The Holy Grail is activated by feeding it the souls of the Masters and Servants of the Grail War. Reduced to little more than a speck of energy within the unstoppable force that is the Grail, Heroic Spirit Emiya can do next to nothing but wait for the Holy Grail to activate, to consume him and return him to the Throne of Heroes.

Finally got your chance, didn't you? How'd that go? A playful voice snickers at him. Just kidding, I know. I watched it all happen. You failed.

The voice laughs; the Guardian doesn't honor it with a response.

You're just gonna go back to the Counter Force after that? the voice persists. To the humans that betrayed you, over and over? When you still have nothing to fight for? Reflexively he thinks of Rin, of the hollowness in his jacket where he'd kept the gem pendant. The voice (the Grail, he guesses) is only amused. Ah, but she's not fighting for you, remember? She's fighting for her Emiya Shirou. The one you lost to...

But that's not true. He remembers that moment at the Einzbern castle, when she had been unbonded to him, and yet she had dreamed of him. A dream of that which he had held so close to his heart that he thought no one else would ever see those thoughts, not even a Master.

And that is solid, unshakeable proof, is it not? That there is something that holds them together. Something stronger than any magical bond the Holy Grail could forge—something that transcended timelines, worlds.

Destiny? the Grail scoffs. You believe in that shit? You, the cynic who has nothing left?

I have her, he thinks viciously. I have her. She wouldn't have left me if she'd known—and she won't leave me now that she knows!

And suddenly he's that boy that stood on top of a barren hill, pulling out the sword from the ground, holding a promise to himself like a talisman in his heart—that his dream is beautiful.

But the boy had bested him. Had rejected his cynicism, denied that he would ever follow in his footsteps. Denied a Guardian his final wish, his final prayer.

… Where does that leave him?

He was trapped in a life of indiscriminate killing. He is trapped in it. The Counter Force calls on him almost exclusively for it—and with Unlimited Blade Works, it was easy. To kill, and kill, and kill…

But the confrontation at the mansion had reminded him of where it all began. Where he had come from… and where he had gone wrong.

For the briefest moment, he wonders if he's reverting back to that naive boy and he almost laughs to himself. What a thought.

But the moment the thought occurs to him, the fallen hero feels the tug of magic, something even more pervading than his bond with Rin.

Maybe he had known that it was there all along. Until this point he had refused to acknowledge its presence, after spending his entire afterlife denying it. But after everything that happened—after accepting his past self—

Shirou?

All at once, he's lying on the ground, bruised and beaten, hopeless and destroyed.

Ryuudou Temple...

The scenario is a familiar one, one he'd been in countless times before. Both in life and in his time as a Counter Guardian, he had been knocked flat on his back, the battle all but lost, still frantically wondering what he could do.

Gilgamesh stands over him, atop a nearby shed, with Ea dissolving from his grip. "You are incapable of saving anything," he says haughtily. "That shabby Archer said as much, did he not? That your ideals were not your own."

Emiya Shirou turns his head in agonizing pain to glare at the golden king.

"I'm astonished that a man without anything to call his own was arrogant enough to think he could accomplish anything," Gilgamesh continues, unrepentant. "'Champion of justice'? 'A world where no one is hurt'? Don't be absurd. 'Humanity' is the name for beasts that cannot find joy in life without sacrifice. Your much-vaunted 'equality' is nonsense spouted by weaklings who cannot bear to stare into the abyss. It is naught but an excuse to cover up your own ugliness."

Yeah, he's exactly right. Emiya Shirou admits to himself. My desires are borrowed. A pretense I put on, copied from someone I once saw saving another. When it happened, I was empty inside. Everyone was dying indiscriminately, and nobody looked to save anyone else. If I hadn't resigned myself to the idea that that's how people are, I wouldn't have been able to keep on living. That's why… that's precisely why I was so inspired by his ideal.

Is that so wrong? Are these feelings fake just because they aren't my own? Should I not achieve that ideal, just because it's fake?

No. I know that's not right.

