Disclaimer: I do not own the Fate franchise it belongs to Kinoko Nasu and Type-Moon.

Everything and Nothing

Chapter 7

Rain fell in great sheets from the dark skies overhead, landing heavily to pool and flow on the ground below. It soaked into the hair and clothes of the women as they dashed down the alleys, icy cold biting deep through their skin into the muscle and bones beneath.

It didn't matter.

The women kept on running, desperate to reach their quarry before it was too late, before the point of no return was passed. One was a petite figure dressed in dark clothes, platinum-blonde hair tied back into a bun, carelessly exposed to the elements with her hood thrown back. The tallest among them also looked the most out of place, with violet hair once elaborately curled reduced to dripping strands by the rain, and a matching dress of brocade and lace more suitable for elegant parlor parties than running down dreary London alleys.

The last of the women was of average height, dressed in a simple business attire and with black hair worn long and untied. The kind of woman who wouldn't look out of place on an office floor, and someone you wouldn't really look twice at.

They ran, and ran, and ran, puddles splashing beneath their feet, until at last they turned one last corner, and down one last alley, to stop on a fenced ledge overlooking a large rectangular space below. There were three men there beneath them, but the women only had eyes for two of them.

One of them was a handsome young man of average height, with brown hair and wearing tweedy clothes like a country gentleman of good breeding. He stood over another young man, who lay pale and still on the ground, blonde hair soaking in the rain and the deep and ominous red slowly staining it whole.

"Caules…you…Svin…?" Sakura breathed in disbelief, looking down at the man who she had once loved.

The man who had apparently killed his best friend.

Grey couldn't say anything, staggering back on shaky legs, a hand covering her mouth as she shook her head in denial, eyes only for the young man lying still and silent on the ground. For her and her alone, it seemed as though the rain fell even heavier than ever before.

"YOU BASTARD!" Yvette howled, tearing off her eyepatch to expose the magic prosthesis that replaced one of her eyes, and which flashed to life with malevolent promise.

"Yvette?" Caules Forvedge breathed as he whirled in their direction, stepping back while holding out a hand in a placating gesture. "No…wait…I…!"

Then he was screaming, as he literally burst into flame, and then running, away in the opposite direction, like a man-sized torch flailing and scrambling to put itself out.

"YOU WON'T GET AWAY!" Yvette roared, jumping onto the railing and then kicking off, flying after Caules.

It was then that the third man present made himself known, an eight-foot-tall walking mountain in an oversized business ensemble, and carrying a gigantic halberd. He swung his weapon in Yvette's direction, the airborne magus dancing around the swing before sweeping forward.

"OUT OF MY WAY!" she spat, and kicking the man in the face. With a grunt, he staggered back, only to recover, if not quickly enough. Flying just over him, Yvette then kicked at the back of his head, causing him to stumble forward, while Yvette boosted forward, in hot pursuit of the treacherous murderer their one-time friend had become.

Behind, Sakura leapt down onto the ground, and then bounded forward, beam saber held low in one hand. The Forvedge bodyguard – who else could he be – moved to intercept, every step seeming to make the ground shake.

The two of them swung…

…and with a cry Sakura was forced back, the sheer power behind the bodyguard's blow nearly enough to knock her weapon from her hand.

She jumped back several times, opening up the distance by several meters, lengthwise across the rectangular space. The bodyguard moved to pursue, halberd held with both hands diagonally before him, an expression of stoic determination on his face.

"Beam scatter!" Sakura shouted, before tossing the beam saber in the bodyguard's direction. Then pointing a finger, she fired off staggered Finn shots, aimed to hit the beam saber's blade as it spun through the air. Prana exploded with each hit, waves of magical energy imbued with Finn's curse lashing out all around.

The bodyguard finally gave a sound, grunting as he took a wave head on, and then a massive explosion ripped across the space, air visibly distorting and debris flying high into the sky as a Finn shot hit the beam saber, and detonated the crystal within. Unfinished, Sakura leapt up, back onto higher ground, and balancing on the railing, pulled out a mystic code.

