Welcome back. I got some inspiration again and wrote all this. I have the outline for the next chapter done too. No confirmed release date, but there shouldn't be a two month gap this time.

Shirou opened his eyes, quickly blinking away any grogginess to clear his vision. The first thing he noticed upon regaining consciousness was that he was not dead. That meant that he wasn't near any fighting between servants or masters. They would've taken him out in a heartbeat.

The next thing he noticed was that his chest, legs, and jawline were rather bruised. Memories of the fight came to him quickly, giving him a small headache. Had he lost? How? How did he lose to some third rate mage? It was no secret that Lord El Melloi wasn't combat oriented, and that he was from some no name family. He had just happened to fall into his position by chance. At the least that was what the rumors going around the clocktower said. Shirou knew he was one to talk, but he genuinely considered himself a Matou at this point. With his above average magic circuit quality, and all the progress he had made towards getting to the root by understanding how concepts 'binded to' all matter in existence functioned, he was the essence of what a proper Matou are should be. Shirou should've crushed the young lord.

But that was not what happened. El Melloi had not only beaten him, but had beaten him without casting a single real spell. Shirou was specialized more in research than application, but he still should've won.

It certainly didn't help Shirou's mood that El Melloi had planned to kill Shirou with something as mundane as a knife.

Moping about it wouldn't help anyone though, so Shirou looked around him to get his bearings. He was too deep in thought before to really comprehend his surroundings. He was being carried which was insulting but probably necessary. He could tell that it was a woman carrying him based the slight hums she made while shifting around as they walked as if looking for enemies. What concerned him though was that someone was someone rather young based on how he didn't feel anything pressing into his side-

*THUMP*

"Dammit Arturia!" Shirou rubbed his head. "Did you really have to drop me like that? You could have just set me down instead of throwing me onto the cement!" He winced, pushing himself off of the floor.

She gave him a chilling deadpan stare. "I may have not technically been required to Shirou. However," she tilted her head. "I happened to have gotten the distinct feeling that you were thinking something rather unflattering of me, the strongest servant in this war. Care to say your thoughts aloud, child?"

He clamped his mouth shut tightly. Pointing out his servant's "youth" would not end well at all. He very much did not want to die today, thank you.

"You should probably just apologize to her Shirou." Sakura advised, unsuccessfully trying to hide a small smirk on her face. "I don't think annoying Arturia is a good idea."

He hung his head in shame. "I am sincerely sorry for my behavior, I did not mean to disparage you, your character, or any of your perfect traits in any way. Please don't kill me."

Arturia just humphed at him and kept walking.

They weren't far away from their goals, so they made it to the church in the next ten minutes. Shirou was still a bit sluggish from whatever paralysis potion had been thrown on him, but was more than able to walk on his own. He refused to take any help offered to him from Sakura or Atalante (Arturia didn't offer any aid herself for obvious reasons). He could do it himself.

The doors to the church were left unlocked, so the small group of masters just let themselves in through the unguarded front entrance. It was a bit unusual that the moderator was not waiting for them near or at the pew. The Grail War had started, so it was logical that whoever oversaw the grand ritual would be ready for visitors at the time where most of them would likely be active. There may be novices who would need an explanation of the basic rules and purpose of the war, or a master who had lost their servant may seek refuge. Those events may not be likely, seeing as no master has sought out protection from the church throughout history and novices wouldn't likely be able to summon something as complex as a servant, but it was possible.

Shirou ignored his all of his teammate's confusion though. He had a guess as to where the overseer might be and went up to an unassuming door on the back left of the pew. The registered priest who was put in charge of running the church was always residential in this particular building, regardless of whether or not a new one was chosen for the role. He knocked on it three times, waited for two seconds and then knocked again. Sounds of ruckus came from behind the door, whoever it was must have knocked over some things after being woken so suddenly.

After a couple minutes of nothing, a young girl in blue pajamas with pale grey hair and glowing golden eyes poked her head out of the room curiously.

"Did you get my letters Hortensia-san?" Shirou asked respectfully, trying not to scare her off. Or at least as respectfully as he could to a member of the church. He didn't like their dismissal and sometimes hatred of magecraft, sue him.

"Matou-kun, I take it you're here for those surgeries you said would interest me?." She walked out fully, the sound of her door closing echoing behind her. "I must say you're here sooner than I expected."

The crimson haired youth responded promptly. "Things had to be sped up. Zouken has been making significantly more moves recently. If I know the bastard well enough, waiting too long to handle all of this will only lead to disaster."

"Hmmm" She contemplated his reasoning. "I suppose that makes sense. You would know the costs of waiting too long to deal with him, wouldn't you?"

Shirou gritted his teeth. The brat hadn't been nearly as much of a headache through letters. Still a bit of one, but manageable. She had agreed to help him out after all, even if he had to reveal who killed her father before she had agreed to do anything.

"Surgery?" Sakura asked, cutting Shirou off from making a retort.

He grunted. It was probably better not to give Caren the satisfaction. She was just trying to get a rise out of him, he should just focus.

"To get rid of those blasted worms crawling inside of us." Shirou said with casual impunity.

Sakura gasped, Shirou wasn't using Avalon to block their conversation. Wouldn't grandfather retaliate? Even if they were in a church, the interference in grandfather's magecraft wouldn't be enough to stop him.

"Calm down Sakura." Atalante told her through their link, reading her thoughts. "While I understand your concern, I don't believe your grandfather would risk me and Saber finding another master so soon into the war. He likely believes that he will still retain some control over you in the end."

Sakura calmed herself. Atalante was right, she was stronger than this and knew it. Panicking would achieve nothing.

"Well, then we should get started. Just follow me this way, our church's humble medical wing is prepared for anything." She stopped for a minute, as if thinking. "Except for an attack from an exceptionally strong mage of course."

