I do not own the Fate Series or Lupin the Third.

Matou Kariya knelt down in the alley and coughed a mouthful of blood into a trashcan that he had stumbled upon. Luckily, it was still nighttime, or rather extremely early in the morning, so hardly anyone was outside and his hood covered up a good portion of his face. Even if someone had seen him, to the average on-looker he would probably just look like some sort of drunken bum.

It had been a strange and painful experience. Not long ago, the worms inside of him went crazy and caused unbelievable pain to him. It had been agonizing, like dozens of knives tearing at his insides. But as abruptly as the pain assailed him, the pain had suddenly disappeared. Before he had felt a constant sting within him as the worms gnawed at him under his flesh, but now there was nothing. Other than the occasional stitch or sharp stinging sensation brought upon by straining the injuries that already existed, he felt nothing from the worms inside him.

They were not at all acting like they were supposed to.

"Just what is going with that old vampire?" Kariya asked himself as he wiped his mouth on his sleeve. If Zouken had been punishing him out of amusement, it would have gone on longer and he would be around to see it. There was also no point in killing off some of the worms that were inside of him. So what had happened? "Could he be trying something new? Is he dead? I don't know…"

There were too many possibilities, and no answers…

"Yo. Are you Matou Kariya?"

Kariya turned to see an older man whose face was partially hidden under a fedora. "W-who are…?"

"Daisuke Jigen." The man replied, and Kariya could not help but blink in shock. He remembered this man! He was supposed to be one of Assassin's accomplices, back when he was alive. Jigen took out a box of cigarettes and opened it to place one cancer stick in his mouth. "So, are you him?"

Kariya remained cautious, but wasn't intimidated by the man. If he decided to try and cause him trouble, he still had Berserker at his beck and call, who could easily get him out of this if need be. "Yes, I am…"

"Tch. You look like a mess." Jigen muttered as he lit his cancer stick. He walked to Kariya and put his right arm over his shoulders. Kariya got the message and began to walk with Jigen down the sidewalk. "Lupin told me to come and get you." Jigen let out a breath of smoke as he talked, but blew it away from the direction of Kariya's face.

"A-Lupin did…?" Kariya asked in confusion, turning his head to the marksman. Good thing he stopped himself from calling Assassin by his class name. "How did you find me?"

"Told me to look for someone in a ratty purple hoody that looked like he is close to kicking the bucket." Jigen replied as they reached the end of the sidewalk and stopped in front of a black Nissan Skyline. Jigen opened the passenger door, and Kariya crawled into the seat as the man walked to the driver's side. Kariya smelled the air of the car, and it reeked of cigarettes. The stuffed cup-holder of put-out cancer sticks that looked like it was about to overflow probably contributed greatly to the stench.

"Great, a chain smoker…" Kariya thought to himself as he tried to stop himself from coughing but failed. When Jigen entered the car, he opened the windows but did not put out his own cigarette. Of course, it figured that a criminal wouldn't treat him like glass…

"Didn't tell me what this is about, shady bastard." Jigen grumbled to himself as he started the car and rolled out from the parking space. As the car moved down the mostly empty streets, Jigen placed his hand over his fedora and set it down even more to hide his eyes further from view. "But he did tell me to tell you this: The princess has been rescued from the castle."

"The princess…" Kariya muttered before his eyes widened in shock and hoped filled his heart. "Could it be…? He rescued Sakura…?"

If it was true… If Sakura was truly free now…

Tears came out of Kariya's eyes and dripped down his face. "Will you tell me just what is going on between you and Lupin?" Jigen asked, only for Kariya to shake his head.

"Just… He fulfilled his end of the bargain. I guess he wants you to take me someplace before I fulfill mine." Kariya answered, a small sad smile settling onto his face. Jigen clicked his tongue in annoyance at the vague answer, but continued to drive to the new hideout that his old partner had set up.

"Guess this guy's part of that war Lupin was talking about…"

Fuyuki Church (Morning):

Sakura opened her eyes, slowly blinking as the rays of light hit her face. The first thought that entered her mind was simply, "Unfamiliar ceiling…"

But then again, how the ceiling looked was not really that important. Sakura had had such a wonderful dream. She dreamed that she had been freed from the Matous, that she flew in the arms of a dashing thief and went on an exciting ride through the city, the lights passing by the window almost like they were one…

The girl turned her head to see that she was in a small room, on top of a bed with a small white blanket on top of her. The bed was in the center of the room, and a bookcase filled with various novels was in front of the bed. To her left was a closet that was empty, and a window was on the wall behind the bed.

