"Maybe giving him those Rainbow Fragments wasn't one of my brightest ideas." Reborn said as he held up Shirou's pendant, knowing that the damage to Leon would have been much less if Shirou hadn't been wearing it. It was nearly at the level of a Vongola Ring, before it accepted its Guardian.

After knocking him unconscious with poison cooking, Irisviel immediately got to work on healing Shirou's injuries… which healed abnormally fast even by the standards of active Sun Flames. Shirou's recovery time nearly matched Reborn's own, while the boy was unconscious.

After he was healed, they stripped him of his amplifier and placed Bianchi's flame limiting chains on him, for safety. Irisviel stuck with the boy after they took him to his room, both to blanket him in calming Sky Flames and to keep an eye on him.

"It's been a while since the last time I saw this happen." Reborn said, as his beloved partner was puking up black goo, trying to cleanse himself after the exposure to the unnerving flames which negated his healing abilities.

"You know what happened to my Onii-chan?" Illya said through her sniffles as she sat wrapped in Natsumi's arms, Kiritsugu sitting close beside them to hold her hand. "Do you know how to break the spell?"

"It isn't a spell. It is a completely mundane condition that isn't even particularly rare. Post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. Something happened to Shirou-kun that left a lasting scar on his psyche and something triggered him, causing him to fall into an irrational mental rut where he perceived danger all around him." Reborn said. "It's something you used to hear about it all the time, around a decade back. Old soldiers back from the war having panic attacks and hurting their families while trying to protect them from enemies that don't exist. Only, with Shirou-kun's powers, the results were a bit more extreme."

"This is all my fault." Illya whimpered, using her free hand to wipe away tears. Leon's flameproof and waterproof threads caused the tears to just roll off of the white gloved arm, rather than being absorbed. "I just thought… Seeing myself in that dress… It was so pretty and… It just felt right. I didn't think that... I wouldn't have done it if…"

"Illya, where did you get the design for the dress from?" Kiritsugu asked his daughter, his voice unchanged from its usual, but still causing Illya to shrink in on herself.

"I… based it off of something I saw in the vision when Onii-chan woke up my powers. I saw myself wearing a beautiful dress so I thought… I thought that it was supposed to be my Magic Girl costume." Illya admitted. "And now because of me, Onii-chan is…"

"Beating yourself up is pointless. Everyone makes mistakes, that is how you learn." Reborn said with a shake of his head. "The things you saw during the Soul Dive were things that are a part of Shirou's soul, his memories. And he called Illya 'Nee-chan' just now. Another clue about his mysterious past life."

"Past life?" Taiga said, blinking in confusion.

"Reborn." Kiritsugu said in a warning tone.

"Them knowing won't hurt him, and it will save him from having to tell them himself. Or do you think he will be able to explain things to them? The after effects of a panic attack for someone with PTSD last for weeks. Even with Sky Flames to help bring him back down, it is going to be a while before he is himself again. For everyone's safety, I suggest he skip the last few days of school before the Summer break." Reborn said, meeting Kiritsugu's gaze.

The two of them stared at each other for a few moments before Kiritsugu sighed. "I'll tell them."

"Papa?" Illya said uncomfortably. "If Onii-chan doesn't want me to know…"

"It isn't that he doesn't want you to know, he's just… frightened. And Reborn is right, you knowing might do his heart some good." Kiritsugu said with a shake of the head. "Nine years ago, I found Shirou inside of what I can only describe as an evil laboratory, that I had been sent to destroy, and as a result of the experiment performed on him, he gained memory from an older version of himself, from a parallel timeline."

Reborn kept his poker face as all of the girls went into varying levels of disbelief at what they had just been told. Kiritsugu hadn't told him about any new developments.

"Due to his trauma, Shirou hasn't been able to tell us much, but from what he has told us, we know that it is a very distant other timeline, separated by more than just a few decisions. In it, Shirou was Illya's younger brother, rather than the older one." Kiritsugu told them.

"Younger!?" Illya said, her shock cutting through her earlier panic.

"Wait, so the reason he kept calling me Fuji-nee is because he knew me from another timeline too?" Taiga asked, equally distracted from the main point.

"He said that you and your grandfather took guardianship of him after I died from a curse."

"WHAT!?" Illya cried out. "You died!? ...But… But what about Mama, and Leysritt-nee and Sella-nee!?"

