It was just a totally normal day for Tsukino Usagi, a totally normal high school student. She'd gotten detention for being late to class for the twentieth time this month, during which she'd fallen asleep with the end result being that she only woke up when her stomach tried to eat her alive.

She staggered to her feet, alone in a dark classroom; the sun had gone down and everyone was gone. Stupid teacher LET ME SLEEP PAST THE END OF DETENTION, she thought. Haruna-sensei is so evil!

As she stomped along, heading out into the yard, she heard weird noises coming from the archery dojo, like someone was shooting at the wall and yelling. She ran to the door before her common sense kicked in, telling her she should have just...but no teachers were here, so what could she do?

She stood in the doorway, staring. Two women were having a duel in the archery dojo; one of them was a woman with short sandy hair in black robes with a bow and the other woman dressed in an elegant kimono and was armed with a naginata. The walls were now full of holes as the archer jumped about, shooting glowing arrows made of energy at the naginata-wielder, who retaliated by turning her naginata into some sort of weird chain weapon, able to lash out far beyond her normal reach. The dojo was being completely trashed.

Usagi felt her forehead throb as she watched the fighting; she got this weird feeling there sometimes lately. She stared, unable to run, unable to do anything. This was horrible and fascinating at once.

There had been...something...her forehead was throbbing harder now. She could remember...a wand...a wicked queen towering over her...power...

She fell to her knees, clutching her head, and gave out a cry of pain and frustration and fear. A cry which caused both of the people in the room to look at her.

"Child, you had best leave and forget you saw this," the archer said kindly. "This is not your war."

"She must die; we cannot allow outsiders to know," the naginata-wielder said solemnly, then turned and rushed towards Usagi.

There was one thing Usagi was really good at and that was running. She ran like crazy; every time she looked back, the woman with the naginata was gliding after her relentlessly. She moved so elegantly and yet somehow kept up with Usagi's best running.

Usagi found herself back in the detention room, her least favorite place and yet one she knew far too well. Her forehead was throbbing like crazy. She was all alone and doomed. At least Naru-chan isn't here to get hurt, she thought.

I'll die never getting to tell Shirou-san how I feel about him, she thought. But at least he wouldn't die here either.

Shirou chose this moment to lean in the window, even as the naginata-wielder reached the door. Naru leaned in another window. "You didn't come home so we came looking for you and Shirou-san was kind enough to come with me so I wouldn't have to walk in the dark by myself," Naru said to Usagi. "Who's your friend?"

She looked curiously at the woman with the naginata, who sighed. "I'm very sorry, but all of you must die now. My apologies." Her voice was very elegant and sad. "Please stand still, I will make this as painless as possible."

She's so pretty, Naru thought, eyes wide.

That's very kind of her to make it painless, Shirou thought. Wait, she's going to kill us?

"I can't let you kill them," Usagi said, wobbling. "Naru-chan, Shirou-san, RUN."

"You're joking, right?" Shirou said to the woman with the naginata. It had to be a joke. People don't just run around killing each other with naginatas for no reason.

"I wish I was that elegant," Naru mumbled.

Usagi sweatdropped and her forehead pulsed with a symbol now, shining brightly. She couldn't let them die.

"I suppose I'll kill the boy first, since the girl is kind of cute," the woman with the naginata said idly.

She thinks I'm cute and WHAT AM I THINKING?, Naru asked herself.

They'd all died for her, one by one, to enable her to defeat Beryl. Never again. NEVER AGAIN.

"Or then, perhaps I'd better dispose of you before you finish," the woman with the naginata said and lashed out, her blade seperating into pieces of sharp metal linked by chains.

HELP!, Usagi screamed at the universe in a panic.

The light coming from Usagi's forehead formed into a woman clad in a bright pinkish-red uniform with a huge poufy skirt, holding a platter in one hand topped with drinks. She instinctively threw it at the onrushing blade and chain and there was a loud CRACK as the plate and glasses shattered, sending fragments everywhere, forcing everyone to dive for cover; she ended up on top of Usagi.

Usagi stared at the girl on top of her; she was middling in height and build with short brown hair in an unflattering style; Usagi had never seen her before, but there was something about her...

She pulled Usagi up. "Are you my..." She paused and looked embarrassed. "Boss?"

"What?" Usagi asked in confusion. She could remember flashes of her old friends now, but this woman didn't look like any of them.

"The proper word, Akane, is Master," the woman with the naginata said cheerfully, lazily.

Akane turned red and so did Usagi.

"I didn't know you were into that kind of thing," Naru said, turning red herself.

"And Shirou, what are you doing, running around with other women? My mistress won't be pleased. I'm going to have to kill them so you won't be tempted," the woman with the naginata said cheerfully. "But you die first, Akane. You're used to it, though."

"I thought you were going to kill me too," Shirou said.

"Now that I recognize you, I can't do that, even though she'd be better off without you," the woman said. "You run home before dinner gets cold."

Shirou stared at her. What is she talking about? "I can't let you kill them!" he said.

"You can't stop me. Now, Akane, just be a good girl and die," the woman with the naginata said.

Usagi's memories fluttered in her mind. She had been the leader...which Sailor was this girl Akane? "Yes, I'm the Boss," she said hesitantly.

"Then we'd better RUN!" Akane grabbed Usagi by the hand and vaulted out one of the windows. "All of you, RUN!"

"Don't leave Naru-chan!" Usagi said.

Akane ran, dragging Naru and Usagi by each of her hands as they tried desperately to keep up but pretty soon they were both trailing in the air behind Akane, trying to hold on.

Shizuru drifted elegantly to the window, but Shirou blocked her path. "I don't know what is wrong with you but I can't let you hurt them!"

Shizuru tried going to another window but instead Shirou ran back and forth, blocking her. "Go home; dinner is ready," she said to him.

"I can't let you hurt them!"

Shizuru sighed and swatted him in the forehead, knocking him out. "I suppose Akane gets away this time, but the mistress will be quite displeased if you are late for dinner. Let's go, Shirou-kun."

She hefted him over one shoulder and ran off.

Rin Tohsaka watched from the rooftop, her Servant, Archer, by her side. "What on earth is Lancer doing with Emiya-san?" she asked Archer.

Archer cocked her head. "Perhaps he is her master?"

"Why would he stop her from killing witnesses?" Rin asked hesitantly.

"Because he is not a sociopath who wants innocents to die?" Archer asked.

"I am not a sociopath, but rules are rules!" Rin protested loudly. "Witnesses have to be killed."

"Then why aren't we doing anything?" Archer asked softly.

"You're hurt and you need to rest," Rin said firmly. "And that's all. We can deal with witnesses later."

Archer smiled a little. "I will dematerialize unless you need me further."

"Walk home with me; with my luck, I'll get mugged or something, and I don't want to waste my mana; I'll need it for real enemies," Rin said firmly. "Let's go."

"What's going on?" Naru asked as she, Akane, and Usagi sat on a park bench.

"The War of the Holy Grail," Akane said, sighing. "Every three hundred years, a dozen Masters are chosen to fight for the power to revolutionize the world, to reshape it to their will. They gain the power to summon past, present, and future heroes and heroines to serve them, the Servants. Whoever obtains the Grail will be granted three wishes by which they may reshape the world however they like. There are twelve classes of Servants. I am of the Waitress class."

"Waitress class?" Naru said in disbelief.

"Oooh, I work part-time as a waitress," Usagi said. "It's a lot of fun."

"Yes, it is," Akane said, smiling a little.

"But what good is being a waitress in a fight to the death?" Naru asked.

Akane laughed nervously. "I am first in Customer Service among Servants," she mumbled.

We are so dead, Naru thought.

Shirou woke up in the living room of his house. He woke up because no one can sleep through Taiga-sensei eating, unless they are dead. "Hello, Shirou-kun," she said cheerfully. "Better eat while you still can."

He sat up and saw his friend Sakura and his 'elder sister', Fujiwara Taiga, his guardian and homeroom teacher, both hard at work eating. And it sounded like someone else was in the kitchen. But who could it be? Had Usagi come back with...what the hell just happened, anyway?

"Who is cooking?" He said; it sounded like EVEN MORE FOOD was being made in there.

The table itself was crammed with food: tempura, soba, udon, nasu, takoyaki, teriyaki chicken, bowls of rice and pickled vegetables, several kinds of salad, and three kinds of fish. I'll explode if I eat even just a little of this, he thought.

"My new chef, Tokiha Mai," Taiga-sensei said cheerfully. "She's the GREATEST."

"You'll gain a thousand pounds if you're not careful," Sakura said, eating delicately, though clearly enjoying her meal. "Are you okay, Shirou? We found you passed out on the front porch."

He rubbed his forehead. No bruise. Did I come home tired, pass out, and dream it all? I must have. That made no sense AT ALL.

A cheerful woman with some of the biggest breasts Shirou had ever seen in his life now came out, wearing a knee-length blue skirt and a matching blue blouse with a long white and blue striped apron over it. She had short orange hair and vivid purple eyes. She was holding a large bowl of stew. "I'm afraid the pizza rolls were not up to snuff, Taiga-sensei," she said to Taiga-sensei. "But this stew should be enough to do the trick."

"Eat with us," Taiga-sensei said. "Even I can't eat ALL of this."

Shirou said, "It's nice to meet you, Tokiha-san."

"It's nice to meet you," she said, smiling at him and sitting down.

Sakura's eyes flashed, but no one noticed.

"The school now has air conditioning again, Fuji-nee," Shirou said to her.

"YATTA!" Taiga-sensei said. "I was starting to worry."

"I think I must have gotten so tired I was basically sleep walking and then I had this really weird dream," Shirou said. "Where some crazy woman with a naginata tried to kill Usagi, Naru, and I."

Mai choked on her food for a moment.

"I'm surprised Usagi isn't over here wolfing down food," Taiga-sensei said cheerfully. "I told Mai-san to make extra food for her."

"She's a pig," Sakura said, frowning.

"Like me!" Taiga-sensei said cheerfully. "She probably fell asleep in detention again."

Mai looked over at Taiga-sensei and made some sort of hand sign which Taiga-sensei either didn't notice or didn't pay attention to.

"You shouldn't let her leech off you, Shirou-sempai," Sakura said to Shirou.

"Oh, it's okay," he said. "Ever since her mother had to go back to work, she ends up having to eat TV dinners if she eats at home and that's no way to live," Shirou continued.

"I have plenty of money to buy more food," Taiga-
sensei said.

Mai tried to signal her again, but Taiga-sensei was too busy stuffing soba down her throat to notice.

Shirou tried calling Usagi, but she didn't answer. Well, I'm sure she's okay, he thought.

"See that red star by the moon?" Akane said to Usagi.

