Chapter 10: Mother and the Serpent
Rin was out of breath and it wasn't very long before she found herself collapsed on a wooden bench. Looking at the empty, expansive street before her, Rin couldn't help but give a sigh. For the past three hours she had been running throughout the streets of the city hoping to find either Archer or Hisashi, but to no avail. She had to find him. Assassin was on the loose and without Archer to protect him, Hisashi would be helpless. Forcefully, lifting herself from the bench, Rin continued to walk down the empty street. It was getting dark, soon the Servants and Masters would be on the move, she had to be swift.
As she walked she couldn't help but think back on what Assassin had told her. How her own daughter, Natsumi, betrayed her. She didn't understand how Natsumi could do such a thing. It would seem that all of Natsumi's efforts were directed toward Hisashi's demise. Was she really that jealous of Hisashi? Rin made notes in her head, attempting to piece together who could be responsible for all that has transpired, but every time she made a revelation, she would come up empty handed.
The patter of footsteps behind her made Rin's determined stroll come to a halt. She shot a quick glance behind her, only to see nothing. Her eyes narrowed, she was no fool. Someone, or something was following her. She turned around and moved as if to continue walking, but in an instant she turned on her heel and fired a Gandr shot into the street. Nothing.
"I guess I'm just being paranoid," she said to herself. She looked up into the sky, the sun was going down. She estimated that she had an hour before it was dark. She had to hurry.
The girl in white watched the raven haired woman cautiously walk down the street. She was brave to walk down such an empty path of her own accord. Her bright yellow eyes stared at the woman, making note of her posture, her appearance, her mannerisms. The woman had almost seen her, a close call to say the least. But now she had the knowledge that the raven haired woman was a magi, and a seemingly powerful one at that. The girl in white's Master ordered her to get rid of any threats to their operation, and such a powerful mage was more than just a threat.
She gestured with her right hand and from the darkness appeared an enormous canine. It had the appearance of a large wolf, easily ten feet in length and three feet at the shoulder. It's fur was thick and pitch black, as if one was looking into darkness itself. It's head was vicious in appearance, it's jaws salivating as it looked at the raven haired woman from afar.
The girl rubbed the beast's ears, and the creature licked her delicate fingers in response.
"Go." The girl pointed in the woman's direction and the black wolf began to growl violently.
Rin stopped in front of a large web of yellow tape. She surmised that this must have been the crime scene that she had seen on television alongside Hisashi. The building had been completely cut off from the public, probably due to the police investigation.
She looked closely at the damage done to the building. Without a doubt it was caused by a battle between Servant's.
"Dammit Shirou," muttered Rin, "You had better hurry."
A low growl could be made out from behind her and a smirk spread across Rin's face. She turned around and laid eyes upon a massive black wolf. It's size was equal to that of a fully grown tiger. It's eyes glowed a brilliant red in the dark of the night and it's jaws drooled as it stared at Rin.
"You're a big one," said Rin with a chuckle. She gestured with her hands and a gout of flame was produced from her palm. The flames spiraled forward into the wolf but it quickly dodged the fire by leaping to the side. Rin clicked her tongue, she didn't expect a creature that big to be so quick.
The dog's shoulders began to shiver and from them emerged another pair of heads. The heads were identical in appearance save for their eyes which were each of a different color. The left head's eyes were yellow, the middle's were red and the right's were blue.
"Cerberus," said Rin, gazing at the wolf's three heads. She deduced what the beast was in an instant and a cold chill ran down her spine, as if her whole body was telling her to run away. However, she knew that retreat would be pointless. She saw how quickly Cerberus moved, if she were to turn her back the beast would easily be able to run her down.
The wolf's three heads began to growl loudly. It's six eyes stared at Rin with a violent hunger. In response Rin raised both of her hands, pointing her index fingers toward the large, black wolf as if she were a gunslinger.
In an instant, Rin fired a horrendous torrent of gandr shots at Cerberus. The black wolf lunged for her, sidestepping and dodging the individual shots as if they were not even there. Rin was in disbelief, but continued to fire at the swift monstrosity. The creature leaped for her and she quickly rolled to the left, narrowly avoiding Cerberus' jaws.
Flicking her wrist, a glowing ball of flame appeared in Rin's hand and she threw the sphere at Cerberus. The black wolf jumped backwards to avoid the projectile and the ball of flame hit the concrete building behind Cerberus, causing immense damage to it.
Rin stared at Cerberus in pure disbelief. Not only was the beast fast, but it was capable of seemingly dodging any projectile thrown at it. How it could perform such a feat was unknown to Rin, but she had to find a weakness. The large black wolf growled and began to circle Rin like a hungry vulture. Rin followed it with her blue eyes, her hands in the ready position to fire her Gandr.
She lifted her hand and fired a single Gandr at the large wolf, which it quickly sidestepped. Shortly afterward, she fired another Gandr which Cerberus dodged without difficulty. In fact, he didn't just dodge it. When she lifted her hand to fire the Gandr, a split second before the Gandr would even be fired, Cerberus would move to dodge it.
To reinforce her hypothesis Rin fired two Gandr shots each one aimed at the sides of Cerberus, not directly at it. As predicted Cerberus did not even attempt to dodge the attacks.
"I see now," said Rin. She raised both of her arms again and fired a torrent of gandr's at Cerberus once more. As planned the black wolf dodged the bolts by bounding from side to side as it closed in on Rin.
