiga rushed over with their supply of medical supplies.
"You're one of these Servants, why didn't you step in?" she demanded angrily as she went about bandaging Rin. "Tohsaka-chan, can you hear me?"
"Don't send her away," the girl muttered.
"Umm, she's not going anywhere," Taiga commented as she took in the girl's various injuries.
The cut across her shoulder was mostly clotted, but still bleeding. There was another cut to her leg, but it appeared to be old and well-healed. Her stomach was bruising up, but there wasn't anything serious there. Rin's hair in back was soaked with blood where someone had hit her in the back of the head. Still, it wasn't more blood than she'd expect for a head injury. What bothered her was the severe concussion.
"I didn't step in because I didn't have a reason to," Assassin responded.
Taiga glared at the woman before turning back to treating Rin's injuries.
She was required to have some first aid licensing to maintain her kendo instructor's license, so she knew a lot of what to do. More than that, back in her teen years, she'd still seen a lot of stuff like this from her family's dealings with other families.
"I didn't know..." Rin mumbled.
"Sakura-chan, you can do magic right? Can you heal her?" Taiga wondered. "Equip the white magic item or something?"
"It doesn't work like that," Sakura said nervously. "And I can't really do much...Does she need anything?"
"She'll probably be fine with a little rest, nothing looks immediately life-threatening," Taiga assured the other girl. Really, Taiga's first thought here was a hospital, and quickly. But that was likely going to be more dangerous than doing it alone. "But if you can do anything to speed it along?"
"I'll try," Sakura said finally before she moved to sit beside the partially awake Rin. "Why did you bring her here?"
Assassin didn't answer the question as Sakura leaned over her sister and her mind wandered to thoughts of Assassin's sisters. Her Servant had talked little of their deaths save that she had wished that it had never happened. Now, she was sitting here, expected to heal her sister.
"I can't believe that someone that Big Sister admitted some respect for would be so callous as to just watch someone else fight for their life," Taiga was berating Assassin.
"My duty is only to Sakura," the purple haired woman answered casually. "When it became apparent that she wasn't going to make it to her home, I stepped in. That should be enough for the duty of one stranger to another."
Assassin's attention wasn't seriously on the teacher, but rather her Master and what choice she would make here. Or if she would make any choice at all.
"That's not enough!" Taiga protested indignantly. "How long did you let her walk around bleeding and dazed? And her clothes are torn! Aren't you a woman too?"
"She took care of matters herself," Assassin responded with a shrug.
Sakura laid a hand on Rin's bloody forehead, trying to see something in her blood sister's dazed eyes, but there was no connection. Like always, Rin wasn't really looking at her. Her mind was elsewhere. Though logically, the reason for that was that currently Rin's mind was scattered, it was still an old story to the purple haired Matou girl.
The whisperings in the back of her head told her what she could do to settle things once and for all right here. The small mysteries she'd been taught had limited use, but with Rin like this, she could end the rivalry subtly enough. The whispers in the back of her mind were telling her which curse she could use to make the idea a reality.
On the other hand, Rin had gone out of her way to protect her when they were attacked by Rider. For that matter Assassin had said that she regretted devouring her own sisters. Certainly Lancer and Shirou would be upset if Rin were to die.
Or she could just do nothing. Likely Rin would heal completely and everything would go on as it always had. She didn't have to help her sister.
"Look at me," she whispered tightly.
She called on her prana and whispered slightly as she tipped the power into Rin's battered body. As the small spell finished, Sakura started to shift away from Rin, only to have the girl grab at her arm. Pausing and turning to look at her Rin, staring up at her.
"Father promised you'd be happy," Rin whispered, and Sakura was fairly certain that she wasn't actually aware of who she was talking to.
"Please rest, Tohsaka-senpai," Sakura said, pushing the girl back down and pulling the blanket over her sister. "It's fine now, Fujimura-sensei."
"That's good to hear," Taiga responded with a sigh. "I'm going to run for an ice pack and so more bandages. Will you be fine, Sakura-chan?"
"Assassin is here, so yes," Sakura said.
"I won't be long," Taiga assured them as she ran out of the dojo. "Keep an eye on Tohsaka."
"Well?" Assassin asked.
"If I devour my sister, she'll never look at me," Sakura said simply. "I can't do much, but she'll be back to normal quicker now."
