AN: I'm sorry this is so late, as I said school started so this is kind of a whenever I have time thing… and no one decided to tell me that taking robotics chemistry and Human Anatomy at the same time was a horrible decision, so for the love of all that is good, if anyone you know tries something like this, either force them not to or destroy them now XD

"So, that's how I got myself into this boiling pit of shit," the red haired man finished

Arturia sat there looking at the man. It wasn't hard to tell that she didn't believe him although no one could blame her. The man had nearly killed her and broke down the front gate of the castle to 'talk' to her. He had also slaughtered an entire village of innocents. Then he burned it to the ground. Oh and he had stabbed Shiro in the shoulder but hey other than that, he was trustworthy. I think…

Shiro sat across from the burly warrior trying to decide what to think. On one hand he could be leading them into a horrible trap that would end in both Arturia's and his destruction, but if he was telling the truth, then it could be just as bad or worse if they chose not to act. He was beginning to see why Arturia never smiled in court. Decision making was grueling.

After a few more moments of silence, Arturia spoke up," And how is it that we are supposed to trust you exactly?"

The man simply nodded back," A sensible question, to tell the truth I was almost sure that I would have been dead by now, but I suppose no one lied when it came to your… generosity."

"What's your name?" Shiro suddenly asked

For a split second the captive looked taken aback, however it was only for a moment," I have been called many names, but most refer to me as Aries."

Arturia's eyes widened, briefly in shock. When she finally managed to regain her composure, she asked," Aries as in the god of war?"

"One and the same but no one has used that title since I was alive and far be it from me to become a god. I just got lucky enough to strike a contract with Ayala, who then decided to sick me on a few thousand different people."

Now it was Shiro's turn to nod," I see, wouldn't be the first time it's happened and definitely not the last."

Ayala had always used humans to clean up her own messes. It was no surprise that one of the Greek gods was really one of her many tools. It always ended in a few thousand deaths or some natural calamity in order to 'dispose' of any evidence. However these actions sometimes made even bigger problems for the human race. Not that anyone cared though. They were just humans after all.

Suddenly Arturia stood from her stool,"I think that it is best that I take some time to think on this decision. Such things should not be determined lightly lest the entire people be disturbed over absolutely nothing."

Shiro took the cue to stand. The pair walked out of the small holding cell and began to walk away from the dungeon. Shiro loathed admitting it but the area was just like the story books, and if you know your stuff then you could probably tell that this place wasn't fun to be in. Though it shouldn't have surprised him, he had hoped that perhaps Arturia was a little more lenient when it came to prisoners. Unfortunately, it was quite the opposite. He did understand to a certain degree but that meant nothing about liking it.

The pair came to a stop in front of a large metal doorway that served as the prisons only entrance and exit. Shiro casually slammed his fist against the cool steel, eliciting a thunderous boom in reply. Shortly after, the door was opened by a large burly man who served as the castles jailor. The man gave a small nod of respect for his king when the pair walked by before wordlessly returning to his game of cards with some of the other guards.

"I still don't know," Arturia said as they walked

"I don't either. One thing is certain though. If we ignore this kind of threat and it turns out to be real, then we will be pretty screwed," Shiro replied.

The statement was one which held a truth that Arturia knew all to well. To ignore ones enemy is the same as falling on your sword and in some cases worse. In the end the decision should have been an easy one, risk a few men to scout or risk an entire kingdom in the name of the past. The only problem was who they were willing to send. At the moment, the castle was largely empty.

Not long ago, most of the soldiers had left for their families and hometowns seeing as one of the kingdoms many wars had just ended. A majority of the round table was gone, either dead or on a diplomatic assignment of some kind as all knights must be expected to do. With both of these aspects, it left them rather shorthanded on skilled soldiers. In the end, she would probably have to send Bedivere or Shiro, perhaps even both but Bedivere was an invaluable advisor to her and she simply didn't want Shiro to leave even though she wouldn't admit it. If she sent him then it seems inevitable that something terrible would happen.

"Well, for now it doesn't matter, it can be decided in the morning, after practice of course," Shiro said

"BUT SHIRO…," Arturia groaned out

He simply laughed and continued forward until she finally moved in a lazy pursuit," Seriously though, you should go to sleep now. I can tell that you're tired and I'm not even looking at you."

He stumbled slightly when she punched him half-heartedly in the back before she stopped at a familiar stairway. Immediately noticing that her companion had kept walking, she spoke once again," Shiro, where are you going?"