"Your mother died and her grandfather took you away from me before I adopted Shirou. According to Shirou, I was suffering from a powerful curse, and didn't have the strength to fight for you. I wasn't told what happened to Leysritt or Sella." Kiritsugu said.

"No way." Illya said, disheartened by the bleak depiction of her other self's family situation. She remembered the other Illya crying, saying that she missed Leysritt and Sella, and tears came to her own eyes.

She looked up as Leysritt started to ruffle her hair, and the woman gave her a sideways smirk. "Don't let it get to you squirt. Even if some bad things happened there and then, that doesn't change the here and now. You and Shirou have a great family life, even if your mom and dad are a little weird."

"Excuse me, how am I the weird one? You're the one who thinks that everything in life is just a TV sitcom." Irisviel said, giving them a pout as she looked down on them from the top of the stairs. Kiritsugu noticed that his wife didn't try to deny that HE was weird.

"I will stop believing that once the world proves me wrong!" Leysritt shouted back, managing to get a small giggle out of Illya as she rubbed her eyes.

"Mama, is Onii-chan alright?" Illya asked.

"He's awake and back in his right mind." Irisviel told them. "He wanted to come down here to apologies, but I told him to stay in bed."

"Can I see him?" Illya asked, worried that her mother would say no.

"I can't imagine him getting any proper rest until you do, but you need to change your clothes first. Even if he is more mentally prepared for it now, we don't want to risk a repeat incident." Irisviel said with a solemn smile.

"Ah… right." Illya said, her hands gripping onto the rim of her skirt.

"In the meantime, Natsumi-chan can help calm him down." Reborn put forward out of nowhere.

"Huh, me!?" Natsumi cried out at being volunteered.

"Of course. You're his boss, and your Sky Flames are of a higher purity than Iris-chan's. It is your responsibility to help him overcome this." Reborn said before tilting his head. "Or do you not want to help him?"

"It… it isn't that I don't want to help him… but…" Natsumi shrank a little. "I don't know how I could..."

"I don't want to hear your excuses." Reborn said in his scolding tone of voice. "The worst thing that can happen is that you fail, but if you don't try, then you are never going to succeed."

Natsumi didn't respond. She wanted to be there for Shirou, the way he had been for her, but at the same time, she didn't know what to do to help him. The longer she'd been around Reborn, and the more one-on-one talks she had with Aunt Iris, the more she understood that she had simply become used to failure. Just about everyone she had seen on a day to day basis had worked to drill into her mind that everything she tried to do would go wrong, and that she was better off simply not trying at all.

She was coming to understand that this mindset was wrong. Irisviel had been trying to coach her in telling herself that she could do it… but it was hard.

With a conflict placed right in front of her, Natsumi froze up, her body revolting against the idea of trying, telling her that she should just run away.

She gave a reflexive flinch when she felt Taiga's hand on her shoulder. "I'll head up there with you. Maybe if we are lucky, one of us will think of something we can say to cheer him up a bit." Taiga said, giving Natsumi an encouraging smile.

"Y...yeah." Natsumi said, grateful that Taiga was there to support her.

"Bianchi and I will be there with you. Just incase of an emergency." Reborn said, Bianchi nodding her agreement as she picked Reborn up and held him in her arms. "Let's go."

Guilt pressed down on Shirou as he stared up from his bed at the ceiling fan above him.

He had completely lost his self-control, and worse, hurt Illya because of it. Even if their mother tried to shelter him from the facts, he still had some memory of what had been happening around him, even if it was a confused mess, a blur of past and present.

'...you're hurting me!'

Illya's cry for him to stop had only dragged him further down, as he remembered the girl's cries as she experienced pain beyond even that that Shirou himself had endured over his lifetime.

Illya's cries for it all to end echoed in Shirou's ears and a shiver ran down his spine, his breathing becoming less and less steady. His mind was once against falling into the downwards spiral, unable to escape his haunting past, when there was a knock on the door.

Shirou's head snapped up and he noticed his own labored breaths. Taking a moment to correct himself and steady his breathing, he called out to the people outside. "Come on."

If he had been in his right mind, he would have been able to tell who it was before the door even opened. As it was, he was left surprised as Natsumi and Taiga poked their heads in, followed by Reborn and Bianchi. "Hey Shirou-senpai, how are you feeling?" Natsumi asked, her face portraying her concern, as well as how uncomfortable she was. Taiga had almost an identical expression on her own face.

