Chapter 36

It's a trap!- Admiral Akbar, Return of the Jedi

The beautiful golden sword floated in a field of black. The image was clear enough where Shirou could start to see details in the blade's design.

A golden sword, he thought, dreamily. That sword was meant for nobody but her. It's not like I want it or anything, it's just that it's so beautiful. If it's possible, I'd really like to hold that thing someday. Even if it's just in my dreams, I'd still be okay with that.

But if he wanted to ever hold that sword, reinforcement magic wasn't going to be nearly enough. He had to improve, maybe even switch back to…

Shirou grimaced and tried to adjust his position. He felt stiff, and he wasn't on his futon like he expected to be. He was sitting, rather than lying down, and his mind was fuzzier than it should have been.

He opened his eyes, hoping something he saw would help clarify what was going on. Even as he was opening his eyes, he could tell that the lighting was all wrong. The color and direction spoke of sunset, not sunrise. And Saber-

Shirou's eyes snapped open and he looked around wildly. The room was completely unfamiliar to him.

The walls were pink and there were several stuffed animals in chairs around the room. To his right was a grand, western style, four poster bed with a pink bed spread. A fireplace was in the wall in front of him.

The bedroom was cute, as if decorated by, or for, a small child. It would've retained the innocent and adorable atmosphere it was supposed to evoke if it weren't for the lighting, and the cold.

The dim light and the colder air made the bedroom a decidedly creepy place, and Shirou's instincts told him that he wasn't somewhere friendly.

The last thing he remembered was Illya paralyzing him, which meant she must have put him here. He tried to move and finally realized that he'd been tied securely to a wooden chair, his arms behind the back and his feet to the legs.

He struggled uselessly for a few moments before giving up and looking around again. He glanced toward the window and confirmed that the sun was indeed setting.

"If I don't get home soon," Shirou told himself. "Saber's going to disappear." The thought, and the spoken words, galvanized him and he tried to struggle against his bonds again.

The door opened and someone stepped inside.

"So," Illya said. "You finally decided to wake up." The Einzbern had changed out of her more winter styled coat and hat and into a purple shirt and short tie with a light and long skirt. Just like her name, the clothing spoke of an aristocratic family and upbringing.

She closed the door and approached Shirou. "How're you feeling?" she asked, setting her hands behind her back. "You should be able to talk again by now." She leaned in close to Shirou's face.

"Oh, yeah. I'm feeling great. I've recovered enough presence of mind to realize you've gone and made me your prisoner," Shirou said, not bothering to hide his hostility.

"What's wrong? Are you mad now?" Illya pulled away. "I did you a favor. Captured enemies are supposed to be thrown in the dungeon you know. But I decided to make an exception for you Shirou and keep you in my room instead. My castle is deep within the forest. No one is going to come save you, and no one's going to interfere."

Bizarrely, the first thing that crossed Shirou's mind was surprise that her house had an actual dungeon. He tried to school his expression to hide the next thought that crossed his mind. Rin certainly wasn't going to simply sit around and wait for him to come home. The moment she realized he was gone, she'd get annoyed enough to try and find him. With luck, she or Harry would figure out where he was and maybe cause enough of a distraction for him to slip free and get back to Saber.

"Why did you even bother bringing me here?" Shirou asked, trying to stall for time. "If you're planning to kill me, you could've easily done that back in the park."

"What do you mean?" Illya asked, looking genuinely confused. She straddled his lap and looked at him. Shirou's heart rate accelerated as her weight settled onto him. She felt very alive in that position. "I don't want to kill you, Shirou. I never even thought about it. Sure, I'm gonna kill the other Masters, but not you, Shirou. You're special."

Illya's expression grew predatory at that. "So, what do you say you join me and become my servant? That way I won't ever have to kill you."

Shirou leaned back as much as he could. The expression and tone of voice were far too disturbing to be coming out of a child. He had once thought that there was something wrong with Rin Tohsaka when it came to the Grail war. But that had been mostly a joke. Mostly.

Staring at Illya and hearing her speak like that started to make Shirou think that there was definitely something wrong with Illya, and not in a good way.

"You can't be serious," Shirou answered.

"That's not an answer," Illya chimed. "So, what do you say? Are you going to be my servant or what, Shirou?"

"Oh, come on," Shirou replied. "You know that's crazy."

"No it's not. Think about it. Once Saber's gone, there's no way you can win a fight. Everyone else will have two Servants and you'll only have one. And if you can't win, then why should you still be a Master?"

"You're wrong," Shirou said. "Saber's not going to go anywhere, and Link's a lot tougher than you give him credit for."

Illya leaned back thoughtfully. "She may not disappear, but in the shape she's in, she'll be easy to kill. And your other Servant can't stand up to my Berserker and Rider. You really are better off just staying here." She leaned forward and rested her head and hands on his chest. "And if you stay here, I'll protect you forever."