"Yes," Usagi said.

"Only masters and servants can see it," Akane said.

Then why do I see it?, Naru asked herself. But probably I'm just imagining things.

"What does it do?" Usagi asked.

"That's the Grail. Once only one Servant is left, it will descend down to him or her and they get their three wishes," Akane said.

"Left?" Usagi asked.

"The fighting continues until only one Servant remains, and then the Grail descends," Akane said.

"As in, the Servants all kill each other?" Usagi said, frowning.

"Well, we're already dead," Akane said, sighing. "Not that I wish to die again."

"Do the Masters fight each other?" Naru asked nervously.

"They don't have to but often do. In some cases, Masters just go hide while their Servant handles things," Akane said. "A Master whose Servant is slain can try to recruit Servants whose Master somehow died before they did," she continued. "But a Master can only have one Servant at a time, by the rules. Also, a Master with no Servants may take refuge with the referee of the Grail War. In which case no one may harm him or her."

"Is this written down somewhere?" Naru asked. "It seems complicated."

"I don't know," Akane confessed. "But there is a referee who is in charge of enforcing the rules of the War; we could go see him. He is Professor Tomoe."

"The physicist?" Usagi asked. She vaguely had heard of him.

"Yes, he's also a magus of great power," Akane said.

"So what about the mark on Usagi's head?" Naru asked.

Akane said, "It's the mark of a Master, I think." She studied the silvery crescent moon.

Usagi studied herself with a compact. Because I'm Sailor Moon, she thought. A lot of her memories were still fuzzy, but she remembered that much. She touched it and it vanished. She was surprised it had stayed on this long without her using any power. Then she noticed something else. "Hey, there are three crescent moons on my right arm."

"I got killed before I found out what those do last time, I think." Akane said, frowning. "My memories are somewhat fuzzy. I think I was a Master and I'm pretty sure I got betrayed somehow." But she could hardly remember any of it.

"I guess we should go see Professor Tomoe," Naru said.

"Tomorrow," Usagi said. "And you don't have to be part of this, Naru-chan." She looked very worried.

"I won't abandon you, Usagi," Naru said firmly. "Best friends forever, right? I probably can't do much in something like this, but I won't abandon you either." And I want to know why I can see that star too. I know I'm no magician, so why do I see it?

Usagi wasn't so sure that was wise, but she couldn't say no to Naru, either. "Akane, we'll have to tell my parents something."

"There's supposed to be some way for us to turn into invisible ghosts or something, I think. I know I could call up or dismiss my Servant," Akane said. "I'm sorry, I really hardly know what I'm doing."

Usagi took her hands. "Me neither, but we'll figure it out together, okay, Akane-chan? And there's no way I'm going to make you go be all ghosty when you could sleep in a nice warm bed."

Usagi's stomach grumbled loudly. "But first, we have to go get some food."

"Usagi, you can't just mooch off Shirou-san every day," Naru said.

"I want REAL food. Cup ramen is NOT ENOUGH," Usagi said. "Time for me to introduce you to a really cute guy who cooks well and is very kind." She paused. "My future boyfriend!"

Naru said, "A, you can't actually muster the courage to try anything, and B, I think he's already hooked up with Taiga-sensei."

"Not everyone is into older people!," Usagi said. "No matter how many teachers YOU have had crushes on, Naru-chan. And he calls her 'big sister'. I STILL HAVE HOPE!"

Akane laughed as she tagged along after them as they bickered on whether they should be going to mooch off Shirou-san and whether Usagi had a chance.

"Police are baffled by the theft of the Angel of Fuyuki," the TV announced in Shiro's living room as everyone laid around, stuffed and somewhat drowsy, while Mai did dishes in the kitchen. Footage of the Angel, pre-
vanishing, now was shown. It was a fifteen foot tall statue of a female Angel, her wings and arms spread wide in blessing.

The Angel of Fuyuki City had stood in the town's central park ever since World War II; it had been donated to the town by an American serviceman during the Occupation for reasons known only to himself. The beautiful marble statue was said to bless any relationship pledged in front of it and many had been. Why would anyone steal it? The newscasters were clearly outraged.

Shiro frowned. "That's terrible."

Sakura looked outraged. "I was counting on that!"

"For what?" Shiro asked.

Taiga-sensei rubbed her forehead, then drank more of her tea. "What do you think, Shirou?"

"Oh," he said. I didn't realize she liked someone. But it wouldn't be polite to pry.

There was a knock on the door. Shirou managed to force himself to his feet and stumble over to the door; it was hard to move; he'd eaten too much. He found Naru and Akane dragging Usagi, whose eyes were glazed over. "So hungry..." Usagi mumbled.

"Do we have more guests?" Mai shouted from the kitchen.

"Yes," Shirou said. He took Usagi over one shoulder, then nearly fell down. By sheer force of will, he brought her over to the table. "Hello, Usagi-san, Naru-san," he said. "Please eat with us."

"This is Akane," Naru said. "A friend of Usagi's."

"We'll feed you too," Shirou said. "There's enough for three, right?" he shouted to the kitchen.

"Yes, there is," Mai said. "If they like fish."

"FOOD," Usagi said urgently.

"That's a yes," Naru said.

Akane stood, frozen. Was that, could it be...

Mai said, "Can someone come help me bring this out?"

Akane instinctively sprang into action, swiftly entering the kitchen, stacking everything efficiently on trays and bringing the food back out, spreading it out with a flourish in mere seconds.

"You really are first in Customer Service," Naru said, impressed, as Akane even had balanced a pitcher of tea on her head; she somehow served three glasses of tea with a nod.

And then the pitcher was on the table as if it had always been there.

Mai came to the door and said hesitantly, "Akane?"

"Mai," Akane said weakly.

"Akane!" Mai said, rushing over to her and taking her hands. "You're okay!"

"Mai...what are you doing here?" Akane asked.

"I'm working for Taiga-sensei," Mai said, clearly a little nervous. "Hey, wasn't that Linden Baum's uniform?"

Akane laughed nervously. "Yes." I can't believe I manifested in this thing. It's not what I was wearing when I died, I think.

"She is a GENIUS," Taiga-sensei said. "The best cook ever! We are going to be in HEAVEN, especially if we have a genius server to go with our genius cook! And Shirou and Sakura are brilliant cooks too." Mmm, Unlimited Food Porn, she thought. The best kind.

Unlimited Food Porn

A Fate/Stay Night / Sailor Moon / Mai Hime fanfic

By John Biles

"Mom, do you mind if a friend of mine stays overnight?" Usagi asked her mother, who was sitting in front of the TV, half-asleep.

"That's fine, dear," Usagi's mother said groggily. "You don't mind, do you, honey?" she asked Usagi's father, similarly clonked out next to her on the couch.

"Just throw blankets over us," Usagi's father said. "And make sure Shingo actually sleeps at home tonight."

"Yes, Dad," Usagi said. Shingo was in junior high and already into full-blown rebellion mode. With both of their parents working very hard to keep the family afloat in a bad economy, Usagi largely had to police him. This rarely worked well.

"Thank you. I am Higurashi Akane," Akane said to them.

"Nice to meet you," Usagi's mother said without even turning away from the TV.

"Can you get me some tea, Usagi?" Usagi's father asked.

"Of course, Dad," Usagi said.

A second later, Akane handed him some tea. "Here you go, sir."

"You're a marvel," he said, sipping it. "Perfect. Have fun, you two."

Usagi hugged each of them awkwardly; she hated seeing them so worn out. She'd actually gotten off her ass and gotten a part-time job in order to bring in some money to help out.

Then they headed upstairs and Akane tried to help Usagi with her homework. With the little time they had left at this point before bed. Akane put on some of Usagi's spare pajamas. "Usagi," she said nervously. "Mai was a friend of mine when I fought in the last Grail War."

"But wasn't that three hundred years ago?" Usagi asked.

Akane rubbed her head. "I know it only happens every three hundred years, but I'm pretty sure it was 2004 when it happened and I fought in it. And got taken out."

"But it's only 2010," Usagi said, confused.

"We can figure it out later. But Mai seems to be the same age I last saw her. Which was either six years ago or three hundred or...something," Akane said. "I was too nervous to ask more of her."

"Well, we can ask Professor Tomoe tomorrow," Usagi said, yawning. She took Akane's hands. "Don't be afraid. We'll be okay. I've had worse than this to deal with. And I won't let you die." Her voice was intense enough that it scared Akane a little. "No more people are dying for me. EVER."

"More?" Akane asked softly.

"I lost all my friends but Naru, fighting an evil Queen two years ago, in Junior High," Usagi said. "I can't remember it clearly or even why I forgot. I guess that's why I was able to summon you. But I promise, I won't let you die again."

"It is the job of the Servant..." Akane began.

"I don't care," Usagi said firmly. "You will not die. I am NOT letting another friend get killed. Period. We'll fight together and we will win and this is not going to end with everyone I care about dying for me. Never again." Her voice was fervent.

"Okay, Usagi," Akane said softly, feeling a little overwhelmed. "Tell me about it."

Usagi told her about the war between the Sailor Senshi and Beryl until finally sleep took her, her face simply falling forward onto Akane's chest.

Akane gently laid her down and curled up next to her and tried to remember the name of the boy in her mind; his face shone like the sun for her, but she couldn't remember his name. I wonder if he's okay, she thought. I hope so.

The next morning, Archer said to Tohsaka Rin, "You could just go up, knock on the door, and say hello, you know."

They were lurking on a rooftop, watching the Emiya house from a distance.

"I can't just do that," Rin said. "We're here because I was passing by and sensed magic in use."

"Smells more like breakfast to me," Archer said. "And if we were just passing by, why are you carrying two bento boxes?"

"Lunch," Rin said.

"Oh, so you were planning to ask him to eat lunch with you?" Archer said kindly.

"No! The other one...it's for you."

"Well, let's sneak closer, then."

"He might see us!" Rin said frantically.

"We can hardly find out what the magic is if we don't," Archer said. "Unless you have magic for seeing through walls."

"Father wouldn't let me learn that because he said most mages use it to see people naked and he didn't want me to be a pervert," Rin mumbled.

"Then let's get closer."

It was fairly easy for them to creep up on the house and peek in the kitchen window, where they saw Mai and Shirou hard at work cooking. "I'm the host, I should be doing this," he said, checking the dangos he was cooking.

Mai flipped the mackarel she was grilling, then checked on the edamame, which was busy boiling in water. She sniffed the air, then added a touch more salt. "I'm being paid to cook for you and Taiga-sensei and Sakura-
san," she said. "It's my job."

"I feel bad if someone else gets up before me and comes and cooks for me," he said. "Like I'm not fulfilling my duties."