"She killed your brother for you," Assassin told her.
Sakura glanced toward Assassin in surprise. "She killed Shinji. You mean while defending herself?"
"No, he bragged about raping you," Assassin clarified, to Sakura's shock. "She killed him for that. Reduced him to an unidentifiable mass of infected flesh. She asked him how many times he'd raped her sister and then killed him. Your sister loves you. As mine did me."
Sakura hesitated. "You...wanted me to make a choice. An uninformed choice! What if I had gone the other direction?"
"Then I would never have told you what I just did," the purple haired woman responded succinctly. "I would have let you continue thinking she didn't love you."
"Is that cruelty or kindness?" Sakura wondered out loud.
"Careful, if she recovers soon, you don't want her overhearing too much," Assassin noted in a teasing tone.
The air of menace and anger didn't disappear from around Illyasviel when she agreed to hear Shirou and his Servants out. It merely became became subtler, something that spoke of anticipation.
Just to be on the safe side, he kept sight of the field of swords that he'd first noticed at Tohsaka's house. As usual, he was the only one that seemed to notice it around. He wasn't sure why this made him feel more comfortable. After all, he still wasn't even sure what it meant. He was tempted to try to grip one of the swords just to see if he could. Despite the fact that he still had no idea what the field meant or even if it was just a hallucination he still felt better with it in sight.
"What do you mean our father was forbidden from seeing me?" she demanded. "My father was strong. No one could stop him from seeing me. He saved my mother, he could have saved me."
"The Grail killed him," Shirou said. "It just did it slowly."
"How is that possible?" Illya demanded, frowning.
"A curse," her brother responded, looking toward Ria. He tried to ignore the way that Lancer was favoring one side as she looked across towards where Saber stood. "Ria also carries it."
Immediately the little girl turned to look at the yellow-eyed blonde woman in the black armor. "Then why is she still alive?"
Ria stood up straight and matched eyes with Illyasviel's Saber. "Because I served as the Saber of Emiya Kiritsugu."
The current Saber arched an eyebrow and looked toward her in consideration.
"To put it simply, the curse can't kill me faster than I heal. Your father lacked that benefit," Ria finished.
"Then you are not fighting at your full strength?" Saber asked.
"No," she noted.
"Then my compliments that you were able to do as well as you were," he said in a respectful tone.
Internally he was more cautious. What that meant all depending on the mechanics of why she wasn't fighting at full strength. If it was a simply crippling effect, then her full capacity could be considered what she was showing now. However, if she was simply holding back to maintain her long-term health, it could be dangerous. She could always decide to stop holding back for a moment and simply take a long recovery time afterwards.
Lancer stood, hands behind her back demurely as she considered that she was also fighting at less than her full strength. Possibly because of her fuzzy memories. Possibly because Shirou hadn't actually summoned her deliberately. She'd responded to his guilt and mourning somehow. Possibly because Shirou just didn't have that much prana to give her.
"If he still had a Servant then why didn't he send you to get me?" Illya demanded.
"Dad used to go on business trips fairly often," Shirou cut in. "Ria came back from one just before this all started. I've always known Dad was sadder after he came back. And Ria always came back in a bad mood. I don't know what they were about exactly..."
"We were trying to get into Einzbern land," Ria confirmed. "But we could never find the edge of the bounded field. His magic circuits were failing due to the curse, and I am no magus."
Illyasviel frowned and crossed her arms as she considered matters.
"I told you that you needed to look at matters from both sides before making a decision," Saber told her.
"But which side is lying?" she wondered. "Do I go with what makes the most sense?"
"A good lie will make more sense than the truth sometimes, unfortunately," Saber noted.
"We want to destroy the Grail and end this whole mess before it kills more people," Shirou told her. "If we had your..."
Shirou stopped as something attracted his attention in the desolate field of swords that was most strongly visible to him. The trees of the forest standing as almost ghosts around his position. He could see a figure moving from point to point in a darting motion.
"Someone's coming," he said, looking in the appropriate direction.
"That is a convenient distraction," Illyasviel noted sharply.
"No, he's right," Saber commented before looking to the two women.
"Indeed, there seems to be an uninvited guest," Lancer agreed.