"Where am I?"

This was not her room. She did not recognize this place. Had she been brought here by grandfather?

Quietly, Sakura got out of the bed. She noticed now that her dress was freshly clean, and her shoes were set to the side of the bed. Strange, this had never happened before. Without a word, she put the shoes on her feet and walked to the door, opening it.

It was an empty hallway, but not one that she recognized. She heard some sounds coming from a door to the left, so Sakura quietly walked towards it. She peeked through the opening of the door to see a kitchen with an old man whose eyes seemed to be closed and dressed in some type of robe pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"Who is that?" Sakura wondered. She didn't recognize him either. Was he an acquaintance of her grandfather?

"You can come in, child." The old man said, making Sakura jump slightly in shock. "My hearing is still very good. I know you are behind that door."

Sakura opened the door and stepped inside the kitchen. "Hello…" Sakura greeted the old man with a small bow. The old man then turned to face her and Sakura recognized the man as a priest. The clothes and the cross hanging around his neck made it obvious.

"Come, sit down." The old man spoke, motioning to a chair by a table. Slowly, Sakura went to one of the chairs and sat down on it. "I'm sure that you are hungry. Would you like something to eat?"

"Yes please." Sakura replied, causing the old man to nod before he turned to rummage through some of the cupboards. Sakura could not help but be surprised at the fact that the old man was actually getting her a meal, rather than pointing her to where she could get the food. After a moment, the old man placed a bowl of cornflakes with milk and a spoon in front of her.

"So then child…" The old man began, pulling out a chair and sitting to her right. "Do you know where you are?"

"No." Sakura replied truthfully as she began to stir the contents of the bowl with her spoon.

"My name is Kotomine Risei. I am… a friend of Tokiomi-kun, your father." Risei said carefully, and could not help but feel slightly guilty when he saw Sakura flinch at the mention of Tokiomi. "My son, Kirei-kun and his… friend, brought you here last night."

"You mean… Thief-san?" Sakura asked, receiving a nod of confirmation from Risei. "It wasn't a dream?"

"I can assure you child, it was not." Risei stated with a small bit of humor in his voice. "They interrupted my sleep to bring you here. Not that I minded, of course."

"Ah." Sakura breathed out a sigh of relief. So it was true. She was free! She was free from grandfather's training and that horrible place! But… "Where is Thief-san?"

"He and my son are going about some business together." Risei replied to the girl, who looked down in disappointment. "This business also has to do with Tokiomi-kun, and Matou Kariya."

"Kariya-ojisan?" Sakura spoke, looking at the priest with a flash of hope in her eyes. "Kariya-ojisan helped to save me?"

"That's right." Risei confirmed, keeping a polite smile on his face.

"He kept his promise…" Sakura thought to herself with joy. Her uncle really did it. He helped get her out of that place! Maybe he told Thief-san about her? "Can I see him?"

This made Risei frown as he shook his head. "Not yet child. The business they are performing requires a certain amount of privacy. If you were to meet them, it could put both you and them in serious danger." Noticing Sakura's disheartened expression, Risei decided to add a bit more. "But do not worry, you'll perhaps see them in several days. Until then, you will have to stay here."

"But… what about my grandfather?" Sakura asked, causing Risei to regain his smile.

While lying to a child about the exact details of why she could not see either Assassin or Kariya was easy, he still felt a bit guilty about it. After all, the child had gone through a lot and didn't need any more heartbreak.

But there was thing he could say truthfully to her.

"You needn't worry about Matou Zouken, child. He can harm you no longer."

Fuyuki Hyatt Hotel (Nighttime):

Kayneth sat on the couch of the penthouse's living quarters, with his fiancé sitting on the other side turned to not look at him. The two hadn't said a word since the hotel employees left and they answered a few questions to a policeman who arrived. A few memory manipulations here and there assured that no one would come back and bother them any further.