She smiled at him. "It shows you're a good person, but feel no guilt. I love cooking and this is my job. I'm under orders from Taiga-sensei. She wants to make sure you're well fed."

He smiled at that.

Rin frowned. Are they both magi? She could feel the magic flowing through their cooking. Powerful magic. She'd almost think it Servant-level, but who would waste their Servant on cooking? Also, there was no way Shirou was a Servant.

Unless...

She thought about Shirou. It would be just like him to do something ludicrous like summoning a Servant whose main power was COOKING. For that matter, she'd heard enough about his cooking skills that him being a mage who focused on cooking did make sense...

But that would make him part of the Grail War and she didn't want to have to waste mana on that idiot, Shirou.

"We have only one choice," she whispered to Archer.

"Hmm?"

"I'm going to invite myself to breakfast. You wait outside in case I need you. If he's a magus, he might sense you if you come in, immaterial."

Archer smiled. "Of course."

"Don't smile at me like that!" Rin protested.

"Yes, master."

"STOP SMILING AT ME LIKE THAT!"

"Hello, is someone out there?" Shirou shouted out the window.

"There is no one here," Rin shouted, then ran.

He blinked in confusion.

"I'll put on more vegetables," Mai said cheerfully. "For our extra guest."

A minute later, Shirou heard a banging at the door, so he answered it. "Oh, hello, Tohsaka-san," he said. "Were you around by the window?"

"Of course not, I told you I wasn't, so I wasn't," she said, a little desperately.

He decided to play along. "It's nice of you to come say hello. Are you on your way to school early?"

"Yes," she said, then blurted out, "FEED ME." Then she looked she wanted to die. "I mean, it smells very good. Who's cooking?"

He laughed. "Feel free to eat with us. Taiga-sensei's new cook, Tokiha Mai, is cooking for us."

Rin felt something impact her from behind and fell down as Sakura walked over her. "Hello, sempai," Sakura said to Shirou. "I'm sorry I'm late. I'll come help you right now!"

"You need to look where you're going, you just walked on Tohsaka-san."

If only I didn't need to save my mana for the war, this girl would PAY, Rin thought. She jumped to her feet. "Look where you are going, you clumsy kohai!"

"I'm very sorry," Sakura said, bowing to her. "You don't show up well, wearing all that black. Come on, sempai." She grabbed Shirou and dragged him off to the kitchen.

Rude girl, Rin thought, frowning. The Mato family are a bunch of arrogant bastards who don't deserve their pride; I've heard rumors their blood has become so weak they can't produce any proper magi any more.

Shirou stuck his head out of the kitchen. "Come on in, Tohsaka-san, sit down, you can watch TV while we cook."

Then a hand dragged him back into the kitchen like a squid tentacle seizing prey.

Rin came over, turned the TV on, and sat down.

"Three businessmen were found, robbed and naked, strung up with red strings in front of the Ward 8 Police Station, with signs around their necks which read 'I patronize under-age prostitutes'," the newscaster said.

Rin studied it thoughtfully. It could be a coincidence but it was such a strange thing to happen.

There was a brief shot of the faces of the victims; they looked pale as sheets. They hadn't just been mugged; they were drained of mana. She frowned. Randomly attacking non-participants in the war was legal, but frowned on. This sort of thing could lead to exposure of the war. And was basically immoral.

But it could also be intended to be a trap.

"That's horrible," Shirou said, setting down a glass of tea in front of her. He sounded frustrated. "Something needs to be done about that."

"That's why we have police," Taiga-sensei said.

Rin and Shirou both jumped with surprise.

"When Shirou was little, he used to run around trying to 'fight for justice' with a baseball bat. Until he got his ass kicked and I had to save him," Taiga-sensei said, then sighed. "So don't do anything foolish, Shirou-kun. Leave it to the police."

"What use is...," Shirou began, then cut himself off. "You're right, Fuji-nee. I'll go cook. I can do that, at least." He stomped off and Taiga-sensei sighed.

"That was a little harsh," Tohsaka-san said to Taiga-
sensei.

"Shirou-kun is a good boy with a strong sense of justice and a desire to help others. But unless you can defeat evil with food or mechanical repair, his skill set just isn't right. And he has some kendo skills, but I can't get him to focus on it." Taiga-sensei sighed. "Do you do Kendo, Tohsaka-san?"

"I couldn't swordfight my way out of a paper sack," Rin said. "So you do Kendo in addition to teaching English, sensei?" She had Taiga-sensei for fifth period English, in fact.

"Fourth dan Black Belt," Taiga-sensei said proudly. "That would qualify me to run my own dojo if I had the time. But of course, teaching is my first calling. Still, I hope to qualify for fifth dan by next year this time."

Rin sipped her tea and nodded approvingly. Rin admired anyone who dedicated themselves to something and became good at it. Mastering two arts (English and Kendo) was even more impressive.

She then spilled her tea on herself when she felt an intense burst of magic washing over everything. "Ahh!" she yelped as hot tea soaked down her front.

"Let me get you a towel," Taiga-sensei said, running deeper into the house.

What was THAT?

Usagi said to her parents, "I don't know where Shingo is." She sounded frustrated. "I'm not his keeper."

"You have to be; we're too busy to run herd on him," Usagi's mother said. She reached for her empty glass; suddenly, it had tea in it and Akane handed her a lemon slice.

"Thank you, Akane," Usagi's mother said. "It was very kind of you to make us breakfast."

"I'm a good cook," Akane said. "And Usagi helped."

"Really?" her mother said in surprise.

"Hey, I haven't burned anything in nearly two years!" Usagi said, frustrated. She wasn't sure why, but somehow she'd gotten much better at cooking around the time she had gotten amnesia for some reason. Maybe I learned something during the amnesia period, she thought. She had dim memories of some tall girl who was a wonderful cook showing her things. The fact that she couldn't remember the girl's name frustrated her.

Usagi tried to remember her plan for enabling Akane to stay with her without questions from the parents. It had been a brilliant plan and now she couldn't remember it at all. But she had to do something. There had to be something that everyone would believe.

She grew more and more frantic as she ate; Akane looked over at her, worried. "Are you okay, Usagi?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine," she said.

"You know, you got up early, Usagi. Very good," her mother said.

Usagi's father, Tsukino Kenji, nodded. "It's a good habit to cultivate."

"I got her up since she asked me to," Akane said.

"It's a pity you aren't here every day to wake her up then," Usagi's mother said.

Now I remember, Usagi thought. Urgently, desperately, she suddenly blurted out, "Akane will be staying with us because she's my cousin from the future!"

THAT WAS NOT MY PLAN AT ALL, Usagi thought, but now she felt a flare of pain in her arm and a flash of light erupted over the entire planet from her forehead.

Professor Tomoe ended up with jam all over his face when he felt the wave of magic and ended up wearing his toast instead of eating it, which caused his daughter, Hotaru, to giggle, then embarrasedly cover her mouth with her hand.

That was a miracle of the Grail, he thought. But what did it do? And how could even a Master's command be so strong?

He wasn't sure if this boded well or ill.

"It's a good thing you have your cousin from the future here to help get you up," Usagi's mother said. "Can't you give us even a little hint whether I get any grandchildren, Akane?"

"It's not allowed," Akane improvised hastilly. What is going on?

"But she is your cousin from the future, everyone knows that," Naru said to Usagi.

This must be how the amnesia thing happened, Usagi thought. I didn't want to remember everyone dying and I made everyone forget.

She frowned. I don't like the idea of everyone forgetting...I can't even remember who everyone is forgetting, I just see their faces!

And one of the marks on her arm had vanished. There had been three and now there were two. So she had to be careful not to detonate another one.

Even if she wasn't sure how she set it off.

Rin dipped her fish in the sauce, then shoved some corn and nasu down after it. So much food, so delicious. It was like eating pure heaven. No wonder some people overeat, she thought.

She forced herself to slow down, as everyone else ate with good manners except for Taiga-sensei, who didn't eat so much as inhale food. Knowing how much the woman bounced around in school and the amount of exercise she got, she likely needed it.

"And on the lighter side, two foreigners got thrown out of an all-you-can-eat diner when they ate everything the store had and became angry because the place could no longer feed them," the newscaster continued.

Images of a short blonde Russian girl with a hat nearly as big as she was and a slightly taller dark haired girl who didn't actually look like a foreigner at all, given her dark hair, Japanese features and appropriate skin tone, now flashed on the screen with the police chasing them down the street; the slightly taller girl ran like a cat on her hands and feet.

Mai's eyes widened and she snorted tea up her nose and then rolled around with Taiga-sensei patting her back. "Are you okay?" she asked frantically.

"How strange," Sakura said.

Illyasviel Einzbern, from the great family, Rin thought, frowning. Cutting close to blowing things as usual, I see. Illyasviel was too young for the Grail War, too young to be allowed to run around on her own. What was she doing here?

Hopefully whichever one of her relatives is in this war will get her off the street before she gets in trouble, Rin thought. Gets us ALL in trouble.

Shirou studied her; something odd about that girl. "I wonder why she came here from Russia."

"Maybe she's an exchange student," Taiga-sensei said. "We're getting one today."

I've heard she is a genius, but please don't let her be coming to our school, Rin thought. The last thing I need is that little nitwit cramping my style.

"Speaking of which, we'd best get to school. Mai will clean up for us," Taiga-sensei said. "Shirou, get your uniform on. This train is about to leave the station."

"We have two exchange students," Taiga-sensei said. "This is Usagi's cousin Higurashi Akane. She's from the future, so don't ask her any questions about stock prices, horse races, or movie quality. You know the rules. Our other new student is Hino Rei; she's come to help at the local shrine. You're not allowed to ask her measurements, but you can ask other questions."

Akane bowed awkwardly, while Rei bowed gracefully.

"Are we allowed to ask Akane's measurements?" Umino Gurio, the class gossip, asked.

"Yes, that's allowed but only her current measurements and not anyone in the clases' future measurements," Taiga-sensei said. "Right, Akane?"

"Uhh..."

"Can we ask her the current measurements of our classmates?" Umino asked, holding his phone ready to take notes.

Akane sighed. "82, 52, 83, okay?"

"52?" Umino studied her carefully. "I think you need to remeasure. That would be roughly one third of your height, which is impossible. You'd snap in half."

"WHAT?"

"Your waist IS smaller than your hips but not THAT much smaller. More like maybe 73 or so," he said.

"That's enough," Rei said firmly. "Be quiet, boy."

"Hey!" Umino protested.

Usagi stared at Rei. She's one of the girls from my memories! But it's clear she doesn't remember me. Rei...

A wash of memories flooded her mind. Rei...she died for me. But here she is alive. Alive. Usagi began crying from relief.