It doesn't matter if it's fake. Or an unattainable wish. I know that I can't save everyone. I know that no one can be saved without sacrifice!

Even knowing that it was nothing but an ideal, I only chased after it even harder. Even if I hurt one to save many, I'll keep pursuing a happy future where no one will be hurt.

And this is where that ideal ultimately lead him.

A man once told me that what I believed in—what I still believe in—was hypocrisy. But despite that, the man who said those words stayed true to that same hypocrisy to the end.

Which means that I can do it. Even if it's borrowed, even if it's fake, I don't care.

I'm okay with that. Emiya Shirou can keep striving toward this dream! Even if he doesn't find a single thing he was searching for!

...

...Come on… that's all there was to it?

The boy has the gall to be incredulous at him. Shirou struggles to stand up again; Gilgamesh tilts his head. "Though I may have held back, I'm sure you felt the blast of wind from Ea."

"If you have all those weapons, why would you hold back just one?" Shirou challenges.

"Only the supreme ruler may wield that blade," Gilgamesh says. "You haven't the right to so much as look at it." Golden gates open all around the king once more, throwing swords at Shirou—and he has so little mana left, can do next to nothing to help—

But the other golden Servant arrives with a sharp cry, and with a single swipe destroys the swords that dared challenge the lord of the Saber-class Servant.

"Are you unharmed, Shirou?" Saber says, Invisible Air held ready. She looks back at Gilgamesh, who smirks back at her. "I shall take over from here."

"No, you go help Tohsaka." Shirou walks ahead of her, resolute. Archer smiles to himself. "I can handle Gilgamesh by myself."

Both Saber and Gilgamesh's faces turn into looks of surprise. "What are you saying, Shirou?" Saber demands. "A mage is no match for a Servant."

"Yes, but he and I are exceptions to the rules." The boy turns back to Saber, his right hand clutching his Magic Crest. "Trust me," he tells her, with a fire in his eyes that he knows all too well. "I know I can beat this guy!"

Saber looks to him, then to Gilgamesh, then back at the tower of blood where the Holy Grail was about to be summoned. Making up her mind, she says quietly, "Good luck. I shall keep Rin safe."

She starts to walk away, but Shirou calls her back. "Saber..." He hesitates. "I wasn't able to save you." Saber turns back to him in surprise. "I think that Grail isn't what you were hoping for. So take a good look. To make sure that you get it right next time."

"Shirou…?"

"Sorry, it's hard to explain," he says apologetically. "I guess I was never cut out to be your Master. So..."

Saber shakes her head, a small smile on her face. "That is untrue. You are my Master, Shirou." Turning back to the Grail, she continues, "I shall go fulfill my duty as a Servant. Let us continue our discussion afterward."

For the last time, the golden Servant bounds away from her Master. Both the boy and the Guardian look to her for a few seconds; but there is nothing to be done except hope that she can handle the Grail. Furthermore, there were more pressing issues to be addressed—

The sound of quiet laughter bubbles across the courtyard, building up into a more manic, unhinged sound. The red Archer squints, picking up on the discord in the sound. He's done his fake share of laughing in the face of—dare he say it, heartbreak, and he knows how to tell the difference from genuine mirth. He spares a moment to pity the golden Archer in his hopelessness.

"Are you mad, boy?" Gilgamesh goads, snapping out of it. "You choose to be the sacrificial pawn, rather than use Saber? You fool. The act of self-sacrifice is naught but a lie. Being unable to see that, even now, marks you as an incorrigible hypocrite."

The golden gates around him open once more, but Shirou only smiles at the insults. "A fraud and a hypocrite, huh?" he murmurs quietly, as if to himself, words only meant for the Guardian he knew was nearby. "I guess. I am a fake through and through, after all." From the Magic Crest he pulls out a tendril of mana, a blue ball of fire in his palm. "But I was mistaken all along. My sword-making doesn't actually create them. There's only one thing that I can do. And that's to give form to what's in my mind!"