Unseen, Caster noted the man coming to the scene as well and grimaced. There was no way that this wasn't going to turn into chaos with him coming. Still, there were three Servants present, plus "Ria Penn" and two Masters. If anything this seemed like an insane attempt.
"Appropriate," Caster muttered.
Below him, Ria had settled into a stance halfway between watching Saber and watching the direction of the newcomer. On Shirou's right, Lancer stood at the ready in a position that left her able to watch both Ria and the front. Saber stood in a position similar to Ria, watching both the two blonde women and the direction of their visitor.
The slender, blue-armored form appeared between two trees and paused long enough to trace a series of runes into the air, granting them all a wild, wordless smile before he called out. "Riastrad!"
The instant the word came out of his mouth the eyes of both Lancer and Ria widened as they braced themselves for the battle to come. In front of them, the blue-armored man's form began to warp and bloat far beyond what Caster remembered from his one encounter with Berserker. The legs seemed to almost twist around backwards as the muscles twisted and swelled. His hair twisted all about like a shrub of raw, bloody spikes twisting about his head, which itself quickly grew to be unrecognizable. The lower jaw jutted forward, the canines growing into tusks as the cheeks seemed to draw backward making the mouth a wide gaping maw. The fingers on the hands stretched outward, growing into wide grasping talons.
Berserker was moving before the transformation complete, the heat of his body coming off him in waves as his prana flooded his mind and body. He seemed to be making a bee line for Saber, charging straight at the biggest target. Saber tensed and readied himself, eyes narrowed and cautious even as the two women started to move themselves.
When it looked like the creature had committed itself to a course of action, Saber and Lancer started to move even as Ria held herself back. Saber slashed low with his xiphos, not expecting to really hit in the first strike but rather to drive Berserker into position for another attack. Beside him, Lancer was already moving as, well, reaching for her knife.
Berserker slid under the already low blow like a dog darting after a fox. Immediately afterward he hopped away from Saber's kick following it up. A leap afterwards took him up over Saber's shoulder, eying Illya as he moved. A slash from the black sword cut him off and he had to twist back to land between Saber and Ria. As he started to come to the ground, Lancer let fly.
"Carnwennan!"
The Little White Knife sped toward the back of Berserker, where it would turn all those enchantments into a host of knives stabbing deep into the enchanted warrior. Lancer and Ria both goggled as Berserker twisted aside and the knife batted aside into the ground. Spinning out of his landing, Berserker charged forward at Lancer who narrowed her eyes and darted between Shirou and the enemy.
"What is that?!" Illya demanded.
The spear tip swung out, Berserker dodging easily without losing momentum, the butt swung around and he likewise ducked past it. Twisting, Lancer struck the blade of her spear into the ground behind her and twisted herself around the pole in a swinging kick that clipped Berserker's shoulder.
Saber stayed close to Illya as he watched Berserker press Lancer, wanting to go and help but unwilling to leave Illya unprotected. The Berserker was clearly targetting the Masters and aiming at whichever one was least protected. He watched as the black knight darted in from the flank to support her partner who was already recovering from her pole-dance and shoving her Master back away from the approaching Servant.
Berserker dodged aside from Ria's sword and leaped far back into the air, flipping around so that his monstrous face turned to look towards Saber and Illyasviel.
"We're being forced apart!" Ria shouted out.
Saber nodded as he moved to meet Berserker's swift and erratic attack. He had somewhat an idea what he'd be like as a Berserker, but this man was completely in the opposite direction. Instead of overbearing strength, he had insane speed and turning at angles that shouldn't have been possible. And most dangerous, instead of a mindless rage, this man became possessed of a rabid cunning.
His madness wasn't an inflicted curse but an unleashed spell.
The man couldn't kill him perhaps, but eventually, at this rate, he would be able to reach Illya. This was going to be touch and go, perhaps his Nine Lives could end this in one go, or the Riastrad might have defenses beyond just the insane speed. He was going to have to save it for a key moment. As it was, trusting his instinct, he pushed himself to the limits of his speed in intercepting Berserker's attacks without leaving Illya open.
Shirou watched as Illyasviel and Saber were pushed further away from them. Even he could see what was happening. Already, they were separated to the point that Servants were unwilling to leave their Master's side. He felt sure that Berserker was playing with them, and as soon as they were far enough apart, he'd set about slaughtering one group and then the other.