Naru looked over at Usagi, worried.

"Are you okay?" Shirou asked Usagi.

"I'm fine," she said. "I just...I've never been so happy in my life."

What a weirdo, Rei thought, but she didn't say anything to be polite.

"That's an odd way to be happy," Naru said doubtfully. Something odd about that Hino girl, she thought. But what?

Being the sort of person to bounce back quickly, Usagi had decided by third period she would have to try and approach Rei, see if there was some way she and Akane could restore Rei's memories. That would be a big help. And Rei deserved to know the truth.

However, third period posed an entirely DIFFERENT problem. Said problem was the Art Teacher, Ishigama Wateru. He wasn't a personal problem for Usagi; in fact, her talent for art had flourished with his guidance. But Naru had a GIANT CRUSH on him and Usagi was torn between her desire to help her friend and her knowledge that Naru really needed to stop getting crushes on men who were WAY TOO OLD for her. This was what, number five?

Six if you counted Onizuka-sensei, but since he acted like a kid in an adult's body, Usagi was not sure if he counted. Certainly Naru had been more mature than him. Admittedly, he'd been a ton of fun.

Ishigami-sensei was handsome and kind and gentle, but Usagi was sure that getting a crush on older men was not a good idea for a girl her age.

Distantly, the irony of this was so massive it caused a star to collapse into a black hole.

But Usagi was oblivious to that.

He was leaning over Naru and pointing to things on the painting Naru was doing and Naru was blushing and Usagi couldn't let this go on.

She glanced over; Akane was doing a painting of the inside of a restaurant; it was okay, but not great. Usagi glanced at Rei's painting of a holy shrine with a sacred fire burning. There were shadows in the fire, hinting at...at something that hadn't been painted yet.

Usagi now glanced over at Naru's painting; she was painting a picture of an ice cream shop with herself eating a sundae...with an older man with long wavy brown hair, wearing a grey uniform of some kind. It looked vaguely familiar...something about stars...

"Who is that, your father?" Ishigami-sensei asked her kindly.

"My father died ten years ago. Mom won't talk about what happened, but there was a huge fire that destroyed a lot of the city and..." Naru began.

Shirou suddenly made a choking noise, then said sadly to Naru. "You too?"

"You lost your father in the fire?" Naru asked him sadly.

"Both my parents," Shirou said, his voice heavy with regret.

"That's awful," Naru said sympathetically. "Mom and I were off visiting my grandmother when it happened. But Dad died trying to get some people out of a burning building." She stared at the floor.

Ishigami-sensei patted her shoulder. "Better he be alive, but if you have to die, it's best to die a hero, right?"

Shirou nodded.

"I wish he was alive and not a hero," Naru mumbled.

"I'm sorry, Naru-chan," Usagi said, coming over and hugging her.

"It's hardly your fault," Naru said to Usagi. "It's not like you started the fire."

Rei made a disgruntled sound and Naru glared at her. "What?"

"She just seems like the sort to stumble into something and accidentally start a fire," Rei said dismissively, turning back to her painting. "And people complain too much about fire, anyway."

"That fire killed thousands!" Naru said angrily. "I think they have a right to complain!"

"Fire is the basis of civilization!" Rei said angrily. "Without fire we'd all be living in caves!"

Usagi stood paralyzed, then jolted into action. Unfortunately, this meant crashing into her easel as she tried to step between them. Her painting flipped up into the air.

Akane leaped up and caught it by the non-painted side, holding it like a serving tray, then slid it back onto the easel, catching Usagi from falling on the floor with her other hand. As the paints came down, she caught those and set them back in place.

Everyone stared, then Shirou clapped his hands and soon everyone was clapping, even Rei, though she looked pissed.

Akane laughed shyly, and Ishigami-sensei said, "Very impressive, Akane. They must have a good physical education program in the future."

"It's very good," Akane said, laughing a little louder now.

"See, I knew she'd stumble into things," Rei said. "Anyway, I have to finish this."

Usagi frowned. What's gotten into her? She's not normally like this.

I have to keep Usagi away from me until I win this war, Rei thought. With Usagi's memories erased, she can't help and she's likely to get hurt. I don't want her to be a target. Even if it means I have to hurt her right now. I'll apologize later when I prevent the world being destroyed.

The things she'd seen in the sacred fire...if she didn't win the Grail War, the world would be destroyed.

Of course, if she didn't manage to figure out HOW to summon a servant, her participation would be over before it started... But Rei was still confident she could pull that off. She was a woman unaccustomed to failure.

Operation Talk to Rei had gone badly, due to Rei yelling at her and driving her off, so Usagi was eating lunch with Naru and Akane and sulking.

"So who is that guy in your painting?" Akane asked Naru.

"I dream about him sometimes; he's my dream boyfriend," Naru whispered, then turned red. "I guess that sounds like a five year old."

"No, it's normal," Usagi said. "I paint things I dream all the time." Some of which were real, I know now. I think.

Suddenly, she wondered if some Master had altered HER memories to make her think she'd once been Sailor Moon, the way she apparently had altered people's memories to forget it.

That creeped her out.

"Usagi?" Akane asked, worried.

"Nothing," she said. I really do need to talk to Professor Tomoe, I think.

Taiga-sensei was busy stuffing her face when Mai, who had brought her lunch, said, softly, "We need to talk after school, when we can have privacy."

Taiga-sensei gave her a thumbs-up and another one for the food, wondering why Mai looked so concerned.

"It was very nice of you to invite me to have lunch with you," Shirou said to Rin; they were sitting under a tree by one side of the school.

"I had an extra lunch I packed for a friend but she didn't come," Rin said. "I was curious about Taiga-sensei's new cook."

"Taiga-sensei's family has stupid amounts of money. They probably worried she wasn't eating right. She's an okay cook but much better at eating and burning calories than cooking," Shirou said to her.

Rin laughed, then forced herself to stop. "I hope the food is acceptable; you must be used to a high standard."

"This is great," he said. "I've never seen mayonaisse used like this with the squid and the carrots sliced like that. And the cabbage. And is this sugar and paprika? And I think there is vinegar in this."

"It's called cole slaw," Rin said. "I've been around the world a fair amount. The squid isn't normally part of it but it needed some meat." He could identify the paprika? He is good.

Maybe he really is a magus, she thought. Is he in the war? She hoped not, but she would do what she had to. But how to find out without giving away her own identity?

And could that 'Mai' be one of the Servants? But which one? There were seven classes of servants— Archer, Assassin, Berserker, Caster, Lancer, Rider and Saber. Rin had wanted a Saber, but ended up with Archer. Archer was cheerful and a good shot, so despite the difficulties this would cause when Rin was a ranged person with little melee capacity also, Rin was pretty happy to have her.

Maybe she was an assassin who used poison in food! She could be Lucrezia Borgia! That made sense. You'd need supremely good cooking skills to pull that off against a magus. VERY clever. But that likely meant Taiga-sensei was her master, not Shirou.

Half of that was good; Rin liked Shirou and didn't want to kill him.

Half of that was bad; she liked Taiga-sensei and didn't want to kill her.

But best not to rush to conclusions, right?

Right now, she could just have a nice relaxing lunch with a nice guy she probably wouldn't have to kill at all.

And that was good.

Usagi was full but still sulking later in the lunch break. Naru and Akane were both worried about her.

Suddenly, twin hands closed over her eyes. "Guess who," a husky voice asked.

"Haruka-san!" Usagi said, perking up. "You actually came to school!"

Akane studied the handsome blond man standing over Usagi; he looked like a senior to her, or even a college student, older and very mature looking, though he had a lazy smile. That's not the Haruka I know. Of course, nothing says there can't be more than one Haruka in the world.

"Hey, if I always skipped, that would be predictable, Usagi-chan," he said cheerfully.

Akane now noticed a beautiful, mature, older girl standing nearby, wearing their school uniform. (Haruka was wearing the boys' uniform for the school for that matter.) She was carrying a bookbag and a violin case.

"Haruka, this is my cousin from the future, Higurashi Akane," Usagi said to Haruka. "Akane, this is my friend Ten'ou Haruka and that's his girlfriend Kai'ou Michiru."

"It's nice to meet you," Michiru said with a lyrical voice, coming over and shaking Akane's hand. Just looking at her made Akane feel like a little kid.

"It's nice to meet you too. Are you in the school Orchestra?" Akane asked.

"Yes I am," Michiru said. "Though I'm on leave this semester while I work on a special project."

"Oh wow, are you recording a record?" Usagi asked.

"Indeed I am," Michiru said. "With Haruka's help. Haruka plays the piano."

Haruka made finger to key gestures, smiling.

"Congratulations," Naru said. "You'll let us hear it some time, won't you?"

Umino sprang out from behind a tree. "Your contract is with Venus Records, right? Aino Minako's label?"

"Yes, it is," Michiru said. "Aino-san heard me perform and signed me immediately. She's rather impulsive."

Minako!, Usagi thought. That's her name! The blonde girl in my memories. So she's alive too. Which means...the other two...whoever they are...are alive too. Usagi felt a huge wave of relief.

"Usagi-chan, what's wrong?" Haruka asked, kneeling down by her as she began to cry.

"It's okay," Usagi said. "I'm just fine."

"I guess she fears having to hear your piano playing, Haruka," Michiru teased Haruka.

"It's her family situation; her brother is running wild and her parents expect her to ride herd on him and it's just not possible for her to exert that kind of authority on him as just his sister," Akane said hastily to Haruka and Michiru.

"Want me to put the fear of god in that brat, Shingo?" Haruka asked.

"No, it's okay, I'm fine, don't worry about me," Usagi said.

"I see you got some tattoos," Haruka said, looking at the crescent moons on Usagi's arm.

"Haha, I'm so impulsive," Usagi babbled in a panic. If only they...no, I'll trigger them! Everyone will forget the moon exists or something!

"You know, Usagi's name and the legend of the moon bunny," Naru said hastily.

Haruka laughed. "I see. Well, we'd best be getting on."

"See you!" Michiru said cheerfully and they headed out.

"Are they seniors?" Akane asked.

"Super-cool ones. They're like the King and Queen of the school. I'm so jealous," Naru said, though she said it with the most cheerful tone of voice anyone ever confessed to jealousy with. "They have a big feud with Matou Shinji, though." She sighed. "He's cute, but not quite as cute as Haruka."

"Shirou's much cuter," Usagi said.

"Oh come on, that wavy hair is totally cool," Naru said.

Arguing whose hair was cooler ate up the rest of lunch.

Sixth period, Usagi blinked. Where was their usual history teacher, Kuzuki Souichiro? Instead, some redhaired woman dressed in a tank top, a blue jacket, and blue jeans had walked in. She was fairly good looking, though Usagi wasn't into teachers. She didn't really quite look very teacherly to Usagi.