Shirou couldn't exactly blame them. His new shirt was stained in the blood that still coated his upper body.

"I feel well enough to run a marathon, though I still am powerless before my mother's orders to stay in bed." Shirou said, trying to make light of the situation, though his body was tense. It was a struggle just to stay still. While he managed to keep a mostly normal expression, his jaw was clenched as tight as a vice. "How is everyone?"

"Everyone else is fine. You were the one who grew swords out of your body." Taiga said with a bit of a sigh, seeing that Shirou really did seem to be alright. "You gave all of us a heart attack."

"Yeah… sorry about that." Shirou said weakly.

"Um, Shirou… I know it might be… um…" Natsumi stammered, trying to find her words. "Reborn told me that Sky Flames are supposed to help with trauma so… If it is alright with you, I could… you know."

Shirou bit the inside of his lip before nodding his head. "It would be much appreciated."

Natsumi went and sat in the chair that Irisviel had left next to Shirou's bedside and reached out, placing one of her hands on his before taking a deep breath and imagining the spinning top.

The warm, calming feeling of the Sky Flames spread over Shirou, and Natsumi could feel some of the tension leaving the boy's body… some of it. Now with her senses sharpened by the Dying Will Flames, she could practically see the twisted knot inside of Shirou.

"Thank you." Shirou said softly, seeming to understand that he wasn't able to hide his inner turmoil from the girl anymore.

"I'm sorry I can't do any more than this." Natsumi said, her voice cool and steady.

"Don't apologize. It really does help." Shirou said, letting his head sink a little.

"I don't mean to agitate you further, but you should know that, at my suggestion, Kiri-kun spilled the beans about your memories from a parallel world." Reborn said, his voice more monotone than usual, as if trying to express sympathy.

A ripple moved through Shirou's entire body, which even when played down looked as though he had been punched in the gut.

"I… I see. Then… you all know." Shirou said, his voice seeming almost hollow. He glanced towards Natsumi and Taiga before his eyes shifted away. But in those solitary moments, Natsumi had seen something in those eyes that she had never seen before; fear.

It confused her for a moment, as she wondered why Shirou would be so afraid of them knowing about this past. Then, it slowly dawned on her.

Natsumi raised up her free hand, and to everyone's surprise, she flicked Shirou on the forehead. "'You've always been one to worry over silly things.'" She said, her voice still holding that calm, honey like quality from her Dying Will Mode, as Shirou looked up at her in surprise. "That's what you told me, remember. When you found me after I locked myself in the janitors closet. When I confessed to having hid all of my troubles from you all out of fear that you would find out that I was 'No-Good'. When I was afraid that you would all reject me." Natsumi stared into Shirou's soul with her piercing orange eyes, seeing the scarred landscape, but not flinching away. "I won't pretend that I understand everything that is going on. I'll even admit that we were shocked to find out the truth. But we are all family, and nothing is going to change that."

Shirou was too stunned to respond, and soon Taiga joined in, clasping her hands over the one that Natsumi had on top of Shirou's. "That's right. I might not ever understand anything, but that doesn't change that we're family." She said with an energetic smile.

A grateful smile spread over Shirou's face as he gave a weak chuckle. Not trusting himself to speak.

Reborn watched it all with an amused smile, proud of his student.

"Onii-chan?" Shirou's eyes went to the door to see his little sister, back to being dressed in casual clothes. She was looking up at him with her already red eyes slightly bloodshot, clutching the door as if she was afraid to enter the room.

"Illya?" Shirou said, his mouth feeling dry. Seeing the fear in his little sister's eyes cut him down to his core. His mind started to shut down as he feared the worst.

Not only had he freaked out and hurt her, she now knew his secret. She knew that he wasn't what he appeared to be. The small, nagging fear that had spread its roots inside of Shirou's heart and had grown over the years was now running wild inside of him, screaming all the things he had always feared into his ears.

'She hates you.'

Fear and self-loathing ran rampant inside of Shirou's mind and hurt until Illya started to cry. "Onii-chan!" She shouted, running forward and jumping onto Shirou's bed, landing right on top of him before starting to cry into his chest. She didn't seem to care about the still wet blood that was getting soaked into her white hair from his shirt. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You told me it was bad and I didn't listen. Please don't hate me, Onii-chan."