"Hm," he replied, called back to reality by her voice," Oh, I don't really know. I figured that I'd go walk around the castle for a bit. It's a beautiful place and I haven't had any real chance to look around or meet the people."

"I see," Arturia replied. It was obvious that he wanted to be alone and there was no reason that he shouldn't. From the best of her knowledge he had been forcibly ripped out of his entire life to be placed in a massive war for peoples he knew next to nothing about. Besides, it's not like he was leaving the country or something.

So with a nod from Britannia's ruler, Shiro turned around and started walking into the endless maze that was 5th Century architecture. Both people had known that he hadn't actually cared about what the castle looked like. Even as he walked Shiro's vision was being washed away by the thoughts swirling in his mind, all of the doubts, all of the worries, all of the suppressed emotions of the past few weeks were coming back into view. It goes without saying that it was with a vengeance as well.

It was times like this that he wished he could talk to Rin. Whatever the problem was, she always seemed to have some weird trick or idea up her sleeve. Unfortunately, he was on his own for now. Not like it was a real problem but one that was simply irritating. He also missed the feeling of family he had back at home. Sure he had some new friends but they were just that, friends. Of course he didn't classify Arturia in the same group be she doesn't remember anything from the 5th war so it's not like that mattered very much.

Things like this only served to remind Shiro how over complicated life always seemed to be. No matter what you did, you can't have everything. That would simply be too easy. Of course nothing could ever be easy, Shiro decided, especially when I and Art are involved. That thought inevitably brought him back to the current situation which was still a jumbled mess of twisting lines and shaded backgrounds. One thing was certain though; an action would have to take place. The only question was what that particular action would be which obviously the actual hard part of the whole situation.

If what Aries claimed was true then it would mean that the so called Saxon army was coming down from the Germanic plains. Also providing that he knew his geography was correct then that meant they would be approaching somewhere from the northwest. Of course that didn't really make much of a difference because Camelot was relatively near the center of the country at the moment or at least as far as he could guess. Such things were always easier to work out with a map, but unfortunately, that wasn't something within the immediate future. Or was it?

"Hey, Shiro, you are about unusually late," said a familiar voice from behind him

"Yeah, just had a lot to think about," Shiro responded, knowing that Bedivere wouldn't care if he turned around or not.

"Oh, I see so Arturia finally found the wit to oust you from her chamber," the knight said with a mischievous grin on his face

"W-what is that supposed to mean!"

"Oh, nothing… just keeping an eye on two teenagers living in the same room who have a tendency to be found together, something is bound to happen someday you know," he said with a wink

"Well, this is still completely unfounded, our relationship isn't like that," Shiro said as his face started turning red

"Hm, well you know, denial is the first sign of guilt."

"Ahhh, whatever, by the way do you happen to have a map of the country?"

Bedivere stopped next to him and looked at him curiously for a minute," Why on earth would you need something like that?"

"Well, just curiosity I guess but at the same time it's important."

"Yes, I understand I think. If I remember correctly, no one has moved the maps from the side room in which you met with Sir Lancelot, so that should do well to serve your purposes."

Shiro nodded slightly and motioned for the more experienced knight to lead the way. He followed only a few short steps behind him but the silence drew on while the pair navigated the passageways of the stone structure. It took no less than fifteen seconds for Shiro's mind to wonder off.

One thing seemed to strike him though. Bedivere seemed way to… well, feminine. The way he spoke seemed almost like it was passively forced, but practiced and it seemed like it had a softer quality to it than the hard edge of the other knights. One could even go so far as to say that it had that girlish innocence somewhere deep down. Then there was his hair. It was probably longer than Arturia's when it was down although; it seemed to be more of bleach white than the golden crown that adorned the young king. Not to mention his hands. The two rarely had any form of physical contact because Bedivere seemed to avoid it like the plague, not that it mattered. Instead it made the fact that his skin was a strange, softly callused plain all the more apparent. Shiro had only found the same texture in one place and that was when he was holding Arturia's. Finally, there was the way he carried himself. If one thing was certain, then it was the difference in the way a man and woman walked. Bedivere seemed to have a lithe like grace in his steps that was normally attributed to females compared to someone like Galahad, who possessed a more solid stance with a large touch of arrogance.

Lost in thought to the fullest extent of the expression, Shiro nearly ran over Bedivere when he stopped and turned to a small side door. Well, a mystery for another time, Shiro decided even as possible conclusions began popping into mind, each being even weirder than the last. He shook his head sharply, trying to focus at least a little bit.