Akane blinked. "Suguira-sensei?"

"Hi, Akane!" she said cheerfully. "I see you came back in time too. I'm your new history teacher, Suguira Midori...FROM THE FUTURE!"

Everyone stared in surprise.

"Wouldn't it be easier to be a history teacher from the past?" Shirou asked. "Since you're forbidden to tell us about the future?"

"Oh, I haven't even actually arrived yet here in the past," Suguira-sensei said cheerfully. "But don't worry, I don't understand temporal physics well enough to give away the secrets of time travel."

Everyone stared mindlessly as their brains tried to figure out what she meant.

"Anyway, your usual teacher ran off with some Greek woman. So, it's time to teach you all about history! We're going to start with the Old Ones and their wars with Cthulhu's minions for control of the Earth!"

That's not in the textbook, Shirou thought.

Wow, she's good at drawing squid people, Usagi thought as Suguira-sensei began drawing on the board.

This idiot is going to reveal the secret history of the world! Now what?, Rei asked herself. Is she a magus? A master? Are masters now time travelling from other eras to fight in the Grail War? Maybe a temporal paradox is going to happen that will destroy the world.

She was definitely going to have to spend a few hours with her head in the sacred smoke of the sacred fire in which the sacred plants burned. If nothing else, it would help mellow her out from all her STRESS.

"He's so cute," Naru said, touching her heart as Mato Shinji walked by with a half dozen women in archery outfits. He was a big wig of the campus, from a rich family, a skilled archer, and very popular with women.

Usagi couldn't decide if Naru having a crush on him was a step up from her having a crush on Ishigami-sensei. On the good side, he was HER AGE. On the bad side, Ishigami-sensei was a nice guy and Shinji was an arrogant asshole who totally had burned the love letter Usagi had written him in front of the entire Archery club last year.

And laughed. So hard he fell down and Shirou had to take him to the infirmary.

I'm much luckier having Shirou, even if I can't form two sentences coherently when I try to tell him how I feel, Usagi thought.

"So what's the problem?" Taiga-sensei asked Mai as they walked home from the school to Shirou's house, where Taiga-sensei lived, since she was his official guardian.

"Well, I had this memory of how things worked in the next Grail War, which I think I fought in," Mai said, frowning. "In the future," she said hesitantly. Though her fuzzy memories seemed to indicate the future wasn't all that advanced from the present. Maybe her family had been very retro in styling.

"Yes, I summoned you here from the future," Taiga-
sensei said. "Even if I'm not sure how."

"I think your necklace somehow enabled you to," Mai said hesitantly. "I should know this stuff as Caster, but I can't remember it very well." She frowned.

Taiga-sensei pulled out her necklace, which she wore inside her shirt on Mai's advice. Someone had taken a crystal heart broach and turned it into a necklace by stringing it on a platinum chain. Akbar's Pawn Shop had sold it to her cheap; it was practically a steal, given how pretty it was. But Caster was pretty sure it was strongly magical and it had summoned Caster when those men had tried to kill her because of her family's Yakuza connections. And Mai...Caster...Mai...clearly had magical powers.

"Well, if I remember correctly, if the Master's Servant is defeated, the person you most care about will evaporate," Mai said, grimacing. "Which I guess is Shirou."

Taiga-sensei looked horrified. "That's terrible! I wouldn't..." She imagined Shirou evaporating. "Then I can't afford to lose," she said determinedly. "Because I could NEVER let that happen."

"He's like a brother to you, right?" Mai said softly.

"Yes. I am his big sister who has to watch over and protect him because he's not very good at taking care of himself," Taiga-sensei said firmly. "And I will NOT let him evaporate! No matter what!"

No wonder I ended up as her Servant, Mai thought, smiling sadly. She took Taiga-sensei's hand. "I promise I will help you protect your little brother!"

"And I promise I will help you win the war so this won't EVER have to happen again to anyone. This war ends NOW," Taiga-sensei said firmly. "Then you and your friends will be free and none of the terrible things that happened to them will come to pass."

They reaffirmed their pledge to each other, then Mai said, "I don't know what Akane is doing here. I...I hope she's not another Servant."

"She wouldn't be running around with Usagi and Naru, having fun if she was a Servant, right?" Taiga-sensei said. "They're totally normal girls. She's just time-
travelling from the future as an exchange student. And a Servant wouldn't bother enrolling in school, right?"

"That's true, it would get in the way," Mai said. "Let's go make dinner, then tonight, we can investigate the missing statue. It's almost certainly connected to the war somehow. That and the prostitutes, but it's less likely to get us arrested by the vice squad. And we need to avoid police attention."

Taiga-sensei nodded. "Food first, then we hunt for EVIL."

You had to get your priorities straight.

Akane knocked on the door, hoping her instincts were correct. A tall redheaded woman with a much better figure than hers answered the door, wearing a slinky dress made of fabric that resembled space with stars, nebulae, comets, and galaxies. Naru stared at the fabric, fascinated by it; Akane stared in confusion; this wasn't professor Tomoe! And Usagi told her stomach to shut up.

"Ahh, Waitress," the woman said coldly. She was extremely beautiful, but cold like someone had breathed on a marble statue and thus brought it to life. She then looked curiously at Usagi and Naru, then said, "Come in."

"Who are you?" Akane asked.

"I am Professor Tomoe's assistant, Mistress Kaolinite," she said cooly. "I run the estate while he handles the war."

Professor Tomoe lived in your classic giant gothic mansion with a perpetual thunder cloud over it. It looked big enough you could hold the entire Grail War IN IT if you wanted to.

"So you know..."

"Everything," she said, smiling darkly. She glanced at Naru and in a more conversational and friendly tone, she said, "Are you alright?"

"I'm sorry, I can't stop looking at the stars," Naru said, then looked embarrassed. "That sounds really stupid."

"Would you like some of the fabric?" Kaolinite asked kindly.

Naru's eyes widened. "Really? I don't know what it is about it, but I really like it."

"Come," Kaolinite said and led them to a parlor and sat them down. "I will inform Professor Tomoe you are here." She strode off into the mansion.

As they waited, a short girl, perhaps around age 12, stuck her head in; she had short dark hair and nervous eyes.

"Hi," Usagi said. "Are you Professor Tomoe's daughter?"

"I'm Hotaru," she said nervously.

Usagi came over, led her in and sat her down. "It's nice to meet you," she said, smiling.

"Hi," Akane said, though something about the girl made her nervous.

"It's nice to meet you," Naru said, though something about this girl made her feel nervous.

"Is Kaolinite your mother?" Usagi asked curiously.

Hotaru made a face. "No, Mother died in the last Grail War; she was a Master." She sighed.

"That's awful," Usagi said.

"This war is a terrible thing and you should run far, far away from it," Hotaru said urgently.

"It's too late for us," Akane said. "Naru could run but we'd just get chased." She sighed.

"Hello, everyone," Professor Tomoe, a tall, slender man with short white hair and thick glasses, said. He picked up Hotaru and hugged her, then said, "Go play with your DS9; I have to talk the War with these folk."

"It's a PS3, Daddy," Hotaru said.

"Whatever. Kaolinite got you what you wanted, right?"

"Yes, Daddy," Hotaru said sadly.

Usagi frowned, wondering what was going on.

Hotaru scampered off.

"She's a sweet girl, but she's used to having me all to herself," Professor Tomoe said apologetically as Kaolinite served tea and cakes.

Usagi forced herself to just take one and fought the strong urge to eat them all.

She looked up and Professor Tomoe was studying her. "I take it you are Waitress' Master?"

"Yes," Usagi said. "And this is my best friend Osaka Naru."

"I'll go get you some of that cloth, Osaka-san," Kaolinite said.

"Cloth?" Professor Tomoe asked in confusion.

"She likes my dress," Kaolinite said as if this was some sort of coded message.

Usagi frowned. Is something weird going on? She doesn't think Naru has a crush on her, does she? Then again, this is Naru, maybe she does. I've never seen her with a crush on an older WOMAN before, but people can be full of surprises.

"Oh, that's very generous of you, Kaolinite. Go right ahead," Professor Tomoe said, smiling.

Kaolinite departed.

"Usagi needs to know the rules of the Grail War," Akane said to Professor Tomoe.

"There are twelve masters and twelve servants chosen by the Grail," Professor Tomoe said. "They can see the Grail in the sky. When only one Master or one Servant remains active, the Grail will descend to that Master or to the Master of the Servant. The Servant then forces the Grail to manifest physically and the Master can use it to get three wishes. The Grand Miracles of the Grail can accomplish anything, even raise the dead." He twitched and took a deep draught of tea.

"Why didn't you enter the contest to bring your wife back?" Naru asked curiously. "My father died during the fire ten years ago and I would bring him back if I had access to a Grand Miracle." Her tone conveyed 'not that I will', though.

"I was chosen as the Arbiter of the War," he said sadly. "I cannot enter the Grail War," he said. "Also, if I lost, my Hotaru would be left parentless at only age 12. Losing one parent was hard enough on her," he said.

"This must be very hard for you," Usagi said sympathetically, sipping her tea.

"It is," he said, sighing. "Now, my home is neutral ground. There can be no fighting here and any Master who loses his or her Servant may take refuge here; likewise, a Master-less Servant may take refuge while trying to find a new Master," Professor Tomoe said, then ate a cake.

"So if one or the other dies, the survivor can pair off with someone else?" Usagi asked.

Professor Tomoe nodded. "Yes. Or they can just hide here. Most, however, want to press on if they can. At this point, eleven of the twelve masters chosen by the Grail have summoned their Servant. When the last one is chosen, the war officially begins."

"But I saw two of the Servants fighting already," Usagi said.

"Well, it's frowned on but some people do tend to jump the gun," Professor Tomoe said. "Which two?"

"A woman with a bow and a woman with a chain naginata thing," Usagi said.

"The woman with the naginata looked like the Student President of my old school, Fuuka," Akane said. "She must be Lancer and the other is Archer, right?"

"Yes," Professor Tomoe said. "Now, each Master has three Lesser Miracles of the Grail. These can be used to force the Servant to do something against their will or to empower Servants to transcend even their normal limits and accomplish impossible things like teleporting anywhere on Earth, instantaneous healing from hideous injuries, summoning the Servant to the Master from a distance and so on."

Well, now I know how I made everyone think Akane's from the future, Usagi thought. "What happens when you run out of them?"

"No more miracles and you had better hope your Servant likes you because you can't force them to obey. But a Master can only be totally eliminated from the war by death or taking refuge here. You can leave here freely if you come here, but if only one Master is outside the refuge, they win by default," Professor Tomoe said, sipping his tea.