"Illyasviel! We need to get close!" he shouted.
"Move!" Ria ordered, as she pushed forward. "Shirou, at all costs do not fall behind."
Shirou nodded as he sprinted forward, pushing his body as much as he could to not hold Ria back. As his muscles started to burn he desperately reached for the prana and, as if it were a failing machine, and reinforced to keep up with the supernatural speed of his guardian. His eyes searched through the field of swords as he moved.
"He's coming!" Lancer called out. Ria came up short, sword at the ready as Berserker avoided Saber's last attack and twisted about to redirect himself back at Shirou. As soon as he was in the charge, Saber grabbed Illyasviel up and started moving in a circle around towards where Shirou was himself.
Caster watched the fight against Berserker with a curious eye, it looked desperate, but Berserker was going to have to disengage soon. Assuming someone ordered him to, of course. What really had his attention, however, was the activity in the forest around the fighters. Apparently, Berserker's Master was not above using him as a decoy. He quietly moved further in and got ready.
Rin's lack of a mental presence concerned him, but she was still alive and his task was here.
As Berserker fell back from Ria and Lancer again, he found that Saber and Illya had moved behind the knights. Circling around, the beast tried to reach where Saber was carrying Illya before the giant joined up with the other Servants and their Master but was just short of making it. As the beast made his swipe at the tiny Master, Ria stepped forward on his flank and swung out with her blade, forcing Berserker to leap over it. Lancer stabbed upward.
"Rhongomyniad!" she shouted, stabbing upward. Berserker avoided the actual spear, but the sheer weight that came with the invoked Noble Phantasm smashed into, sending him spiraling out of control.
Taking the advantage, Saber strode forward, pulling his blade back, preparing for his own attack, but found that as soon as he stepped forward into stance, that the beast leaped far and away, vanishing back into the trees. Saber, Ria and Lancer spared only a brief moment of surprise before turning back toward the Masters behind them.
Out of the trees, a mass of black, winged forms started to swarm forward.
"Shirou!" Lancer and Ria called out.
"Illya!"
They were moving already to intercept the oncoming horde of gargoyle like things. And then it began to rain swords. As the blades struck down into the gargoyles, each creature exploded into a burst of bright, magical fire with a bright purple hue. From his position, Caster grimaced as he realized that the gargoyles were only made to look like assaulting beasts. It was a trap for melee oriented Servants, drive them to gather their Masters into an easily defensible collection and then swarm them with suicide bombs.
One was almost certain to catch the Masters in the explosion.
There were hordes of the things, he wasn't going to have the time to catch them all. Where the hell had they all come from?
"Stand back!" Ria shouted as she once again lifted her sword over her head. Prana swirled around her as the blade began to swirl with darkened prana.
Lancer's eyes widened as she turned to look at the blade with widened eyes even as Saber took a position on another flank and pulled his own sword back. She almost was too surprised to draw her own spear back, getting ready to toss it almost straight up into the air with as much strength as she could muster.
Shirou grabbed Illya, surprising her and wrapping himself around her small body over her protests as he tried to reach for anything that he could use to shelter Illyasviel and the others. Almost everything in the field around him were swords, meant for attack. And he still didn't know what would happen if he were to grab one, but he didn't see anything else he could do. Something caught his eye as the Servants unleashed their attacks.
Caster looked on as the three other Servants set about to unleash their Noble Phantasms and continued to direct his rain of swords. Still, there were too many coming from too many directions. Some of the explosions were going to be very close. He grimaced and reached in his mind to trace and deploy Rho Aias...and stopped in sheer disbelief and confusion.
"Excalibur!" "Nine Lives! Hundred Heads Shooter!" "Rhongomyniad: Fall From Heaven!"
The wave of dark energy ripping out of the blade cascaded forward, cutting through trees and gargoyles alike as it tore a swath out of the terrain and the enemy. Beside it, Saber tore through another flank in almost instant and what seemed to be a meteor obliterated another side of the oncoming swarm. Explosions of green fire erupted all around the small group of fighters, much to Caster's trepidation.
Slowly, the smoke cleared to reveal the Servants, Illya and Shirou standing behind the wide purple field of Rho Aias extending from Shirou's outstretched arm. It quickly shattered as Shirou slumped forward, exhausted and breathing hard.