A touch of prana and it expanded into her longbow, made with yew and inlaid with silver. Portals into Imaginary Numbers Space opened up, arrows made from fir, silver, steel, and crow feathers extending outward tail-first. Sakura nocked an arrow, and drew back, reinforced senses letting her aim even before the smoke could clear.

Then she released, the arrow flying true even as the bodyguard burst out of the smoke, striking down to cleave Sakura through. The arrow struck the halberd's head, and with another explosion of magical energy and displaced air, blew the bodyguard back. He flew halfway across the space before landing, concrete shattering and the ground cratering under his feet. He glared up at Sakura, who didn't mince words.

Instead, she let loose an arrow.

The bodyguard dodged by a hair's breadth, but Sakura's didn't care. She just nocked another arrow, drew, aimed, and released.

Rinse and repeat.

Uncaring of the battle occurring around her, Grey just shakily made her way to the stairs, holding onto the railing to keep herself upright. She made her way down the stairs, and then stumbling, fell on all fours. Displaced air blew her hair out of its bun, soaking strands falling over her shoulders and past her face, but she didn't care.

All that mattered was the young man lying in a pool of blood – his blood – and water on the ground, still and silent.

Slowly…Grey crept – crawled – closer, until she sat on her legs next to the young man's body. She reached out with a shaky hand, and placed it on his back.

Nothing…

…there was nothing at all.

No beating as though from a living heart.

No rising and falling from taking one's breath.

Nothing…

…just…cold…cold and silence…

"…Svin…" Grey murmured, weakly pushing at Svin's body. There was no response. She pushed harder. Still, there was no response. "…Svin…please…please wake up, Svin. Please…don't…don't leave…not like this…Svin…please…please wake up Svin…Svin…Svin…Svin…"

Arrows stuck in the ground flashed and began to glow, light lancing from one to the next until they formed a pentagram between them. Light then burst into a glowing pillar into the sky above, space folded around its perimeter to trap the bodyguard within.

"…if you do this," the man said, looking up into Sakura's eyes above. "The Forvedge and Icecolle will…!"

Sakura loosed an arrow. It flew straight and true, reinforced steel punching through the bodyguard's forehead and the brain within, and then out the back of his head. He had reinforced himself, true, but while well-done, it just wasn't good enough against a magus of Sakura's caliber.

The bodyguard stiffened and then went still. A moment later and the light faded, space unfolding and causing the dead man to fall face-first onto the ground with a splash, his halberd likewise falling only with a clang.

Victory…

…but it tasted like ash.

"…Svin…Svin…Svin…" Grey's words echoed softly through the rain, the young woman clutching her love's lifeless and unmoving body to herself. "…Svin…Svin…Svin…Svin…Svin…"

Sakura wished she could scream. She wanted to scream. To shout her loss and betrayal to the skies and the uncaring gods that supposedly dwelt there.

But she did not. She could not.

She could only stand in the rain, listening to her friend's lament, as blood and water pooled around their feet.

The Present Day

"Again?" Waver Velvet, First Lord of Beckenstein retorted with Sakura's report about last night's incident on his desk.

"Icecolle and Forvedge are persistent, as I've said so many times before, my lord." Sakura replied.

"Stupid, pretentious, and vindictive foreign magi." Waver grumbled as he opened the folder and quickly read through Sakura's report again. Then he took the folder next to that, opening it and reviewing the annotated copy of Rin's report, accompanied by notes from General Fundamentals and Mineralogy.

Sakura briefly closed her eyes as Waver slammed his hand against his desk. "BLOODY HELL!" he exploded, before reaching down. There was a sound of a drawer being pulled open, and then with noisy banging, a snifter and a bottle of Remy Martin XO was slammed onto the desk.