"I'm not sure how exactly I summoned Akane," Usagi said. "Lancer attacked me and I begged the universe for help in a panic."

"Will is enough; all rituals augment and focus the will," Professor Tomoe said. "Mind you, the use of proper foci and rituals will vastly augment your native strength. If you possess something tied to a specific Heroic Spirit, you can summon the Servant of your choice if an appropriate Class for it is open. Otherwise, you get whichever one most closely fits to your personality or sometimes your needs. A sniper might get Saber to shield him while he picks people off, a professional kendoist might get someone who can blast people from a distance and so on," he continued.

Unable to resist her hunger, Usagi ate an entire donut in one bite. "I'm so stupidly hungry."

"You only have so much mana or prana, as it is called," Professor Tomoe said. "Sleep and food helps it regenerate, though proper rituals can speed this. Trained magi learn regeneration rituals which help them get mana back faster."

"Professor, I have a problem with my memories," Akane said to him. "I remember the last Grail War being only five years ago, but my memories insist it only happens every three hundred years."

Kaolinite now brought a wrapped package to Naru. "You can probably make a nice dress from this and have enough left for maybe a nice skirt or blouse extra," she said.

"That is VERY kind of you," Naru said. "I feel kind of bad taking this from you."

"It's okay," Kaolinite said. "It's just sitting, gathering dust."

Very generous, Usagi thought.

"There's a bit of a problem...someone keeps messing with the time stream with extremely powerful magic," Professor Tomoe said. "Several someones, including the winner of the last Grail War that didn't happen any more," he said.

"What?" Usagi asked, confused.

"Also, someone heavily rewrote history two years ago. Or tried. Or rewrote a lot of memories. Or something. Making a further mess," Professor Tomoe said. "People died and then were not dead. Buildings were destroyed, then not destroyed. It's not clear whether time looped back or memories were erased or what. Anyway, right now, the last Grail War happened ten years ago and any other Grail Wars that might have happened in previous iterations of history didn't, maybe."

"Maybe?" Naru asked.

"Why is the Grail War happening now if it only happens every three hundred years," Akane began.

"The damage done to history means we're not sure how often the Grail War has happened or who participated in it. The current consensus is that it probably last happened ten years ago, or at least my dear Himeko thought she was fighting in a Grail War." He frowned. "And got killed in it."

"Wait, the last one was ten years ago?" Naru asked, frowning.

"Yes. Himeko was slain during the war," he said, then twitched. He quickly drank more tea and ate a donut, then continued. "Saber's master blamed her for the fire which ravaged the city, so he killed her." He was very pale and tense now. Quickly, he drank more tea. This seemed to soothe him. "But it wasn't her fault. Assassin set the fire in order to frame her and get everyone to come after her. She was Caster's master." He buried his face in his hands.

"It's okay," Usagi said sympathetically, coming over and patting her shoulder. "You don't have to talk about it. So history has been messed up," she said.

"I think that's why so many people are coming here from the future; they're trying to figure out what messed up the past in order to fix it," he said. "But that's only speculation."

Usagi rubbed her forehead. I think I'm going to have to use one of the Greater Miracles to fix history. But would that kill all my friends again? If Rei is alive, I must have somehow brought them back to life...

"Who won the last war?" Naru asked, frowning deeply.

"Saber's master, the assassin, Emiya Kitsurugi," Professor Tomoe said. "He used her repeatedly as bait to draw out the other masters, then put a bullet through their brains with a sniper rifle," Professor Tomoe continued, shivering. He tried to drink some tea, but his cup was empty. "That's how Himeko died."

"I'm sorry," Usagi said. "Let's change topics, I know this is hurtful to you."

"There are always the same classes but different people are summoned to fill the roles, right?" Akane asked. "In fact...I seem to remember my Servant was more like a huge animal." She frowned, trying to make her memories line up coherently.

"Yes. It is possible that Servants from previous wars have been summoned this time," Professor Tomoe said. "And it would appear some former Masters are now appearing as Servants."

Naru's brain suddenly whirred about. "Emiya...is he related to Emiya Shirou?"

"Emiya Shirou is his son," Professor Tomoe said. "I can neither confirm nor deny he is one of the Masters in this war. You must learn that for yourself."

Usagi frowned. Shirou didn't seem like someone whose father went around murdering people.

"Who was Assassin's master?" Naru asked angrily.

"Kotomine Kirei, son of Kotomine Risei, who was the Arbiter of the last Grail War," Professor Tomoe said, still shaking a little. "I can neither confirm nor deny that he is a Master in this war." He twitched. "He was an expert of disguise magic, however, so even if you saw him, you might not recognize him."

Usagi frowned. He sounded really nasty. But Shirou's father...how...Shirou's not like that at all.

He's not.

She refused to believe it, but...no, no. Shirou's father had died years ago, anyway.

She rubbed her forehead. "So we have to figure out the other masters for ourselves," Usagi said. "But some of them might use disguise magic to pass as other people."

Professor Tomoe nodded. "Even someone you know and trust might be someone else. However, a Servant and his or her Master will always know each other despite any disguises. And a well trained Master can generally use magic to pierce disguises, given time and skill and effort."

"I hardly remember any magic; something erased most of my memories," Usagi confessed.

"I cannot help you there; my job is simply to arbitrate the Grail War and to provide sanctuary to defeated Masters and Servants," he said.

"My father...he wasn't a master in the last Grail War, was he?" Naru asked softly.

"What was his name?"

"Osaka Hayao," she said.

"He was Rider's master, but he and Rider didn't get along well and Rider basically abandoned him when he ran out of Lesser Miracles. She drove off on her motorcycle and left him behind. I know he somehow died, but I don't know how."

Naru now looked very angry. "Abandoned him?"

"As I said," Professor Tomoe said, "Once you use up your Lesser Miracles, you can't force your servant to obey you. Some Masters manage to alienate their Servants; in other cases, they summon Servants who want to do their own thing for whatever reason." He tried to drink from his empty glass again, but now Kaolinite came in with a full pitcher of tea and refilled everyone's glasses.

Usagi blinked in surprise, not having noticed her leaving. She frowned. "So Rider abandoned Naru's father to die?"

"I don't know the exact circumstances, but it does seem the case," Professor Tomoe said. "I guess she had her own private agenda. Once he was on his own, I expect one of the other masters, probably Emiya Kitsurugi, killed him."

"Who was she?" Naru demanded.

"She had long dark hair, not too tall, modest figure, fought with twin pistols," Professor Tomoe said. "If I had to guess, I would say she might well be Annie Oakley, but she never revealed her true name. It's important for a Servant to hide her true identity so people won't know her history, personality, and weakpoints. Or his."

Uh oh, Usagi thought.

Akane sweatdropped.

I don't know how, but somehow, I will MAKE THAT RIDER PAY, Naru thought darkly. "Why did Father end up with an unsuitable Servant?"

"I don't know," Professor Tomoe said. "Unless he told someone, he took that secret to the grave."

I'm going to have to push Mother, Naru thought, frowning.

Usagi came over and hugged Naru, catching her by surprise. Naru relaxed a little, but only a little. "It's okay," Usagi said to Naru. "You can cry."

"I don't want to cry, I want to scream," Naru said angrily. "I'm sorry, Professor Tomoe. I'm not mad at you."

"I understand," he said. "But you shouldn't endanger yourself trying to get revenge, Naru. Only Masters and Servants have a hope to survive in this war. And even many of them will not." His voice was kindly. "I would hate to see you get hurt."

"Don't worry, I'll protect you, Naru," Usagi said firmly. "I'm not losing anyone else."

"You're not a Master or a Servant, so they have no reason to attack you," Akane said, trying to be reassuring.

"You can always come here and take refuge, Osaka-
san, if things get dangerous for you," Kaolinite said to Naru. "No one can hurt you here."

Professor Tomoe nodded. "Of course."

"Thank you," Usagi said.

"It is my duty as Arbiter," Professor Tomoe said. "Anyone who stays under my roof is safe from the War."

"I must admit I could use some help around here," Kaolinite said. "This house is so large."

"Thank you," Naru said.

"Well, that's as much as my brain will hold at one time," Usagi said. "And I am terribly hungry."

"Goodbye, then," Professor Tomoe said cheerfully. "Kaolinite will show you to the door."

Kaolinite took them to the door. She said to Naru, "Show me your dress when you make it; I'll be curious to see what you do with the cloth." She smiled warmly at Naru, completely different from her cold look when she'd first greeted them at this door.

Naru smiled back. "Thank you, I will. Goodbye."

They said their goodbyes and headed out.

Mai and Taiga-sensei studied the square of dirt which had been under the pedestal of the Angel of Fuyuki. "It's gone," Taiga-sensei said sadly. "I kissed my first boyfriend for the first time in front of this statue. Unfortunately, the whole 'love for ever' rumor wasn't true." She sighed. Then put her hand on her shirt; the necklace rested under her clothing, under her hand. "It's giving off a little warmth, whatever that means."

"Not a clue," Mai confessed. "I can fly and set things on fire and summon a dragon and cook really well, but I'm not really a proper spellcaster. I don't know why I didn't end up as Waitress instead of Caster."

"It's okay, I don't know why I ended up as a teacher instead of something fancier either." She sighed. "You have these big dreams when you're a teenager, and then somehow you end up having to settle for something less and mundane and normal."

"I would be pretty happy to settle for mundane and normal," Mai said. "I can't even remember how I died and became a Heroic Spirit. I sort of remember fighting someone who took over my school to save everyone and fighting some monsters in the last Grail War, but I didn't do anything special." I couldn't even save my mother, she thought.

"You protected your little brother, right?" Taiga-sensei said.

"Yes. I always took care of him. I hope he's okay without me." She frowned.

"Hmm." Taiga-sensei had an idea.

For later.

Mai studied the ground. "There are no drag marks. No wheel tracks. How did they manage to carry it off?"

"Close your eyes," Taiga-sensei said thoughtfully.

Mai blinked, then closed her eyes.

Taiga-sensei walked forwards, arms extended. "See, I'm thinking maybe it's actually still here, just hidden by an illusion. But if I close my eyes, the illusion can't fool me."

She hit something solid with her fingertips. "Ahah! I was right!"

She opened her eyes; she'd walked past where the statue had stood and was now touching a tree. "Or not." She frowned. "Maybe your Dragon could track it somehow?"

"I don't want to summon him unless I have to. Anyone who knows my legend will recognize Kagatsuchi. Also, he's kind of hard to hide from normal people noticing us flying around on him," Mai said.

"But you're from the future, so no one here knows your legend," Taiga-sensei said.