"You can keep asking me this all you want," Shirou said, his voice firm, but not unkind. "But there's no way that I'm going-"

Illya placed a finger over Shirou's lips, silencing him. "Wow," she said. "You just don't get it, do you? Whether you want to admit it or not, you're a caged bird and I hold the key. And the person who decides if you live or die today is: me. So maybe you should think twice about saying things that are going to make me mad."

If it came to that, Shirou thought. I could always Command Seal Link to me. But she would know that as well as I do and probably has a Servant nearby in case I do. Or maybe she's good enough to simply kill me in an instant if she really wants to.

A Command Seal was a last resort.

"Besides," Illya continued. "I've been waiting ten years for this and it wouldn't be much fun to just kill you now. Would it?"

Shirou's eyes went wide. She'd been waiting… ten years? She couldn't have been any older than twelve. So unless she'd been preparing for this since she was two, she was much older than she appeared to be. Which made this entire situation far more confusing and creepy than it already was.

"All right. I'll ask you this one more time. What do you say? Come on, Shirou. Be my servant."

"Illya, I just can't do it. I'm sorry," Shirou said. "I still have Saber and Link as my Servants, and as long as that's true I'm going to keep being a Master."

Illya's face twisted into a hateful grimace and Shirou could see the cold stone walling up behind her eyes. "I see," she said, stepping off of him and backing away a step. "So that's how you are." Her words were heavy, full of anger and resentment, but she didn't shout or scream like a child. That only made her actions more terrifying, implying a cold and more rational fury.

"You're just going to betray me too," she continued and continued to back away. "I've been turning a blind eye to you lately. But that's over now. Wait here."

"Hold on, Illya," Shirou said. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to kill your sabers," she said, simply. "You'll be sorry for turning me down once I do that, won't you Shirou?"

Shirou felt cold rush through his body. "Illya, don't!" he shouted. "They don't have anything to do with this! Neither does Tohsaka or Harry. The reasons I can't team up with you are personal, nothing else."

"Is that so?" Illya asked, her voice full of spite. "Doesn't matter. I'm still going to kill them. And once they're all gone, I'll come back for you. You see, if you don't want to be mine, then I really don't have any use for you."

"If you want to hate me, fine. But there's no reason for you to kill any of the others."

"Shirou, I can't let the other Masters live. This is the Grail war, remember?"

"Damn it, Illya!" Shirou snapped. "Don't talk about killing people like its nothing!"

"But it's not that big of a deal," Illya replied. "In case you didn't know this, one Master has already been killed."

"What?" Shirou demanded.

"Yep," she answered, apparently taking glee in Shirou's response. "It was yesterday. Someone else went and cleaned up the mess you made leaving that Master alive."

Shirou's eyes went wide. Shinji, he thought. He remember the flash of light he'd seen as he and Saber had left on the back of Link's mount. Had that been Shinji's death? Could he have saved him and then gone back for Saber?

"I'll be back soon," Illya said with a giggle. "Try to escape if you want, but it'll be a waste of time!"

She opened the door and left, ignoring Shirou's shouts for her to stop.

Shirou continued to struggle against his bonds, but his reactions still weren't as forceful as he thought they could've been.

"Damnit," Shirou cursed, realizing the problem. Whatever she'd used on him to paralyze him must have still been in his system. It was wearing off, but he couldn't be sure of how long it would take for his body to flush out the foreign energy. Time was running out.

"It won't be pretty," he said. "But I'll use mana to flush it out."

Shirou closed his eyes and focused, reaching inside and flipping the switch. Some errant part of his mind noted that picturing a light switch, while a handy metaphor, seemed… inefficient as a mental image.

"Trace on," he said. Mana followed through him and he traced his own body. With the pulse of power came an understanding of his body's physical makeup. He spotted the components he wanted immediately.

The mana he needed was flowing through him extremely quickly. Far faster than he'd expected it to. His mana flowed through him and targeted the areas he'd located. The opposing energies met and warred.

His body quivered with the internal conflict raging inside of him. After a moment of nearly silent struggle, something seemed to lurch inside of him and Shirou heaved forward and coughed out something red that tasted like copper. Blood. Apparently his control of his mana wasn't fine enough yet to avoid causing damage to his body.

But the effects of Illya's magecraft were now completely out of his system.

Shirou breathed heavily, the pain of the purging wearing him out, but he was almost free. Now all he had to do was slip his bonds.

Rin was tugging on her new gloves when there was an unexpected interruption.

"What's going on?" Sakura asked, no demanded. Pyrrha stood at Sakura's side, her armor shining in the setting sunlight.

Rin glanced at the Lancer, who shrugged almost imperceptibly.