"How..." Caster muttered.
Lancer however was staring at Ria as the woman looked to Shirou and leaned on her sword. The white-armored woman moved to the crater formed by her spear, small compared to the damage dealt by Nine Lives and miniscule next to the swath of damage dealt by Excalibur. She felt herself sweating, the prana she'd used taking a telling toll on her body. Picking up Rhongomyniad she used it to steady herself and support her dignity.
"Is everyone okay?" Shirou asked.
"We need to leave," Illya said quickly, dusting herself off. "I don't know about the swords, but those gargoyles were an Einzbern mystery. Which means the castle with its field will not be a place for us."
"Aren't you the Einzbern Master?" Ria asked tightly.
"Apparently not the only one," Saber commented.
Caster stepped into the clear then, scanning around through the trees. "The swords were mine. Forgive the intrusion, but my instructions were that I should only interfere to make sure no one died here."
"And who are you?" Saber asked.
"Caster," Lancer said with a idle trace of feminine hostility. "Much as I like meeting new people, Illya-chan is correct, we should move."
As they left, Caster reached down and picked up something from the ground that had him frowning deeper.
Lancer was drained after the fight, but she could see it was worse for the black knight. Ria's face was sweating and there was a twitch to her eye. The pallor was more extreme as well. Her stance and gait were rigid in her normal fashion but there was a forced quality to it. The sword wasn't in evidence, but Lancer couldn't take her mind off of it.
Excalibur. In the hands of Ria Penn. Arturia Penndragon. It was so obvious that she was disappointed that she hadn't noticed it before. That wasn't something that she could blame on her fuzzy memories, not really. And now the darkened, violent woman seemed that much more disturbing to her.
Caster was keeping a watch that they weren't being tracked. However, that still left Illya, Saber and Caster following them to their hide out. Though Saber and Caster were remaining in spirit form by the looks of things.
Shirou had agreed to host everybody. Which stretched even Lancer's open-heart. Ria was openly gritting her teeth, though that may have been connected to her exhaustion as well. The dojo came into view as the sun started to set. Ria was the first to step up the doorway and move inside, finding a surprise inside. She looked to see Rin lying bandaged and sleeping on a futon as Sakura cooked. Taiga turned to give a welcome and froze as she saw Ria.
"We have more guests," the black knight said as she gestured out the door. "What is Toh..."
That was as much as she got as out as her body spasmed sending a painful looking shiver through her. Throwing herself aside she stumbled as far from the dojo as she could before dropping to her knees and proceeding to vomit up evil, black looking sludge.
Taiga was probably the first to move to follow, but stopped as Ria's face turned toward her fearful and forbidding, black fluid leaking out of her eyes. "Don't come over here! Don't touch it!"
Then her body spasmed again and more of the sludge was forced up out of her mouth as everybody started to gather forward and watch her trying to purge the evil substance from her body.
"Ria-chan," Taiga whispered as she started to move forward regardless. Lancer stepped forward to grab her as the black knight continued to shudder and vomit. The sounds coming from Ria ranged from nauseous heaves to rage-filled growls and frantic wails, as if she was being overwhelmed by every unpleasant emotion possible one after another, or maybe all at once.
"Wait until its over," Lancer whispered, holding tight to the teacher.
Behind them, Rin had awakened with the commotion. She moved to the door way and watched through the crowd of uncertain people as Ria continued to battle the curse. Kirei's betrayal had been the cap to the intellectual proof that the Grail was corrupted. Watching this, however, drove the truth home very emotionally as the usually strong woman was reduced to a wreck in front of her, with no one able to do anything about it without risk.
Slowly, spasms eased up until Ria was weakly crawling away from the quivering puddle of black mud. She reached her feet faintly and stumbled forward a few feet absently. Taiga tried to step forward again, but Lancer continued to hold her.
"Ria-chan?" the teacher inquired.
"Someone burn that filth," the woman snarled as she continued shambling forward. "I need a bath."
"Is...are you safe to touch?" Taiga asked.
The black knight paused for a moment and turned to look at her, before spitting back into the sludge. The expression on her face was wretched as she answered. "Yes."