"There's a lot of time travellers in this year for some reason," Mai said. "They might know. And there may be other Servants from my own time. Like maybe Akane." She frowned. "Though Akane was the exact opposite of a heroine when I knew her."

"Ouch," Taiga-sensei said, wincing.

"That's not bad, I just mean, she was kind of quiet and shy," Mai said. "So maybe not the opposite but not what you'd call a person to become a heroic spirit." But then, I wouldn't have really tagged myself that way either. I just wanted a normal life.

Taiga-sensei touched her necklace again. "Hey, magic necklace, make us something that will help us track where the statue went!"

She felt a sudden rush through her body and a pair of really gaudy red glasses appeared. Tiny yellow topazes were studded around the rims and the whole thing looked like a refugee from one of Elton John's tours in the seventies. Taiga-sensei put them on and now Mai glowed like a Christmas tree and she could see a powerful, though weaker, glow around her own body. She also felt her stomach rumble. "Dammit, I'm hungry, but we already cleaned up dinner before we came out here."

"We can hit a cafe," Mai said. "Are you sure it's healthy for you to eat so much?"

"I've always been like this," Taiga-sensei said. "I'm always either super-energetic and unstoppable or else I'm hungry and lethargic. And I never gain weight no matter how much I eat."

She studied the ground. "Hmm. Take a look at this," Taiga-sensei said, pointing at the ground. She could see very soft, fading glows which resembled giant toad feet. "Magical toad footprints."

"I don't see anything," Mai said.

Taiga-sensei passed her the glasses.

"Hey, there is no physical trace, but there are fading magical glows shaped like toad feet. A really giant toad."

"Perhaps it's the Child of one of the other Servants?" Taiga-sensei asked. "If it is this big, it could pick up the statue in its mouth and just hop off with it."

Toad...there had been some person who rode around on a toad in the last Grail War, Mai thought. "I think there was a Child like that in the last Grail War."

"Okay, we start circling, see where it jumped to and keep following the hops," Taiga-sensei said. "Sound like a plan?"

"Yes," Mai said.

They soon found another landing point and began making their way through the streets.

Usagi, Naru, and Akane had almost gotten to where Naru lived to drop her off before heading home to Usagi's when they came upon a little girl crying in her front yard.

"What's wrong, little lady?" Usagi asked her.

"A crazy lady turned my kitty into a monster and killed her!" she wailed.

Usagi blinked. "What?"

"She was a redhead with knives for fingers and she turned my kitty into a monster and killed her to steal a hairball from her!"

Naru said, "She's got to be imagining things, Usagi. Steal a hairball?"

Something about a cat... "What was his name?" Usagi asked.

"Rhett Butler," the girl said. "He was really nice, but kind of sluggish. But I loved him so much and now he's dead!"

Usagi frowned. This sounded familiar. She wished she could remember everything better but she didn't dare mess around with her Lesser Miracles again unless she had to.

"And this other crazy lady got in a fight with the knife lady, trying to shoot her and now my tricycle is dead too!" the girl wailed.

Naru's eyes widened. "With guns?"

"She had two pistols and long dark hair and wore a racing outfit," the little girl said.

Naru felt her nerves jangle. "Did either of them have a name?"

"The knife lady's name was a bad word and the lady on the motorcycle with the guns was 'Rider', but the knife lady also called her something bad."

"What bad words?" Akane asked. "I hate to ask but we need to know."

"Rider called the knife lady something bad about her butt and also a whore," the little girl said. "Whatever a whore is, but it sounded bad and made her angry. And Ass lady called Rider a 'bitch'."

"Asssassin. Was that it?" Akane asked.

"Yes," the girl asked. "What does that mean?"

"It's someone who kills people for a living," Akane said. "It's a very bad person."

"Knives for fingers...did she wear a hat and a striped shirt?" Usagi asked.

"Yes," the little girl said.

Usagi frowned. "I'm sorry about your kitty," she told the girl, kneeling down and taking her hands. "I used to have a kitty too, but she ran away."

"I don't know what to do but cry," the little girl said, crying some more. "Mommy won't believe me any of it happened."

Usagi spent a while comforting her, then they moved on. "This could be ugly," she said.

"Why the hell would a cat turn into a monster or two of the Servants kill it and fight over the body?" Naru asked.

"I think Assassin must be Freddy Kruger," Usagi said, looking nervous. "In disguise as a woman."

"Professor Tomoe did say some people use disguise magic," Akane said. "But wouldn't the hat and the knives and the striped shirt give him away?"

"See, he needs those to use his powers to fight, right?" Usagi said. "You have your tiger and your tonfas and your waitress uniform as your special items that let you use your full power, and so the hat and the shirt and the knives must be his. And so he had to bust them out despite his disguise in order to fight Rider."

"Rider," Naru said angrily. "I wonder who she's betraying this time."

"Naru-chan," Usagi said softly, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay, I won't do anything stupid. I'd just die," Naru said with bitter frustration.

"Why don't you stay over tonight?" Usagi asked.

"It's okay," Naru said. "I want to get started making a dress with the fabric Kaolinite-san gave me."

"Okay," Usagi said. "I bet it will be really pretty."

Naru forced a smile. "I'm sure it will."

They said goodbye and parted.

"Eeeee!" Yukino said, then closed her eyes, turning red. The mirrors floating around her suddenly dissolved.

"What's wrong?" Michiru said, suddenly worried.

They were sitting on a roof in one of Fuyuki City's residential neighborhoods. Michiru and Haruka and Natsuki were keeping watch while Yukino scried. Unfortunately, the scrying had just failed.

"She went into a whore house and there were naked women everywhere and I got all flustered and I shouldn't look at naked women!," Yukino said frantically. "They make me feel funny."

Natsuki slapped her forehead. "You're a woman yourself you know!"

Haruka said, "You idiot!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Mother taught me not to spy on people when they're naked even if it feels good and there were so many naked women even if they weren't as pretty as Haruka," Yukino babbled.

"Thank you for the compliment," Haruka said. "But we have to find where Assassin's master is! Especially since she just carried off a major mana matrix!"

"There are six more," Michiru said. "We'll get the next one."

"Yes, but if she knows how to use those...what if she's actually Caster?" Haruka asked.

They both shivered.

"That was Nao," Natsuki said. "If she's a spellcaster, I will eat my hat."

"You don't have a hat," Yukino said hesitantly. "And I actually meant the real Haruka." Beat. "I mean, my friend Haruka."

"Please stop acting like I'm not really named Haruka," Haruka said irritably. "Your girlfriend is back in the future."

"She's not my girlfriend!," Yukino said frantically. "We're just best friends!"

"Just start scrying for the other six," Michiru said to Yukino. "Okay?"

"Okay," Yukino said and concentrated, resummoning her Child, Diana, and deploying Diana's spy spores. As Seer, Yukino was first in Scrying but not good for much else. But with Haruka, Michiru, and Natsuki backing her up, this made her a huge asset to their team.

"I wonder if she knew she was being followed and did that deliberately," Haruka said.

"During the last Grail War, Nao used her Servant to rob men by posing as a young prostitute," Natsuki said with distaste. "Maybe her master is a pimp. That whorehouse could be her master's home base."

"Perhaps we should take out Illyasviel Einzbern while we're waiting for the scrying results," Michiru said. "She's from one of the Great Families. Either she'll know who her family has chosen or she is the one her family chose to be their proxy for the war."

"Do you have any idea how to find her?" Haruka said. "I'm game, but if Yukino is busy scrying for matrixes, unless Illyasviel has one of them, how will we find her?"

"It'll take a while to set up, but I have a plan," Michiru said. "Let me make a few phone calls. Money does have its advantages."

"There's a simple reason why your summoning keeps failing," Professor Tomoe said to Rei Hino. "Everyone in this town is afraid of fire after the disaster in the last war and it's interfering with the sacred fire's power. The result is that you're jamming up your own magical circuits and thus can't tap your powers well." He handed her a bouquet of black, yellow, and white roses. "Burn these; it will clear your circuits and enable a successful summoning. Also..." He gestured to Kaolinite, who passed a folded dress to Rei. "You can wear this."

"What is it?"

"It belonged to a heroic Miko spirit," he said. "This should help you summon her."

"Thank you," Rei said.

"I am glad to help. The war cannot properly begin until you summon the twelfth Servant," he told her. "Good luck."

"Thank you, sensei," she said. "I will let you know when I succeed."

"I will know," he said. "I have a room which measures the progress of the war. I can't show you, as Masters are not allowed to know everything I'm privy to, but I will sense when you succeed."

She nodded. "Of course, sensei. See you later, then."

"Good luck," Kaolinite said. "We're counting on you."

Just a little longer, Usagi, Rei thought. I'll make it up to you once I win this war. I promise you that. But I have to prevent another Great Fire and save the world.

She was determined not to fail.

Naru sewed furiously, though she wasn't sure exactly why it was so important to make this dress. But she wanted it so much. Also, it kept her from going out and doing anything stupid.

Yelling at her mother hadn't accomplished anything. Her mother STILL wouldn't talk about it. But now she was crying in her bedroom. Part of Naru felt guilty, but mostly, she just felt angry.

So she kept sewing as if her life depended on it.

"I don't even know how to start," Akane confessed to Usagi. "I got picked off within minutes of accepting being a Master in the last Grail War. I tried to save a classmate from a monster and she turned out to be another Master, or maybe a Servant and killed me." She shivered. "I don't feel very heroic."

"Neither do I, but you risked your life for a friend," Usagi said. "And that makes you a real heroine, even if you got betrayed." She hugged Akane tightly. "I think tomorrow, we should stay after school and poke around and see if we can find where Lancer or Archer might be hiding. Lancer is really crazy, so we need to deal with her."

"I will do my best," Akane said. "But she kind of scared me."

"Me too," Usagi confessed. "But we have to fight even though we're afraid."

I'm not as brave as you are, Akane thought. But I'll do my best.

Taiga-sensei frowned. They'd totally lost the trail; the footsteps led away from where the angel had been, yet they got fainter and fainter as they left that spot. Surely the frog hadn't hopped backwards to the angel's location and then teleported or something.

"This is so much easier on CSI," Taiga-sensei said.

"I don't have any sunglasses to put on and say something pithy, unfortunately," Mai said, then laughed.

"Damn, that man is hot," Taiga-sensei said. "Too old for me, but hot."

"Maybe we'd better go make sure Shirou is okay if we've flopped here," Mai said, sighing.

"Good idea. The boy gets up to crazy things if I leave him alone for too long."

"I hate to drive you out, Sakura, but it's getting pretty late," Shirou said, looking up from his homework.