It was just so… surreal. In less than a day, Kayneth had lost his Servant, was humiliated by the Tohsaka head and forced to retreat, and learned that Sola-Ui had been assaulted by Assassin who manipulated Kayneth to try and fight against Tohsaka in the first place. The Servant's act should have been easy to spot, now that Kayneth looked back at it. There was no way Sola-Ui would be so encouraging to him.

"Not only that, but she didn't even show a sign of affection to Lancer." Kayneth thought bitterly to himself with a deep frown. As much as he loathed to admit it, Sola-Ui's affection for Lancer had been obvious even as he did his best to ignore and deny it, no thanks to the curse he had which made any woman who gazed upon his face fall in love with him. Kayneth was rational enough to know that Lancer could not turn it off, and it would have been unwise for the Servant to intentionally bring more ire from his Master. But the displays of affection that Sola-Ui gave to Lancer were so predictable that he didn't even notice that the disguised Assassin showed none.

But still, the blow to his pride at being so easily fooled was just…

"Why?" Sola-Ui grumbled out, making Kayneth turn his head to look at her. "Why did you have to pick a fight with Assassin and his Master?"

"It was to get back my Servant's weapon and eliminate competition in this war." Kayneth answered without remorse. He could not soften this for his fiancé. "Lancer could not fight to his full capability without…"

"Stop lying, Kayneth!" Sola-Ui shouted, whipping her face to him and showing its tear-stained visage. "This had nothing to do with Lancer! It was all because of your own damn pride!"

Kayneth clicked his tongue but did not respond. He had to admit his pride took a small part in wanting to eliminate Assassin and Kotomine Kirei. It was partially his fault for allowing his Servant free reign to fight Saber however he wished, but it was also equally Lancer's fault for throwing away his own Noble Phantasm, ripe for Assassin to take away!

"It was because of your pride that Assassin was able to fool you!" Sola-Ui pointed at Kayneth with hatred in her eyes. "It's your fault that Lancer is dead! He died because of your own stupidity! It was because of you that Assassin wanted us dead in the first place and…"

"And what Sola-Ui?" Kayneth sharply asked with narrowed eyes. "This is the Holy Grail War. Assassin would have targeted us sooner or later. I simply wished to make the first strike."

"Don't try and hide the fact that my love died…!" Kayneth suddenly stood up, stopping Sola-Ui from continuing as he looked at her with utter fury.

"'Your love'? Sola-Ui, listen to yourself!" Kayneth shouted at the woman. He had enough of this. Perhaps a direct confrontation was necessary to dispel the illusion his fiancé put around herself. "You know the legend of Diarmuid as well as I do! You know full well that whatever feelings you have for him are just a result of his curse!"

Sola-Ui seethed at Kayneth. She knew that damn it! She knew that the love she held was not truly real, but… "At least I felt love for him, which is more than I could say for a prideful, self-centered, egomaniac like you!"

Kayneth took a step back as if he had been slapped. He had always known Sola-Ui never truly loved him, but to just hear her state her true feelings about him…

*Hoot!*

The sound of an owl hooting interrupted both Magi as they turned to a now open window to see a person with no discernible gender wearing an owl mask with a black and red suit along with white gloves. Perched on the Owl Man(?)'s left shoulder was a black owl with red eyes.

"Please forgive me for the intrusion." The Owl spoke in a deep baritone which sounded respectful but not apologetic in the slightest.. "But there is much I must discuss with Mr. Archibald."

Kayneth's eyes widened in shock at the Owl's voice. "I-I know you… You're the one who gave me information on Kotomine Kirei over the telephone!"

"What are you talking about, Kayneth?" Sola-Ui demanded as she looked from the mysterious masked… thing and the Magus. "You know this person?"

"We know each other through a simple business transaction." The Owl replied, not turning its head to face her but keeping his tone polite and respectful. "One that I was hoping to finalize."

"How did you get in here?" Kayneth demanded with narrowed eyes. "There is no way you could have gotten past my defenses and wards!?"

"Ah yes, I must admit your Bounded Fields were truly troublesome. It shows that you deserve your title as the head of the Archibald Family." The Owl spoke, keeping an even tone that honestly put both Magi on edge. "However, you did not put any defenses over your windows or on the roof. It was a simple matter to use those two facts to our advantage so that we could meet face to face."