"Let me go!" the teacher insisted, shoving Lancer even as the woman in the white armor let her go. Taiga avoided the black sludge, but otherwise bolted stright to Ria's side and scooped up the smaller woman.
"I am not an invalid! Yakuza-brat!" Ria hissed weakly, though she made no physical attempt to resist.
"Shirou-kun, get me some towels and fresh clothes for Ria," the teacher instructed. "Bring them to the stream!"
"Caster," Rin said resolutely. "You heard her, do something about that."
"Rin?" the red-cloaked man asked as he faded into view. He continued in a cynical tone. "I see I had nothing to worry about."
"Just do it," Rin ordered.
"That's the stuff from my dream," Illyasviel noted to Saber.
"Be thankful you can't see it's spiritual form, Illya," Saber noted.
"Actually, I think I can," she responded as she stared at the grotesque sludge and the vile near-faces that slithered across its surface. "You know, if they're willing to kill me..."
"Then they have another Vessel candidate," Saber finished for her.
"Was that the curse?" Taiga asked hopefully as she worked at scrubbing Ria's skin clean. "Are you fine now?"
"No," she answered grimly. Shame was what she was feeling right now. Shame at being caught so vulnerable by so many people. Shame that she was being selfish enough to let Taiga clean her up. "It's still there."
There was guilt, too. It was getting harder to keep her and Taiga's relationship a secret.
"I'm sleeping with you tonight, Ria-chan," Taiga declared. "Or you won't get any sleep."
"You need to keep clear..."
"I don't think keeping this secret will work with the kids anymore," Taiga said with a sigh, wrapping her arms around the smaller woman. "I don't think they'll run out to ruin my career either. So don't act so guilty."
Ria grimaced as she thought about how to respond. "Don't try to cheer me up. I know how much I care about things by how bad I feel about them."
Taiga frowned. "That's not right. It should be by how good they make you feel."
"I can't feel good," the small woman answered quietly. "Back there, what you saw was all the emotions I can feel anymore."
"That can't be true, you care about people," Taiga protested.
"Caring isn't an emotion," the blonde clarified. "Neither is physical pleasure."
"You're just being difficult," Taiga assured her with a teasing laugh. Then she hugged Ria close against her and whispered seriously. "I'll make you feel good. Curse or no curse. You'll wake up one morning and be glad to see me."
Ria could only feel a gnawing doubt at the statement, but she lied anyway "I hope so."
"See it's working already," Taiga declared.
"Lancer," Shirou said, calling her over away from the others. "Is there something wrong?"
She shrugged and walked to join him, looking out into the night sky. Within the house, Sakura was cooking with their rapidly
"I know who Milady is," was the careful response.
"And that's a problem?" her Master asked.
"We're both of us stains on the same name," Lancer explained quietly.
"Neither of you are stains on any honor," Shirou protested. "You're both good people. Maybe you're a little perverted, but that's nothing worth calling you a stain on the family honor."
"You have ideals, do you not?" the white-dressed woman asked. "Strong ideals."
"You've heard some of that already," he agreed.
"I had ideals, I had responsibility and duty," Lancer noted, looking out into the darkening sky. "And I turned my back on it...so that she'd stop.." Lancer closed her eyes. "...so she'd stop hurting me."
"I had that dream, Lancer," Shirou told her. "You killed your enemy to save your rescuers."
"No, that wasn't the old me," Lancer admitted, crossing her arms. "That was this me. That wasn't duty or honor. That was love."
"What's wrong with love?" Shirou asked, placing his hands on her shoulders and feeling strange about it.
"A king can't love a person," she whispered. "They must save their love for the kingdom or else everyone will suffer. I gave up the things a king needs to have, because I couldn't take the pain. Love saved me from greater sin, and quite literally saved my life...but it doesn't change that I once gave in to despair."
Lancer glanced in the direction of the stream where Ria and Taiga still were.
"That one hasn't, her shame is entirely through no fault of her own," Lancer explained. "It's shaming."
Shirou ignored the comment about a king and just quietly hugged her. "I don't think you can compare two tragedies like that. You're not the same as Ria."
"No," Lancer said with a laugh. "We most certainly aren't the same person. Also, Shirou-kun."
"Yes?"
"We're not this far in the campaign yet," Lancer responded, voice strengthening again.