"…now the Wizard Marshal is insisting on a quick and decisive resolution of the issue." Waver said after a drink of cognac, too quick and too much at a time for a brand like Remy Martin.

The ghost of a smile appeared on Sakura's face. "Well," she said. "They tried to abduct my sister, who just happened to be one of the Wizard Marshal's apprentices."

Waver gave Sakura a suspicious look, but the younger magus just met his gaze evenly. "I hear your work with her for the past month has been productive." He finally said with a neutral tone.

"Yes, it has." Sakura said.

"Hmm…and she doesn't hold your murder of her counterpart against you?"

Sakura chuckled and briefly closed her eyes. "We're both magi." She said. "And if you know who she is, my lord, then you know as well as I do that she has no right to judge me."

Waver narrowed his eyes. "How do you suggest we resolve this situation, Magus Tohsaka?" he asked.

"I'm sure Grey would love nothing more than to unleash Rhongomyniad against Forvedge and Icecolle." Sakura replied.

Then she paused, and narrowed her eyes. "Speaking freely, Professor Waver," she said. "Grey has never really recovered from Caules' murder of Svin. You know it as well as I do, sir."

"You presume much." Waver said softly.

"She's my friend." Sakura replied simply.

Waver stared for several long moments, and Sakura calmly stared back for just as long. Finally, he gestured sharply. "You may go." He said.

Sakura gave a bow, and then smartly turning, left the office. Waver waited a few moments, and then gestured to lock the doors. Bounded fields shifted to prevent eavesdropping, even as a hidden panel in the wall opened, allowing Luviagelita 'Luvia' Edelfelt to emerge from hiding.

"I'm not usually one to agree with the likes of Tohsaka," Luvia began without preamble. "But in this case, I must. It's past time Icecolle and Forvedge were put in their place."

Waver didn't reply at once, instead bringing out another snifter, and filling it for his wife. Luvia toasted her husband after receiving the glass, and then took a dignified sip.

"It's not nearly as simple as you and her make it sound." Waver said.

"True," Luvia conceded with a nod. "Politically-speaking, it would be inappropriately heavy-handed for either of us to get involved with the existing feud between Icecolle, Forvedge, and Tohsaka. That said, the situation has been going on at a low boil for years now, marked by regular incidents of attempted assassinations, bombings, and violent confrontations in public."

"In other words," Waver said softly. "Reason enough for the Clock Tower to intervene and mediate a settlement."

"Yes."

"We could always just expel Tohsaka." Waver pointed out.

"And appear to favor Icecolle and Forvedge?" Luvia asked. "You're not the kind to bring up worthless ideas, Waver, so why?"

Waver shrugged. "It is an idea." He pointed out.

"A very bad idea." Luvia countered. "Tohsaka might be upstarts, but they're very gifted upstarts, or at least the resident one is. I might…distrust her, over her past, but when all is said and done, that happens all too regularly when the succession of a magus family gets brought into question."

"An internal situation that should be beyond the Clock Tower's mandate?" Waver mused.

"A complex question with complex answers," Luvia responded with an air that her husband should have known better than to ask. "But fundamentally correct. And back to the main point, Tohsaka is a Fes and a Blue, with the potential to go further. Upstart or not, Trambelio would raise merry hell if we favored Icecolle and Forvedge over Tohsaka."

"Meanwhile, the Aristocrats could care less either way," Waver continued. "Given how decayed Icecolle and Forvedge have become."

"Precisely."

Waver was silent for a few minutes, aside from periodic drinks of cognac. Luvia also stayed silent, walking over to the windows to look outside, idly swirling the alcohol in her glass with one hand. Finally, Waver made a decision.

"I'll see what I can do." He finally said.

"So," Rin began. "What do you think will happen?"

She and her sister were seated in the same lounge they'd first met in, only this time, Sakura's wasn't playing the piano. Instead, they sat at a table, enjoying coffee and cake after their lunch.