Harry glanced at Rin, who imitated Pyrrha's gesture. Saber's eyes flicked around, taking in details, but she didn't speak. Archer simply dematerialized, apparently not bothering to care about the situation.

Rin sighed. It appeared she would have to be the adult here.

"Emiya's in a… situation we need to pull him out of," she answered carefully.

Sakura's eyes widened. "Shirou's in trouble?" she asked.

Rin raised an eyebrow at the tone in Sakura's voice as she spoke. "We're not sure that he's actually in trouble, but we know he's stuck somewhere."

Sakura shifted uncomfortably and she refused to meet Rin's eyes. Then she took a quick breath and straightened her posture.

"Okay," she said. "Let's go get Shirou."

"That's not a good idea," Rin and Saber said at the exact same time. Something flashed in Sakura's eyes and she watched Rin and Saber.

"What kind of trouble is Shirou in?" Pyrrha asked. Rin saw the Lancer's eyes move move from Rin's gloves to Harry in his gear to Saber. Her gaze then fell back to Rin and she lifted an eyebrow. The message was crystal clear. 'I know exactly what kind of trouble Shirou is in. You're preparing for a fight.'

Rin sighed. "He's being held captive. We're going to go break him out and get away."

"He's in danger?" Sakura asked.

"Possibly," Rin answered.

"Then I want to come with you."

"That's not a good idea, Sakura." Rin fought to keep her frustration in check and out of her voice. She was glad the normally reserved girl was taking a confident, and even a stubborn, stand. But now was probably the worst time for it.

"Sakura," Harry said. "Shirou was taken from close by here. There's a chance that whoever took him has someone watching this place. Actually, considering the timing, I'd say it's almost certain. They'll be expecting a rescue attempt. You come here every day, you probably know the neighborhood as well as Shirou would. If you really want to help him, then you and Pyrrha could make a sweep of the area so that when Shirou does get back, he won't get taken away again. Plus any goons that might be keeping an eye out for us will get distracted and watch you instead."

The argument seemed flimsy to Rin. Harry clearly wasn't much of a liar, but Sakura didn't seem to notice. She looked thoughtful for a moment and glanced at Pyrrha, who simply nodded.

"Okay," Sakura said. "We'll go and look."

"That was nice of you," Rin commented after Sakura and Pyrrha had left.

Dresden shrugged. "It'll keep her safe. Shirou will appreciate that, and I'm sure Pyrrha didn't want Sakura going after him. She can't defend herself and I'm worried she'll do something drastic if she spots Shirou in a bad situation." Harry slashed at the air with his staff and opened a doorway of light. "Now we just have to get him back and not die in the process." Then he walked through the door.

They stepped out of the Way and found themselves just outside of the forest where the Einzbern castle was hidden.

Rin raised an eyebrow and glanced at Harry.

"I thought you said we'd get a good look of surprise as we dropped on Illyasviel's face?" she asked the wizard.

Archer scoffed in amusement. Harry's eyes narrowed.

"There must be some kind of ward preventing instant access to the castle," he answered. "They can't stop me from coming in, but they can create a type of pass. Forcing someone like me to take a specific path to the castle and into whatever defenses they might have set up. Evil Bob did something similar in the Nevernever when the Lectors and I stormed Corspetaker's base when I was mostly dead. I didn't expect similar defenses here. Damn it."

Rin sighed. "If you're going to keep talking about your life like that, you're going to have to sit down and explain yourself as soon as we get Emiya out of this mess. Half of what you say makes no sense."

Dresden grinned. "Or you could wait for the autobiography," he quipped and set off into the forest. Rin blinked as an idea occurred to her. Could it really be that simple? she thought. As soon as they weren't preventing Emiya from dying, again, she had something she needed to check.

Shirou stood up from the mess of wood that used to be the chair he was tied to.

"Never thought my ability to badly reinforce stuff would be useful," he commented. Night had fallen, and without any lights, the room he was in only seemed to gain more creepy qualities rather than lose them.

"I've got to get to Saber and the others, fast."

He made his way to the door Illya had left through and carefully opened the door. He saw a brightly lit hallway. What was concerning for him was the sound of approaching footsteps.

Shirou carefully closed the door so that it wouldn't make any sound.

"Great," he muttered. "She's got a guard out there." He backed away from the door and grabbed the poker from the fireplace near the door, raising the iron like a bat. He slowly crept back to the door so that he could listen.

There was a sound of protest before the sturdy wooden door was kicked out of its frame and a tall figure in black surged into the room with a shout of: "and I'm all out of-"

Shirou swung the poker out of complete reflex and shock at the sudden entrance. The figure spun, unnaturally fast, grabbed the poker with one hand and bent it 90 degrees before slamming his other arm into Shirou's chest and driving him into the wall.

Shirou met Harry's eyes for a dangerous second and he saw something primal and fearsome in them before it faded and recognition came. Dresden quickly averted his gaze and said, "Oh. Hi, Shirou."