Shirou was stunned for a moment, before his big brother instincts started to kick in and he began to try desperately to comfort his crying little sister. "Illya, please don't cry. It wasn't your fault." Shirou said, trying to wipe the tears from her eyes.

"But, Onii-chan was so badly hurt, and it was because I didn't listen." Illya cried, not wanting to let go of him, making his attempts to stop her from getting more blood on her difficult.

"I wasn't that badly hurt, and it wasn't your fault." Shirou said, giving up on stopping Illya and simply starting to pat the girl's head. "I was the one who miscalculated. I should have known that the Soul Dive would have shown you those memories. ...I haven't told you anything about what it was you saw. It is only natural you didn't understand. ...I haven't told anyone much."

He looked up and saw the rest of his family standing in the doorway, non judgemental looks of concern on their faces. Shirou took a deep breath and leaned back. Trying to collect himself and get his rampaging emotions under wraps so that he could try to explain.

"The Dress of Heaven." Shirou said softly.

"Huh?" Illya said, looking up at her brother.

"That dress you saw. It was called the Dress of Heaven. It was a Mystic Code created by the Einzberns, an old Magus Family, in order to control something called the Holy Grail, an artifact so powerful that it could grant any wish as well as bring the key to bring the dead back to life and achieve everlasting life." Shirou said solemnly, as his eyes focused on nothing in particular.

"Hold on, what?" Sella said in shock. "Does something like that really exist?"

"In this timeline? I don't think so. And good riddance." Shirou said roughly, surprising his sister.

"I take it that the grail was the center of several conflicts." Reborn said.

"The Holy Grail Wars. There were five of them in total, with a Grail War being considered tame if only a few hundred people died. The fifth and final Grail War nearly wiped out all of humanity." Shirou said, getting gasps out of the three younger girls. "Some time during the third Grail War, the Holy Grail became corrupted by a spirit born from humanities legends of Angra Mainyu, the Persian God of Darkness, which turned the Grail into something that's sole desire was to kill as many humans as possible.

"Any wish made upon it would be twisted into something that would bring about death and destruction. If you wished to be the most beautiful person in the world, it would have maimed the faces of everyone else in the entire world. If you wished for an end to war, it would kill everyone, thus ensuring that war could never occur again.

"After finding out that the Grail had become corrupted, those of us who had been dragged into the fifth Grail War form a plan around using the Dress of Heaven as a tool in order to let us destroy the corrupted Grail."

"Wow. So the other me used that dress to save the entire world?" Illya said, wide eyed. To her it had sounded like something out of one of her TV shows, like the other Illya had been a real Magical GIrl, even while everyone else seemed to understand that when Shirou said 'wipe out all of humanity' he was serious. "The Dress of Heaven. It sounds amazing."

"...Amazing huh." Shirou said, with a bit of a pained expression. "I often wondered how she could stomach wearing that thing, knowing what it was made out of."

"What it was made of?" Illya asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"That's…" Shirou looked at his sister's confused face and shook his head. "Sorry, but you're better off not knowing."

"You know Shirou-kun… when you just leave us hanging like that, it makes me feel really uneasy." Taiga said with a weak laugh. "You make it sound like the thing was made out of people or something."

...Shirou didn't reply, he just looked away from them, up towards the doorway.

"...Onii-chan?" Illya said as she looked up at her brother, noticing that his eyes didn't seem unfocused. He wasn't just looking off into the distance, he was definitely looking at something. Following his eyes, Illya saw that he was staring at Sella and Leysritt.

The pieces slid into place and Illya was overcome with a horrible realization. The memory of her other self at the zoo, tears in her eyes.

'I miss them, Onii-chan.'

"Sella-nee and Leysritt-nee, they… they…" She looked up at her brother, hoping he would deny it, but his face was pained as well. Illya couldn't help it. She just started to cry. She grabbed onto his shirt, and cried into her brother's arms. "I don't want it. I don't want that dress anymore."

As she cried, her brother put his arms around her. "I'm sorry." He said as he patted her back. "I shouldn't have said anything. I'm sorry."

The others were shocked by Illya's revelation, but soon Iris and Kiri came forward, along with Sella and Leysritt, putting their arms around the child, as Illya cried her heart out.

"I will never allow anything like that to happen. I promise." Shirou whispered to his little sister, as she slowly started to regain her self-control.

"Thank you, Onii-chan."