"Absolutely nothing." Sakura replied. "Oh, I'm sure Lord Beckenstein will make an effort to get something done, but at best, it'll be a token gesture, one that'll delay the next assassination attempt, but give or take a few months, I'll have to put up heads on poles again."

Rin snorted and then nodded. "Cynical," she said. "But I can't help but agree. None of the families involved have enough standing that either the lords or the high-ranking bureaucrats would see the need for decisive action."

"And politically-speaking," Sakura added. "The Meritocrats would be satisfied so long as we're not outright disfavored by the Clock Tower."

"While the Aristocrats would likewise be satisfied so long as neither Icecolle or Forvedge get disfavored either." Rin said before narrowing her eyes. "Things would be different if they hadn't decayed as far as they have, but thankfully, that's not a problem."

Sakura snorted, before giving a smirk. "That said," she said. "From what's trickled down the rumor vine over the years, it sounds like Icecolle and Forvedge are even more…I don't know. Outcast? From their fellow Aristocrats."

"I can see why."

"Oh?"

Rin nodded before leaning forward and giving a smirk of her own. "They're scions of an ancient line," she said. "Inheritors of ancient and venerable mysteries, but they can't even take out a single upstart from the Orient."

Sakura snorted and then laughed. "Yes, it's exactly as you say." She said.

Rin's smirk grew wider, even as she drew back and took a drink of her coffee. "That said, though," Sakura continued. "Being fair, they've never really sent any proper magi outside that one time I told you about this morning."

"And being unfair," Rin said with a dismissive wave of a hand. "That's because of how easily you and…well, your familiar dealt with them at the time. Icecolle and Forvedge are families in a steep decline, after all. They can't afford to throw actual magi away."

"So they send cheap cannon fodder and hope they get lucky?" Sakura asked.

"Don't tell me you didn't think of this before." Rin chided, and Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Okay, I have." She admitted with a wave of a hand. Picking up her fork, she cut into her blueberry cheesecake, and forked the chunk into her mouth. "About that, though…"

"About what?" Rin prompted while also taking a bite out of her cake.

"Icecolle and Forvedge's decline…" Sakura said. "It's not set in stone yet. From what I've gathered, the current Lord Icecolle, Celenike, is something of a genius herself."

"But…?"

Sakura nodded. "She has a reputation for being a recluse." She said. "Among other things."

"What things?" Rin asked with a sinking feeling in her gut.

Sakura made vague gestures with a hand. "They say she's a sadist," she said. "As well as something of a pedophile, and even a kidnapper and mass murderer. Other rumors even claim she bathes in blood on a regular basis, like that Hungarian noblewoman, Countess Batty or something."

"…I think it's best to take those rumors with a grain of salt." Rin said dryly. "You should know better."

"Fair, fair," Sakura said with a shrug. "I have confirmed though that she is a recluse, and even her relatives have a hard time getting her to actually, well, do her job as family head."

"Sounds like a blessing in disguise," Rin noted. "Otherwise, you might have been forced into a confrontation with Lord Icecolle already."

"Hmm…maybe…"

"What about Forvedge, though?" Rin asked. "What makes you say they could have reversed their decline?"

"That bastard Caules has a sister." Sakura said. "Well, he had one. Last I heard, Fiore Forvedge has disowned her brother for killing his best friend, and absolutely refuses to talk much less see him."

"How good was she?" Rin asked.

"From what Caules told me in the past," Sakura replied. "Her potential makes the two of us look downright ordinary."

"Seriously?" Rin asked with her eyes wide.

"Seriously." Sakura said with a nod.

"How…no, why on Earth would her family have allowed her to leave?" Rin asked. "I mean…I assume that's the case, seeing as her brother became the Forvedge heir over her."

"They let her go in exchange for as many of her circuits without outright crippling her." Sakura said. "Apparently, despite her potential, she didn't have the…psychological, compatibility for magecraft to realize her potential to its fullest."

"So they compromised," Rin said, thinking it over. "Letting her leave the family, in exchange for having as much of her magic circuits be forged into their crest, which Caules then received."