The wizard stepped back and said, "He's here. It looks like he got himself out." Saber ran into the room a split second later.

"Saber," Shirou said. "What're you doing here?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing," she answered. Saber was joined by Link, Rin, and Archer.

"You're in better shape than we expected," Rin said. "I suppose this means you really didn't need our help after all."

"That's what I said from the beginning," Archer complained, refusing to even look in Shirou's direction. "We were better off just leaving you to your fate."

Link gave Shirou an acknowledging nod and turned to look where they had come from. "We're still clear for now," he reported.

"Link," Shirou said. "You're okay?"

"I regenerate," the hylian said, dismissively. "Why didn't you use a Command Seal to summon me, Shirou?"

"I was worried Illya might have had Berserker or Ghost Rider nearby," Shirou answered. "I didn't want to use a Seal unless I didn't have a choice."

Link tilted his head to one side in acknowledgement of the point. "So," he said. "You really can think every once in a while." Shirou gave Link a look.

"Come on," Rin said, starting to walk away. "Let's get out of here before Illya shows up."

Saber and Shirou nodded and the group made their way back down the hallway they'd come from. As they rounded the corner, Shirou glanced back and saw Saber on her hands and knees.

"Saber," Shirou said and ran back to her.

"I'm alright," she said, breathing hard.

"I knew it. You haven't recovered yet, have you?"

"It's true. Although it shames me to admit it." She met Shirou's eyes. "It doesn't matter. I can still provide adequate cover for you."

"No, you can't," Shirou told her. "Don't be ridiculous." He held out his hand. "Come on, lean on me."

"That won't be necessary."

"Do it, Saber!"

"Just leave her alone," Archer said, stepping back into the hallway.

"Oh, yeah?" Shirou asked, turning to face Archer.

"You need to give up the notion that you have any chance of saving her," Archer said. He gave Shirou a hard look. "You must accept the fact there's nothing you can do."

"No, I don't," Shirou said, obstinately.

"Stars and stones," Harry said, coming into view as well. "Can't you two stop it for five minutes? You can have the macho stare down when we're all out of here." Archer turned and made his way down the hall and Harry tossed something to Saber as she got back to her feet. "Drink that and call me in the morning," he told her. "It should last long enough for us to get out of here."

"What is it?" Shirou asked.

"Energy potion," Harry answered. "It'll give her a small boost so she won't collapse every few minutes, but that's all I can do. She won't be able to fight any more than she can already, but she'll be able to move without problems."

Saber eyed the plastic sports bottle dubiously before shaking her head and drinking the brown liquid inside. Shirou caught a brief smell of coffee as Saber downed the liquid. She shivered for a moment and then took off after the group, her movements more sure.

They made their way through the wide and lavishly decorated halls of the castle and it wasn't long before they reached a grand hall with a large staircase leading down toward a massive pair of doors.

"That's the," Shirou said.

"The exit," Rin finished. "It looks like we've made it without been detected."

"This is too easy," Harry said, adjusting his grip on his staff. "There are wards around this area. One of them has to tell Einzbern that she has guests. Why hasn't anything happened yet?"

"Then let's get out of here before our host decides to grace us with her presence," Rin said and lead the group down the stairs.

They were halfway down the entrance hall when it happened.

"What's wrong?" A girl's voice asked. "Leaving so soon? That's too bad, you just got here."

The group spun around to see Illyasviel von Einzbern standing at the top of the staircase."

"Way too easy," Harry said.

Author's note: So, it's just about time for another showdown. This is going to be a long and crazy night. You'll finally be getting your wish Darthwolf. There's going to be more Illya and her Servants for a little while. :)

Naruto Sakura Uzumaki: I'm so happy that you brought that up. :D Link, as a Servant, is interesting. Because of the sheer number of times he's lived and fought, he takes on a particular version of himself when he's summoned. Whichever Link is most compatible with his Master is the Link that is summoned for the Holy Grail War. Think of Jack the Ripper from Fate/Apocrypha. There are different Jacks you can get depending on who you are (or so Warden Myst has told me with his extra research). However, Link is still connected to his other lives which can lead to… interesting consequences.
Additionally, Link has used other equipment from different incarnations. Take another look at his fight with Sinon and you'll see them. It's subtle, but they are there. He also used one or two during his fight with Berserker. His default preferences are just for the gear with his primary incarnation, in this case Twilight Princess.

As always, don't forget to Favorite, Follow, and leave a review! It always overjoys me to get the alerts and to read what you all have to say about this story. I love knowing that I'm giving you something fun and would love to hear your thoughts.
Plus, if you have a question or comment that I can respond to, I'll do so in my author's notes at the end of my chapters. Or you can always PM me or Warden Myst if you want the discussion to be less public.
Thanks for reading!