And the silent observer has been expecting this, but it still resonates with him when the boy begins the invocation:

"I am the bone of my sword

"Steel is my body and fire is my blood

I have created over a thousand blades

Unaware of Loss, nor aware of Gain—"

The change in incantation breaks his focus—had he not always said not known to Death, nor known to Life?

But the flow of mana doesn't stop, and it makes perfect sense—this Shirou had not received the incantation, as he had, as the single thing he could hold onto after everything had betrayed him. His invocation had been a lament, a requiem for a fight that he no longer believed in. For an ideal, a life, that had long since betrayed him.

Shirou's is a hopeful prayer, a promise never to turn from his ideal.

Noble Phantasm-rank weapons speed toward him, threatening his life—Archer thinks of the flower shield, the strongest defense he had stored in Unlimited Blade Works; the fight in the mansion had been long enough that it was highly likely that Shirou had copied most of his armory. On cue, in a burst of pink magic, a five-petal Rho Aias appears in front of Shirou, absorbing the impact of the swords Gilgamesh throws at him.

"Withstood pain to create many weapons,

Waiting for one's arrival—

I have no regrets. This is the only path

My whole life... was Unlimited Blade Works!"

And the Bounded Field for another Reality Marble erupts in orange fire on the ground around the king and the boy, in a blinding light that he's seen many times. When the light fades, both of them are gone.

Unlimited Blade Works, the natural counter to the Gate of Babylon. With both of them inside, it is possible for Shirou to overcome Gilgamesh.

Behind him, the Holy Grail makes a terrible sound, an inhuman wail that sounds like a thousand souls screaming for mercy. Without hesitation, he hurries over through the trees, toward Rin and Saber.

When he emerges from the forest, Saber is alone, standing at the edge of the lake, its cursed water barely inches from her feet. The air is heavy with death and decay, and one breath of it would be fatal to any regular human.

In the middle of the lake is the Grail, pulsating black and purple and red, like a tumor that grew out of the mountain. The malevolence of humanity condensed and given a form, and from within it, through the last vestiges of a bond, he hears her desperate thoughts:

—is it, I guess. But I won't let it end like this! By my Command Spell, I order you: Saber, destroy the Holy Grail right now!

A familiar pulse of mana washes through the area, and it passes through him, unaffecting. Saber recoils; Excalibur bursts in gold, like a beacon in the night. "What? Impossible!" Saber yells. "Rin! Get out of there!"

Sorry, Saber, Rin says weakly. You probably wouldn't do it if I just asked you, so I have to force you.

Rin intends to die—something visceral inside him screams in protest, in abject agony. Hypocrite, a voice in the back of his mind screams. But he ignores it—he has to do something, anything—

In the face of his Master's demise, he forces the last of his mana to come together, to project a rain of swords, ready to fire at the abomination in the lake. His very existence threatens to wrench him apart, barely having enough mana to keep him tethered to the world; despite this, he says, through a bond too long unused, Your pathetic whining offends me.

The Holy Grail explodes in a shower of swords, sending chunks of flesh flying through the air. The monster roars its displeasure, its arms swinging wildly through the air. But it's enough to free her, and he says, Now go, Rin!

She carries Shinji back to the shore in small, agonized steps, as Excalibur continues to respond to the mana from the Command. "Hurry, Rin!" Saber calls, struggling to contain her holy sword.

Gasping, Rin calls, "Saber! I'm feeding you the last of my mana! So take that Holy Grail and blast it so hard there won't be a single trace left!" Rin raises her Command Spell to the sky, as a shockwave of mana envelops Saber and lights up both her and her sword in golden flame.

"EX…"

The golden Servant shines with a brilliance to light up the night, concentrating all her mana into the one attack, pointed straight at the abomination in the lake.

"...CALIBUR!"

The Holy Grail is torn apart, exploding right down the middle where the holy sword hit. The red tendrils that connected it to the portal in the sky are severed, stopping the collection of evil wishes from the surrounding area. The portal erupts with a mighty explosion, setting the temple awash in light. The dust settles on the city, a night of fireflies the only remnant of what would have been its destruction.