"Pretty much." Sakura said before taking a drink and then narrowing her eyes. "That said, considering how both Icecolle and Forvedge have been crippled by Yggdmillennia's downfall, I'm not sure how much Lord Icecolle and – assuming she had stayed a magus – Fiore could actually repair of the damage, or delay the inevitable."

"It doesn't matter, as you well know." Rin pointed out. "Even if failure is apparent, it is a magus' pride to keep going, to chase after perfection until the very end. Even if perfection is unattained, to do everything and anything in its pursuit is a worthy achievement in itself. Someone who cannot do that, who abandons the chase simply because it's too inconvenient, or the price is too high to pay, is unworthy to be called a magus."

Sakura snorted. "Magus' pride…" she echoed with the faintest hints of a sneer, a finger running over the rim of her mug. "We both know better, you and I."

"…that we do." Rin agreed before giving a sigh. "But that is the orthodox position."

Sakura smirked. "The ideal, huh?" she asked. "What was it that asshole once said? About the contradiction between the ideal and reality?"

"I'm not entirely sure." Rin said while rubbing at her head. "He said a lot of things, but…well, sorry. Even magi eidetic memory only goes so far, and I had more important things to deal with at the time. Again, sorry."

"No problem." Sakura said with a chuckle. "Let's see…ah, yes. He didn't say it to me, he said it to Shirou, and I just overheard. Something about how the longer he chases after an ideal, the more it clashes with reality. And sooner or later, he'll have to face reality, and pay an ever-increasing price for his ideals."

Rin snorted. "How very like him." She said bitterly. "And how I wish someone could have told me that…no, more than that, made me understand that long before things came to a head. It'd have saved all of us a lot of trouble."

"Because knowing and understanding are two entirely different things?" Sakura asked.

"Yes."

The sisters fell silent at that, but for the clinking of silver on China. Eventually, however, they finished eating, and called for refills for their coffee. "So," Sakura asked once the homunculi servers had left. "What's your plan for the rest of the day?"

"I need to settle the issue of my rented townhouse." Rin said with a sigh. "Property damages, financial compensations, and so on and so forth. And I had to cancel my lectures for the afternoon too, what a pain. You?"

"Research and development." Sakura said.

"I see." Rin said with a sigh, and then blinking, brightened up. "Oh, that's right. I just had an idea. Are you free tomorrow?"

"I can make time." Sakura said.

"Great!" Rin said with a smile. "My students in General Fundamentals will be holding a series of practical demonstrations over the day tomorrow, and I was wondering if you could sit in."

"Is that really a good idea?" Sakura asked skeptically.

"Why not?" Rin asked back. "You're a Fes, with the potential to reach Grand…"

"Flatterer." Sakura said with pink cheeks.

"…seeing as you're already a Blue," Rin continued as though she hadn't interrupted. "So I daresay your presence will be an inspiration. An example even, something to aspire and emulate."

"You want your students to look up to Murderer Blue as an example?"

"I want them to see past something as shallow and superficial as reputation," Rin said. "And see the person behind it. Not that I think they'll actually see the whole picture. Even I couldn't until you pointed me in the right direction, and in hindsight, it's very obvious, isn't it? Murderer Blue?"

Rin paused and shook her head, before taking a drink of her coffee. "…thank you." Sakura said simply, and Rin nodded.

"At the very least," she said. "I hope they see past your reputation, and unaffected by it, get inspired to actually live up to their talent, and be all they can be."

"…I think I can make the time tomorrow."

Rin beamed.

A/N

Well, now you know what happened between Caules and Svin (at least from the women's perspective). Poor Grey…

And Yggdmillennia's resident psychopath, Celenike makes an (indirect) appearance. And yes, while we all know most of the rumors about her are true – aside from pedophilia, as while she did do some BDSM play with Astolfo, the latter isn't a child – Rin and Sakura don't.