"So, here we are, and just as I supposed, everything seems to be unmoved," Bedivere said turning towards him

"Yeah, it hardly seems like a week since Lancelot was in here fighting about their escape route," Shiro replied with a small smile at the fresh memory

Bedivere let out a yawn before saying," I think that I shall go get some rest. Not all of us get the chance to laze around with the king every day."

Shiro just smirked in response and began leafing through a pile of papers and rolled up maps on the table. Only a moment later the door behind him closed quietly and he knew that he was alone. Without any more hesitation, he unrolled a pair of maps that sat near the head of the table. Both of which seemed to be a map of the known world, which Shiro knew that it was of course wrong in the aspect that there was an entire continent yet to be found but that wasn't the point. After a moment of inspection, he determined which was more detailed and laid it on top of the other.

The idea of it was fairly basic but understandable. It also only served to affirm Shiro's guesses. If the threat was real then it would have to come from a northeastern direction. That was of course if they decided to not build a lot of ships and transport them all the way to the other side, which would be completely ridicules and impractical. Not only would it take a ton of time but it would also ensure that they would be cut off from supplies or reinforcements, unless they took what they needed from conquered towns. With an army as big as suspected though, it would be hard pressed to accomplish such a thing.

With that idea out of mind, Shiro could focus on thinking of possible attacks from the northeast. He may not be much of a tactician but he had played his fair share of strategy games with Kiritsugu when he had the chance. Talk about brutal defeats, but he had learned his lessons well. Not to mention that they had to read the Art of War for their history class a few years back. He had asked his teacher what the point of them reading it was and he had been told that it was a useful text in everyday life. Never had he thought that it could be so literal.

First thing was finding a point of movement. It wasn't big but a range of mountain's closed off part of the country's borders. The most direct path was over a pass that would take them through a valley in between some of the peaks. It could probably be used as a supply caravan road and seemed like it would be easy to defend, however that would work both ways. It would cost a lot if someone were to try and take that while it was defended by the other side no matter what tricks were up their sleeve. This would definitely be a key point, no matter what happened.

Second, was a soldier's moral. This meant showy things like large scale meals, songs, dance, women and everything else they could do to keep things under control. All of these things meant money however, which in turn meant, attacking and plundering the many small villages that sat between points A to B. In turn that should mean that the other side was either defending or retreating at this time which was not an option, considering that they needed to hold onto the mountain pass if it was even still unoccupied. That was a question to be answered soon.

Unfortunately that didn't amount to much. The other army could probably just skirt around the mountains somewhere else and then make their way downward, plus the fact that they had the advantage of being able to come from just about anywhere, assuming that they could spend the time and money to do so. It wasn't impossible for an enemy to find a sponsor to attack Britannia. From Shiro's knowledge, it had made itself plenty of enemies but not enough friends. There seemed to be so many variables, that he didn't even want to think about where to start, let alone what comes after. In moments like this he really felt for Arturia. If everything she did was like this than her life was like trying to make two plus two equal five.

Shiro let out a sigh. Thinks like this were definitely not his thing. He pushed the maps away so that he could think for a moment. It wasn't that hard to imagine something of this sort going horribly wrong. Especially when other people would rely on your word and choice alone, of course that wasn't the case for Shiro because he wasn't in charge of anything. Right now, he was just a man looking to play at being hero again. But it's moments like these when the unnoticed appears before your eyes.

The two maps he had pushed away were now just separated, enough for Shiro to see a familiar red line going up and under the other parchment. Slowly, he reached out a hand to uncover the rest of the line. What he saw was something unwelcome indeed. If he remembered right, Lancelot had ordered for red ink so that he might draw a final pathway for their leave taking. He wasn't sure why he hadn't noticed but he sure did now. According to this path, they would be passing through the mountains in order to reach a port city Dubris (Dover) where they would then take a ship to pretty much anywhere. Unfortunately, they would have to go through one very specific and unique mountain pass.

Shiro left out another sigh before rubbing a hand on his face," Well, shit."

AN: Yes I know cheesy using two authors notes, but I pretty much had to stop in the middle of this and then come back to it today so anyway, I hope you guys like it and I am again sorry for making you wait. I also have a good idea for another story but I know that it will only slow things further so it's like

GAHHHH! I wanna write this *reaches for keyboard*

NO! You'll only make people mad*conscience slaps hand*

Sigh, I need to sleep… So see you all next chapter & thanks for waiting!