Shirou sighed and shook his head. "And where exactly are we in this campaign, anyway?"
Leaning against Shirou's shoulder, Lancer smiled. "Well, there are some rules to that..."
Rin tried to think about the logistics of the situation, about how they had four Servants (five with Ria Penn) and four Masters in this alliance now. They also had a high school teacher with a high amount of kendo training and a yakuza history, but that was minimally useful. As things stood, she didn't see how the other Masters and Servants could stand against them.
She lifted up the small piece of troubling purple glass that Caster had given her and glanced across toward where Lancer and Shirou were standing. Lancer looked upset, but knowing her it was just a ploy to...and then Shirou hugged Lancer. Rin leaped to her feet, eyes narrowing. Almost immediately, she felt a wave of dizziness that brought her back to sitting down.
"Tohsaka-senpai!" Sakura called out as she stepped away from the cooking to come back to where Rin was. "You shouldn't be up and around. Lay back down."
And this is what Rin was really trying not to think about. As soon as Sakura came up to her side, she became subdued and looked partially away. She'd been trying to avoid actually talking to Sakura ever since she woke up, because she hadn't had any idea of what she could possibly say.
"I'm not worthy of your concern," Rin whispered.
"What was that, Tohsaka-senpai?" Sakura asked calmly. "I couldn't catch it."
"Nothing," the Tohsaka magus said glumly. "You shouldn't worry yourself with me."
Sakura kept the frown off her face as Rin continued to refuse to turn and speak to her. When Assassin had told her about what Rin had done, she had had a childish fantasy of Rin giving her some sort of tear felt apology. Instead the girl was now ignoring her more entirely, even avoiding looking at her. The envy and hatred had started to rise again until she'd heard Rin deprecate herself just now. Still, this flavor of avoiding attention was no more to her taste than when she had thought Rin simply didn't think about her.
The purple haired girl glanced over toward Lancer and Shirou, oddly not feeling any jealousy at the sight. In fact, a slightly wicked thought occurred to her as she bent forward innocently.
"By the way, Tohsaka-senpai," Sakura noted. "Did anything happen between you and Lancer?"
Rin's eyes widened and her face whipped over to look into Sakura's wide-eyed innocent expression. Her mouth opened as she lifted one finger. Then her mouth closed and she lowered her hand weakly. "Uh...uhh...uh...wh...why do ask that, Sakura?"
"I was curious what she meant by the next stage of the campaign," Sakura noted enjoying watching Rin squirm as she tried to figure out what she should do. Amusingly enough, simply ignoring the rules didn't seem to be coming to her mind at all. At least not going by the way she was prevaricating. "So, did something happen?"
There was a slight flush growing in Rin's cheeks now.
"Why would I want to do something like that with her?!" Rin protested, crossing her arms in a pout of desperation.
"Something like what?" Sakura pressed, blinking innocently.
Rin stuck her nose in the air and closed her eyes. "If you must know...I...I, can sh...shooow you."
"All right, go ahead and show me," the purple-haired magus returned.
Hesitantly, looking around to see if anybody was watching, Rin slowly leaned over and gave Sakura a quick kiss on the lips. "No...now, there are some rules if Shirou..."
"I know," Sakura answered.
Rin blinked. "You...know?" The Tohsaka girl thought for a moment and then pointed at Sakura suspiciously. "Did something happen between you and Lancer?"
"Do you want me to show you?" her sister asked.
Rin blinked several times as a tell tale trickle of blood leaked from her nose which she immediately wiped away. "Show...me?"
"All right," the purple-haired girl said, leaning forward to give a somewhat more firm kiss to Rin and then pulling back.
"I'm going to kill Lancer," Rin growled, narrowing her eyes toward the Servant.
"Dinner and rest first," Sakura insisted.
The purple haired girl smiled. For once, her sister had really looked at her.
Okay. I think from here, I start killing important people finally.
Shinji: Hey!
I'm not even sure you qualify as people, actually.
Also, some commentary as to Shirou's ideals, since there was a review regarding that.
Major difference, canon Shirou wants to be a hero to feel the happiness he saw. This Shirou, thanks to Ria/Saber, doesn't expect happiness to come from being a hero. He thoroughly believes what Ria says about being a hero as the same as being cursed. But, he's of the opinion that its better him than someone else.