X

Shirou woke up in disarray for the second time that night. Luckily, this time it was due to being voluntarily placed in a medical sleep rather than by being knocked out. He groaned and pushed himself out of bed. He should be more tired than this even with Avalon working in tandem with Caren's skills, he should have been out for at the very least another couple hours.

Looking over, he saw the reason why Avalon seemed to work more effectively and efficiently than it should. His corrupted servant was sitting on a plastic chair next to him, holding his hand. She was scowling, but Shirou thought he could see faint traces of pink dusting her cheeks. He smiled to himself, before clearing his throat.

"How long have I been out?"

"Only a couple hours," Caren told him. "As far as I can tell, you are now worm free. However, the church grounds are not."

Shirou's casual smile morphed into a scowl. He lightly trembled. If the wards around the church had failed somehow and the old bastard had already found them…

"Fortunately, we can remedy this by moving on to Sakura. Implant the holy relic Avalon inside your sister and the process can begin."

Shirou sighed with relief, Caren was just being Caren. Dealing with her was like pouring alcohol on a wound, irritating but ultimately helpful.

"Could you not word it like that?" Sakura asked forcefully, her cheeks tinted red. "That's not very chaste Hortensia-san."

"Whatever could you mean Sakura?" Caren asked teasingly.

Sakura sputtered for a moment before glaring at the little witch.

Shirou stretched as he got up from the quaint hospital bed, motioning for Sakura to take his place. He then reached into his own chest, conjuring up the image of a golden sheath as he did so. Avalon responded to his desires and split itself from his soul. He firmly pressed the noble phantasm into Sakura's torso, the fae artifact instantaneously being absorbed into her in a flash of light.

Caren motioned for him to leave her bedside. Loathe as he was to do so, Shirou didn't want to get in the way of the person who would treat Sakura. He would do anything for her, so this wasn't that large of a sacrifice, He didn't even know why he was making such a big deal out of it mentally. It's not like he was in love or anything.

That would be weird. . .

Shit. This was neither the time or place to be thinking of things like that. Either way, he was her adopted brother. Even if the relationship didn't reflect that marrying your sibling is still illegal in Japan, blood related or not.

He excused himself, he needed to cool off and someone needed to be keeping a lookout in the lobby. Now that it was Sakura's turn for surgery Atalante would not leave the room and Arturia wasn't exactly subtle.

He was just worked up. It had nothing to do with the fact that Sakura would be naked during the surgery, really. Mages didn't get flustered over those things.

Not at all…

*Five hours later*

Caren wiped glistening beads of sweat off of her forehead as she walked out into the lobby of the church to speak with Shirou.

He had begun to grow impatient at that point and would have already burst into the hospital wing if it wouldn't have had a chance of hurting Sakura. If anything had been amiss one of the servants would have gotten him.

"So?" Shirou asked simply.

"The operation was a success." Caren told him hesitantly, lacking any of her usual snark. "However,"

Shirou didn't like where this was going.

"There were some serious complications that made this surgery much harder than it would usually be." She told him.

"What problems did you run into?" Shirou asked her, worn out.

"Well, for one, some foriegn objects in her body kept trying to possess me. If Avalon had not held their curse back as I inspected then destroyed them, I'd likely have fallen."

Shirou's exhaustion disappeared in an instant. "Is Sakura OK?" Getting a nod, he continued. "What the hell was inside of her? If she was cursed or possessed in some way, Zouken would have known. He may be the incarnation of evil, but something like that would have messed with his plans.

Caren just shook her head. "I don't know. All I could sense from the fragments was that the curse they carried is ancient, middle eastern, and connected to the Holy Grail. It also seems a bit like Saber, but not enough to draw any conclusive theories."

That rung a bell, but Shirou couldn't remember exactly what fit that description. He'd have time to think about that later though, for now all he could do was be grateful that whatever was wrong with Sakura was fixed for now.

"How much longer will she be out? I want to get moving to our new home base as quickly as possible."

"She'll likely be out until dusk." Caren told him. "Honestly Shirou, staying in a young maiden's abode for a whole 24 hours. You really are trouble, if I didn't know any better I'd say you were half incubus and exorcise you on the spot"

He flinched.

X

"Mistress Illyasviel, shouldn't you be out rampaging with Berserker at the moment? You have done nothing besides dance around in that ridiculous mockery of the Dress of Heaven every night since we got here."

A white haired girl, who looked as if she had just reached thirteen, twirled around the entrance hall to the Einsburn mansion in Fuyuki. It was the only place fitting besides the courtyard. She glared at her maid sullenly.

"This dress was given to me by my uncle, and I will NOT take it off until its purpose is served, Sella. I will not have you insult him or his brilliant work!" Illya continued, "And I don't need to rush to take out the other masters, let the vermin finish themselves off for a bit."

Her maid, the only one that served Illya ever since she got rid of Leysritt, just huffed. Sella knew that Illya could kill her in an instant too, but luckily Jubstacheit had ordered Illya to dispose of her. So, she could get away with speaking her mind a bit.

"You have no uncle Illyasviel, it is an insult to the Einzbern name to call the head of Matou something like that! We have a working relationship with the 'man', nothing more."

"I'm done talking to you Sella. I make my decisions, not you. Leave me at once." Illya told her icily.

Sella bowed and left the room as quickly as she could. Illyasviel may be forbidden from ending her life, but Einzbern homunculi could take a lot of damage and still survive.

"Soon "onii-chan"." She spat out in scorn as she continued dancing in a black dress with glowing lines of red spread across it. "Soon I will avenge my father."

I'm sorry if I got Caren's personality wrong. I havent play FHA, so I'm just going off a mix of what I saw in Carnival Phantasm and what I found on the Fandom page.