"And what made you so sure that the windows did not have any Runes on them?" Kayneth asked warily. The Magus had expected the Masters of the war to face him honorably, and even if they tried attacking him from long distances none but Archer could even hope to aim at the penthouse correctly. Thus, Lancer was the buffer to such a hypothetical situation. He looked at the owl for a minute, still perched on top of the Owl Man's shoulder. For some reason, it had been giving such an uneasy feeling to him… "Is it… a Familiar?"

"If you are curious as to whether or not my pet is a Familiar, then you can be assured that it is." The Owl began before raising its right arm and swiftly bringing it to the face of the bird and quickly digging its fingers into the owl's right eye socket. The bird did not flinch as blood began spewing out and the Owl picked out its tiny eyeball. To any normal man, such a sight would have made them heave. But Kayneth instead widened his eyes at the obviously mechanical wires running from the eye to the bird's empty eye-socket. "However, not in the way you think."

"How dare you…" Kayneth seethed as he looked at the… the abomination of Magecraft before him. "How can you use modern tools?! Have you no pride you…!"

"Pride is an unnecessary emotion Mr. Archibald. I, and the organization I represent, simply prefer efficiency." The Owl replied as it put back the eyeball with sickening ease, the bird not even flinching in the slightest at what should be extreme pain to it. "Over years of research and testing, our organization created the perfect Familiars. They never degrade, they can store countless amounts of information and relay them to us whenever we wish, and they keep their Circuits to function without setting any alarms by Bounded Fields as a result. Really, why must Magi wallow around in such mundane and hopelessly outdated methods when there are ways to be much, much more efficient in going about things?"

"Why?" Sola-Ui spoke shakily, standing up from her seat to look at the Owl. "Why did you give Kayneth the information about Kotomine Kirei?"

"Why? Mrs. Sophia-Ri, I am simply following my Master's wishes. And his wish was to start the chain of events that would lead to Lancer's death." The Owl plainly stated, causing both Kayneth and Sola-Ui's eyes to widen. "By attacking Assassin, you shifted his priorities to deal with Lancer, lest he become any more of a hindrance. How he went about it was meaningless, but in the end Lancer was defeated. And you came here rather than the church to wallow in your hurt pride, just as we predicted." The last part of the statement was so cold that it even caused Kayneth to take a step back. "But all that is meaningless. I still completed my end of the bargain Mr. Archibald, by telling you where you could find Kotomine Kirei. Now you'll follow a sim-"

"YOU BASTARD!" Sola-Ui shouted, interrupting the Owl as she lunged at the masked thing with speed and ferocity that Kayneth didn't think she had. But just as she was three feet away from the Owl, it's right arm shot out in the blink of an eye, and the arm's gloved finger wrapped around Sola-Ui's neck and squeezed as it lifted her up.

"Please Mrs. Sophia-Ri, I have not finished just yet." The Owl spoke as Sola-Ui gasped out for air and clawed at the gloved hand, but it would not move an inch.

"SOLA-UI!" Kayneth shouted as he moved for Volumen Hydragyrum's container in his coat pocket with his left arm, ready to wipe this piece of scum off the face of the planet…

Only for something to grasp his wrist and in one swift move, break it.

"GAH!" Kayneth screamed as blood stained his own gloves before something sharp stabbed him in the back, causing him to fall on the floor. Yet the grip on his wrist did not loosen. In fact, the hand of his assailant seemed to be moving up to his elbow…

"Stop Küken, that will be enough. I think Mr. Archibald now knows better than to try anything foolish." The Owl spoke, and no reply was given other than the hand simply pinning down his arm. Kayneth raised his head to see the Owl standing imposingly over him, still choking Sola-Ui. "Now then Mr. Archibald, the request I have for you is simple. You are to stay here in this penthouse until further notice. My Master wishes to use you for the future, and it would be a great inconvenience for us to track you down and bring you to him." Now Sola-Ui's struggles were growing weaker, and he could see her eyes rolling to the back of her head.

"Please… just let her go." Kayneth pleaded with the Owl, who simply released its grip and allowed Sola-Ui to fall to the floor, coughing and clutching her throat.