Saber's face softens as she holds out an armored hand to catch one of the golden specks, some of it landing in her hair. Parts of her armor shimmer, and start to disintegrate into the same dust that surround them—and even now, the Guardian thinks of how beautiful she looks in moonlight.

"Our contract is concluded. Victory is yours, Rin," she says quietly, turning to face her Master, unaware of the spirit in the shadows. "Were it allowed, I would have liked to have remained to the end to see what becomes of you two." She's half gone in a shower of golden mana, and Archer has no choice but to look at her, to see her disappear before him once again. "However, that is not my role. After all, Shirou has you, Rin."

The night is too blue, too cold, without the golden Servant to brighten it. He remembers a much warmer sunset, lighting up the last look he thought he would ever have of her—

But he had seen her again, here. In a war for the majority of which she had had no idea who he was, and when she learned of who he is, and what he'd become, had looked at him in disbelief and pity, and could not reconcile him with her image of the innocent boy.

In a war that is not yet over, he reminds himself. He takes one more look at Rin, ensures her wellbeing, then retreats into the trees, back near the courtyard.

Gilgamesh and Shirou emerge from Unlimited Blade Works in a markedly different state. Gilgamesh is missing his right arm, and his chest is slashed across, with a wound that he knows by sight was caused by one of the harmony blades. Shirou, on the other hand, looks winded but alive, and if Archer didn't know any better, had his hair blown back much more from fighting.

"You ran out of mana? How anticlimactic." Gilgamesh takes out a single spear from his armory. "Victory is yours. Die with that satisfaction, faker."

But before the king can fire, a black vaccuum forms at the cut of Gilgamesh's arm— "What? Swallowing me accomplishes nothing… wait!"

"The Holy Grail's hole..." Shirou says, reverence in his voice.

A golden chain shoots out of the black void, catching Shirou's arm and pulling him forward.

"That malformed abomination!" Gilgamesh screams. "Does it not know that a fellow Servant cannot be made its core?"

"Damn it," Shirou yells, struggling against the chain. "You're trying to take me down with you?!"

"Fool! I haven't the least intention of dying!" Gilgamesh tugs, pulling Shirou slightly forward. "Plant your heels, ruffian! At least until I climb back to where you are!"

Shirou's face twists in hatred. "As if! I'll rip off my own arm if that's what it takes!"

And Archer has next to no mana, after the suppressive fire he laid down at the Grail, barely enough to keep him in this world. But he is nothing if not hardheaded, as he has always been since life, so he projects one last blade, just a dirk, and nocks it—

"Do as you wish, but step to the right first."

Shirou turns to him in surprise, and it gives him the opening he needs—he fires.

It hits the king square in the forehead, the dagger slicing through skin and bone. With his dying breath, Gilgamesh says: "Ar… cher..." His eyes widen, and the golden chain disintegrates, freeing Shirou. The void engulfs the king, making a horrifying noise before it consumes itself.

Shirou stands amidst a pile of rubble, winded from the fight but safe, and alive. "Really… what a showoff," he murmurs, to the quiet temple.

Satisfied, the Guardian smirks and leaves.

The back of Ryuudou Temple is untouched forest—forests and rolling hills that frame the sunrise perfectly. Those have always symbolized new beginnings, right? Then what an apt view to gaze at, right as he ends his time as a Heroic Spirit, imbued with new purpose.

"Archer!"

… But of course she would come find him, his persistent Master. She runs to him, out of breath, still tired from the events of the day.

"Archer..."

She must have finally looked at him properly, seen the way his body is disintegrating, much like Saber had done, not too long ago. Through the remains of a long-broken bond, he thinks he feels her desperation—but at this point, he doubts it's still the bond forged by the Grail that keeps them together.