With a wave of her hand, Rin sent out a trail of flame, spreading out in front of her. It spiked out to the sides of Cerberus, the black wolf did not attempt to dodge the trails, as they did not come close to striking him. Little did it know that Rin was setting it up for a trap.
She continued to fire her Gandr at an unbelievably rapid rate, almost akin to a machine gun. Although Cerberus dodged each blast without fail it's ability to dodge was hindered by the trails of flame off to it's side.
In a split second Cerberus leaped into Rin's vision, it's three mouths gaping wide open. In an instant Rin pulled a myriad of gems from her sleeve and threw them at Cerberus. As planned, Cerberus leaped to the side to dodge them but found itself halting due to the fiery paths that Rin had laid out. Though not all the gems hit, two struck Cerberus squarely, which was all Rin needed.
A gigantic explosion ensued and a gust of wind blasted forth from the impact, dousing the trails of flame without so much as an effort. The cloud of smoke soon dissipated and there, laid out before Rin, was the corpse of Cerberus. Like salt thrown into a body of water the deceased Cerberus dissolved into the ground.
Rin wiped the sweat from her brow and gave a small smirk, she would pat herself on the back if she weren't so exhausted.
"Intriguing," said a bored, monotone voice from behind Rin. She slowly turned around and perched on the top of a tall streetlamp was a girl in white. To Rin, she looked akin to a living doll. She had vibrant, curly red hair that flowed down the front of her shoulders. She did not look a day over twelve and Rin found it difficult to see her as a threat...were it not for the enormous, white scythe in the small girl's left hand and her glowing yellow, serpent like eyes. She looked down at Rin with an unamused, bored expression on her childlike face.
"And who would you be?" asked Rin, maintaining her usual calm.
"Caster," replied the girl automatically. Her eyes remained on Rin, unmoving but continuing to give off a sense of boredom. Looking into her eyes gave Rin the chills. They were intimidating to say the least and gave a powerful sense of presence.
"I suppose that creature you summoned was Cerberus? Am I correct?" queried Rin.
"Correct," responded Caster in yet another single word sentence. Rin shuddered. If indeed Caster summoned Cerberus, then her ability's as a magus in life must have been extraordinary. However, Rin could not quite put her finger on who Caster could possibly be. Who in mythology ever possessed the ability to control Cerberus? There is always Hades, but Rin doubted that this girl could be a person of such renown. Besides, the grail did not have such capability as to summon a god.
"Then I commend you," stated Rin, "Your attempt at my life was a good one at best. But you see, I realized what Cerberus' ability was as soon as he moved to dodge my attack before I even performed it. I deduced that his three heads allowed him to see through time. A very potent ability, but a human being with that power would be more of a threat than a beast. Animals, even ones with precognitive powers, tend to get fooled easily."
Caster yawned at Rin's comment, as if she were completely unimpressed with her strategy.
"I'm sorry," said Rin with a chuckle, "Am I boring you?"
Caster rubbed her watery eyes and then gave Rin a glance, stating, "Greatly."
"Allow me to apologize once again. Do you mind if we continue where we left off?"
Caster jumped down from the lamp post and seemed to float to the ground. The enormous scythe did not seem to weigh her down at all. She gestured with her right hand and from the darkness appeared the black wolf.
"Cerberus? Again?" Rin chuckled, surely Caster would know by now that she possessed the necessary abilities and skill to defeat such a creature.
"Yes." Caster continued to give off a bored expression. In an instant Cerberus leaped towards Rin, his three heads sprouting from it's shoulders.
Rin attempted to roll out of the large dog's way...but instead she found herself rolling into his attack. The beast's jaws clamped down on her right arm and he proceeded to throw her to the side like a rag doll. Rin's body spiraled onto the pavement, blood trailed after her and the hard concrete scratched her knees and forearms. She struggled to get up, her arm stinging with sharp pain and agony.
"Foolish," said Caster.
"H...how?" asked Rin, barely able to stand up on her own two feet. Blood ebbed down her arm and drenched her hand.
"Adapted," said Caster. It was at this moment Rin realized that the Cerberus before her was the same one that she had killed earlier and even retained the memories of it's death. Like all animals Cerberus merely altered it's pattern of attack to better compensate for it's enemy. Instead of giving Rin time to prepare another trap, it feigned an attack, forcing her to roll into a position that it had already foreseen.
Cerberus then began to circle her. She could see her fresh blood drip down it's maw and onto the pavement. She fell to her knees, and held her index finger towards Cerberus. She fired her gandr at the beast in one last attempt at survival. Cerberus merely dodged the attacks as easily as he did before and lunged at Rin. His mouth opened wide, and Rin could almost feel his teeth wrap around her face. However, the beast leaped backward a split second before a large spike flew down into the ground. Had Cerberus been in that spike's path, he would have been impaled.
Landing before Rin was a beautiful woman with unbelievably long, plum hair that almost touched the ground. In her hands were gripped two spikes suspended by chains, they looked akin to giant nails. She wore a pitch black leather garb that gave her a very sultry appearance and a dark purple visor hid her eyes away.
"Well whaddya know?" said a voice from behind Rin.
There appeared a man she knew very well. A man whom she had known, and even despised when she was younger. He stroked his wavy blue hair and gave a smirk in Rin's direction. "I guess we're even now, eh, Tohsaka?"