"Of course, should you attempt to flee, or inform anyone from the Church Moderator to the police about this encounter, the consequences will be quite severe." The Owl continued, going on as if nothing happened. "The one pinning you down is one of our Eulen-Küken, my organization's personal assassins. They are quite good at what they do. We often use them to help us handle… unseemly individuals who refuse to hold a contract, whether they be normal humans or Magi." Kayneth could not help but think that the Owl took a perverse pleasure in being open yet vague in threatening him. "My organization also prides itself in always testing our products on human subjects. The experiments are much more… interesting and allow us to collect data much faster. Especially when the human subjects are young girls. Around the same age as the young girl who is next in line for becoming the Archibald head…"

Kayneth's eyes widened in horror at the threat. This thing… whoever it worked for was not fooling around. While he was not that close to the members of his family, he never wanted any of them to become the personal test subjects of an obviously unhinged group of Magi who seemed to have much, much power backing them.

"I hope that we have come to an understanding Mr. Archibald." The Owl spoke as it moved back towards the window. "You were stabbed in a non-fatal area. I'm sure your fiancé is skilled enough to heal the wound. After all, if you were to die I would have to return. And that would be… inconvenient." With that, the weight on Kayneth's back lessened, and the knife still in him was taken out. Yet after a second, his head was smacked down to the ground for no other reason than possibly to show complete dominance. "And while it is cliche for me to say, just remember that we have eyes and ears everywhere." Kayneth lifted his head to see the assassin…

…Only for it and the Owl to be gone, and only the red and black owl was perched on the bottom of the window frame, giving a low hoot as blood dripped from its right eye.

Kayneth looked at Sola-Ui, who was now sobbing in fright and anguish as his right hand tightened into a fist.

Just what on earth was happening with the Holy Grail War?

Elsewhere:

"Hm… got a flare for the dramatic, don't ya?" Assassin muttered to himself as he took off the headphones covering his ears and setting them to the side.

He had set a miniature microphone inside Kayneth's penthouse when he last visited, if nothing more than to see if Kayneth would attempt to make some kind of move against either him or Kirei.

Instead, he heard a voice of an Owl.

"So… they're involved with the Holy Grail War huh?" Assassin mused to himself as he popped a cigarette in his mouth and lit it, taking in a puff of smoke into his lungs as he contemplated this new development. That means that some things had changed in the organization from what it originally was. They were better organized, had apparently extremely skilled assassins at their beck and call, and a bit more straightforward with their threats. But something that stayed the same was the fact they performed human experimentation. But the most jarring reveal he had discovered was that they apparently had Magi under their employ, and most likely had people within the community and potentially all governments to keep hidden and still stay in business.

"But… I guess that doesn't really matter. They're here." Assassin thought to himself as he let out the smoke from his lungs. He suspected that the new Owls were directly involved with his death, perhaps lead by some fanatic scientist inspired by Count Luis Yu Almeida, but there might be something deeper than that. The fact remained that they were confident in manipulating events and had some plan for the Holy Grail War.

Their mistake simply was thinking he would remain a pawn.

Assassin smirked a bit and let out a chuckle. Luckily, Kirei was out taking a piss in the woods and could not hear him. A job like this required the upmost secrecy. It was not the time or place to talk about this new development. He had to go to the new hideout he had Jigen set up and search it top to bottom before he did so.

Those damn birds thought that he was just another side-character in their little play, and maybe before he was. They took him off the stage years before, for an agenda he was still unaware of to this day.

But now, Arsène Lupin the Third would be changing their little script.

To Be Continued…

Note: Happy holidays everyone! It's TIM here with another chap of JaUT for a Christmas present! This chap was betaed by Kiiam, who helps me out with my seemingly endless muse. Thanks a lot man.

Chapter's more of a set-up for an upcoming chap, so sorry for the length. Though I do hope it was enjoyable, with the Owls showing a bit more of a presence than before. I'm also sorry if the Owls seem like Villain Sues at the moment, but stuff will be revealed in the next chapter that will go against that, so please be patient.

Songs for this chap are the Lupin OST Sphynx for the meeting between Kariya and Jigen, along with Goodnight Moon-Shadow for the scene with Sakura and Risei. Both seem nice and smooth for scenes that aren't really dark, especially the one with Sakura and Risei. However, the beginning scene between Kayneth, Sola-Ui, and the Owl is The Woman Called Fujiko Mine OST- Owl Man/Track 36. And when things start turning more serious and threatening, the OST Scar/Track 1 should be played.

The link to the fic's TV Tropes page can be found on my profile. Feel free to add/change whatever you feel applies.

Please leave a review.