"It's unfortunate, but there you have it," he begins lightly, putting a hand on his hip. He keeps facing the sunset; his white hair brushes his forehead, and he's aware of how he looks with his hair down. "Give up on the Grail this time, Rin." She's quiet behind him, and he hears her take a breath—a muffled sob. Despite himself, he laughs, a short, chopped sound. It feels unusual in his throat—when was the last time he'd laughed like that?

"What's with that?" says Rin reproachfully. "This is hardly the time to be laughing!"

"My apologies," he says unapologetically, half-turning to face her. "I couldn't help it, given your state. I was amused that you and I cut such sorry figures." The wind blows across the hilltop; his hair brushes gently across his forehead.

Rin's face betrays no surprise; instead, she clasps her hands together in front of her, like a prayer. "Archer… will you form a contract with me again?" she says, a quiet plea in her voice.

"I can't do that. I doubt I have that right," he answers, turning back to face the sunset. "Besides, I no longer have a goal. My battle ends here."

"But… but this means you'll... " Her voice breaks off into a sob. "No matter how much time passes, you'll never be saved..."

He turns back to her quickly—tears stream down her face, shining in the light of dawn. He feels like the errant boy once more, saying stupid things that kept making this remarkable girl cry. "Oh, man," he says sheepishly. "Rin," he calls, and she looks up at him in surprise.

"Take care of me, will you? You know I'm a little hopeless. Give me a shoulder to lean on." Rin's tears spill over her cheeks once more, finally looking at him properly, seeing the warm smile on his face and the hair over his forehead, and her heart breaks because this is him, this is who I've loved, even when he's the asshole who lies to me and tricks me—!

And he remembers another sunset, in another life, when he was on the other side of this situation, watching his Servant disappear at the end of a Grail War—

—Saber's resilience, the smile on her face, her bright blue clothes dulled to almost gray by the orange sunlight, and for a moment he could imagine that she was still wearing her metal armor, gleaming in the light as it always did as she swore to be his blade, turning to face him and saying the words that didn't need to be said.

"Shirou—I love you."

But that's completely different, he thinks. That's not the same kind of love he feels for Rin, who grew to love his former self even knowing that the failed version of him was standing right by her side; who when she found out what he was, still sought him to the end, to help in any way she could, even after betrayal.

"Yeah, I know," she promises. "I'll do my best. I'll try my hardest to make sure he doesn't end up a twisted jerk like you." Archer smirks to himself; although, admittedly, he has been a twisted jerk, but leave it to Rin to call him out on it so blatantly in a sentimental moment. "I'll make sure he learns to love himself! So you hang in there too!"

In the betrayal of his ideal he had dedicated his life to, his perception of the world had shattered. Amidst everything else, he had never considered broken he had become, how much he had come to despise himself to fixate on killing his younger self—on killing himself. A roundabout act of self-hatred, of suicide.

He knows now that that would have solved nothing. Because he, the Guardian, had come to hate himself as he had chosen this path, had invalidated all his choices and left nothing but an empty shell. Left with nothing but to hate himself, to hate the young boy who had yet to feel the crushing weight of his choices and would grow up to suffer the same.

But Rin had summoned him, and as she stayed with him through his early life, she had stayed with him beyond death. The thought of her making sure he learns to love himself—of making sure Shirou does—is something that, at the start of the Grail War, he would have scoffed at.

Right now, it is a beautiful thought.

And so Heroic Spirit Emiya smiles, a simple, innocent happiness in his heart. "I have my answer. Don't worry, Tohsaka," he says quietly, lapsing to how he had called her in life, awash with affection which she returns. "I'll try my hardest from now on, too."

The smile doesn't fade from his face as he disappears, and before he fades away he sees a head of orange hair poking through the bushes behind Rin.

A/N: the malevolent spirit in the holy grail is angra mainyu, aka avenger, aka the easiest thing to write in this entire story. thats my babe

that's the end of the unlimited blade works route as we know it. this is the bit where i put all my thank yous to everyone who's come along with me on this wild ride. but it's not the end yet :D stick around for the epilogue, which should be up within the next few days :)