He and Sakura were busy doing their homework together, which meant sometimes he helped her (being a grade ahead) and sometimes they both just worked quietly, talking a little at times. This was their usual evening ritual.

She yawned. "Can't I sleep here?"

"People would talk; I would hate to see your reputation hurt, Sakura," Shirou told her.

"Everyone hates me anyway," she said dolefully.

"No, they don't," Shirou said. "I'm sure everyone likes you as much as I do."

She smiled brightly, shyly at that. "Thank you."

"But Shinji will worry if you don't get home soon," Shirou said.

"Do I have to go," Sakura begged. "Please let me stay."

Shirou stared in surprise. "Sakura, what's wrong?"

"There had better not be any hanky-panky I wasn't invited to join going on!," Taiga-sensei said, coming in the front door.

Sakura and Shirou both turned to figurative stone.

"Just kidding," Taiga-sensei said, laughing. "But it's time for Shirou to go bathe and go to bed. Do you want me to walk you home, Sakura?"

"Can I stay, please?" Sakura begged. "It's really late and Shinji will be mad I stayed out so late, but he can't complain if I stayed with you, sensei."

"Okay, I'll tell him I'm tutoring you," Taiga-sensei said. "And you have to stay for special lessons. You can come bathe with Mai and I while Shirou cleans up, then he can take his bath."

"Thank you, sensei," Sakura said with relief.

Pretty soon they were in the baths, getting clean. Mai was finished first. "Would you like me to wash your hair, Sakura?"

"Okay," Sakura said softly and Mai went to work. Taiga-sensei helped her.

"I can't let you do anything naughty with Shirou tonight," Taiga-sensei said. "But if you're very good, I'll let you peep on him a little."

Sakura turned red and mumbled incoherently.

"I know you like him," Taiga-sensei said. "And I approve. You're a good girl and I think you two will be very happy once he pulls his head out of his ass and notices."

Sakura mumbled something incoherent about her brother. Mai got a brush and began working the kinks out of Sakura's hair. "You have beautiful hair," Mai said to her.

"Thank you," Sakura said weakly. "I'm kind of skinny; you have a better figure."

"I think Shirou likes you just the way you are," Mai said. "He's a nice boy."

"He's wonderful," Sakura mumbled.

"Have you seen anything strange at school?" Taiga-
sensei asked her.

"Having all these people from the future show up is kind of strange," Sakura said. "The new history teacher is from the future."

"Suguira-sensei?" Taiga-sensei asked.

Mai's breath caught. "She taught at Fuuka!"

"Is she good?" Taiga-sensei asked curiously.

"She's very good, but..." Mai tapped the three tigers on Taiga-sensei's arms.

This drew Sakura's attention. She stared, eyes wide. "What's that?"

"My lucky tiger tattoos," Taiga-sensei said hastily. "I need to get a fourth one since I'm fourth dan now."

Sakura shivered, then said, "I see."

They finished her hair and got into the hot water to relax. "Hey, Shirou, are you peeping on us?" Taiga-sensei shouted.

Sakura froze up.

The reply was incoherent due to distance and intervening walls. Taiga-sensei sighed. "That boy is too shy for his own good."

"You want him to peep?" Sakura asked in disbelief.

"Two beautiful young women with very nice bodies his own age are butt naked and wet and he isn't even trying to peep," Taiga-sensei said. "Something's wrong with that boy."

"It means he's a gentleman," Mai said. "It's good he's not a peeper, right, Sakura?"

"Yes," Sakura said softly. "I don't like boys who do bad things to girls." She shivered.

"Are you cold?" Taiga-sensei said. "Mai, flank her, we will warm her with our bodies."

Sakura's eyes widened.

Things ensued which would be fanservice if you could see this. You can't, so we'll move on.

Rin looked over at Archer as they knealt before the altar. "If he figures out I'm a magus, we're in trouble," she whispered. "The Christian church and the Mages' Association are on bad terms."

"Anyone who has not confessed their sins and done atonement will never find the Grail," Archer said a little primly.

"What? I've never heard that," Rin said, glancing back down the aisle. The priest was busy sweeping the foyer.

"Everyone knows that. Haven't you ever read anything about the Holy Grail?" Archer asked.

"My family helped MAKE the Grail," Rin said urgently under her breath, glancing back again.

She could hear the priest talking to someone outside and now he stepped outside. Rin felt very nervous.

"Then it is a fake Grail, not worth pursuing," Archer said. "I became a Master in order to seek the True Grail."

"There is no other Grail but this one," Rin said. "Are you talking about all that Arthurian crap?"

"Language," Archer said, touching her lips. "Do not curse in the House of God."

Now I know why a nun became a Master, Rin thought. She was A FOOL. "King Arthur never existed, or if he did, he was just some petty British warlord."

Distantly, Saber sneezed.

Too far away for them to ever notice.

They now heard the priest scream a cry of unearthly agony.

Then there was a horrible noise and fire jetted in the doors of the church, setting the foyer and the front of the church ablaze.

Rin stared in horror. Was this Caster attacking? Had Caster just burned a priest alive?

"NO!" Archer shouted, charging forwards. Her bow appeared and she ran full tilt at the fire.

"Are you crazy! Don't run into the flames!" Rin shouted. She pulled out one of her gems, hurling it to blow up the wooden benches between Archer and the fire. This way it could only spread on the wooden rafters, and not through the heart of the church, since the main body of the church was mostly stone.

The ceiling groaned as Archer plunged into the flames, shouting in anger.

Rin now realized the wooden rafters...were holding up the ceiling. And now they were burning, though not so vigorously as the foyer. There was a horrible, hideous chemical smell coming from the foyer; the foyer was wooden, yet it smelled like burning chemicals for some reason.

Maybe even burning gasoline.

UGH.

She ran to the side door and circled around, another of her gems ready in case she needed it. There was fire across part of the graveyard outside and the charred remains of the priest; there was an odd hole in the middle of his chest, as if someone had ripped out his heart.

She grimaced. Had some Servant killed him for his mana? He'd seemed like a kindly man, for all that Magi and Priests rarely got along well. And now he'd been murdered for the pitiful amount of mana that an ordinary human could provide. Who had done this? Assassin? Caster? Caster and Caster's Master had gone completely insane and tried to destroy the city in the previous war. Saber's Master, the champion of the Einzbern, had been forced to put down both of them. Not that he wouldn't have done it eventually anyway, given this was the Grail War, but the Arbiter had offered extra Lesser Miracles to whoever killed Caster and Caster's Master for unleashing the fire on everything.

Archer was running around the graveyard angrily, but there was no sign of whoever did this.

Rin sighed and began a difficult spell to douse the flames. She was good at energy control but this fire was large and hard to control. Still, for a mage of her skills, it was only a question of time.

By the time she finished, Archer returned, still angry but calmer in her wrath. "We have to find who did this," Archer said.

"We have to bury him; his manner of death might tell the authorities too much and the Grail War is supposed to be secret," Rin said. "Then we will consult with Professor Tomoe, just to be sure."

Did Caster do this? Had something gone wrong with the Caster class? Was every Grail War going to feature Caster going on mad fire sprees?

And who was Caster? Archer insisted Mai was one of the students from Fuuka and had been a Master in that war, not Lucrezia Borgia. So she probably wasn't Assassin. But it was also possible Mai wasn't the real master, but a Servant in that war too. It was still a possibility. Mai did apparently have fire powers and a dragon...was this the smell of dragon fire? But Mai had seemed so...cheerful. And why would she murder a priest? Unless she'd gone mad the way Lancer apparently had—Lancer had been the Student Body President at Fuuka...or was she actually LANCER? Maybe it was a bluff and she was really Caster and totally insane. Or this was Lancer who did this and the fire was a trick by Lancer to frame Caster. Hoping the Arbiter would call down a crusade on Caster again.

That has to be it. Lancer looked seriously disturbed, Rin thought.

Well, one way or another, I need to report this.

Archer frowned. "Couldn't we find the guilty party with one of your Lesser Miracles?"

"I'd rather save those for emergencies," Rin said. "Let's bury this poor man and go see Professor Tomoe."

Archer sighed and pulled out her crucifix, which hung on a silver chain. She prayed silently for a few seconds. "Poor man. Looks like something impaled him."

Definitely Lancer, Rin thought. Hoping the corpse would burn up enough to hide the evidence. Probably had no clue we were here.

Clever, Rin thought, but not clever enough to fool me.

I'm not the genius mage guardian of Fuyuki and heir to the Tohsaka Crest for nothing, after all.

Shirou woke up in agony, his body sliced open in multiple places, blood spilling out. A woman stood over him, a slender redheaded woman with a clawed glove on one hand, a jaunty cap on her head, wearing blue jeans and a striped white and pink shirt. She was licking HIS blood off the blades. He noticed he was tied down with red threads.

"Don't worry, Shirou," she said. "I'm only here to kill you and your teacher girlfriend, Taiga-sensei. If you'd been content to be faithful to her and not to hit on other women, I wouldn't have to kill you. I'd still have to kill her, but that's what she gets for being an idiot," the woman said.

"No, I can't let you kill Fuji-nee," he said, desperately struggling against the threads.

"Just relax. You can't escape my threads and these wounds won't kill you. I have to take you back to my Master alive. That's how he wants you, so he can do the job himself. But I wanted to make sure you wouldn't interfere with your silly hero complex." She held her blades over Shirou's head, letting a single drop of his own blood fall onto Shirou's forehead. "You are the son of a mage and there's that small chance you might somehow wreck my plans. I don't like surprises, unless I'm giving them."

"Please, just kill me if you have to, don't hurt Fuji-
nee," Shirou begged; he couldn't get free, but maybe he could talk her out of killing the person most important to him in the world, his oldest friend. She was family to him and if she died, most of what was left of him after the Great Fire would die too.

"Oh, she has to die. She is a Master and this is the Grail War. She knew the risks. And now she will pay. I suggest you pray. Just in case the gods exist, though I doubt it. Don't go anywhere." She laughed and turned to go.

"Who are you?" Shirou asked. "Grail War? Master?"

"She hasn't told you? Then again, you're so useless, she probably didn't see the point," the woman said. "As for who I am..." She licked another blade clean. "I am Assassin. Don't worry, I won't hurt Sakura. Orders are orders, even if she's even more of a loser than you." She sighed. "He even burned a Lesser Miracle in order to ensure I couldn't kill her. That's devotion. Now, you relax and get used to the feeling of blood leaving your body, since pretty soon you'll lose the rest too." She left the room.

No, no, no, NO, Shirou thought. I can't let Fuji-nee die! And what is she going to do to Sakura? He didn't trust her to be telling the truth. Lesser Miracle? What the hell was she talking about? The woman was clearly insane just like...

Had that been real? But why am I still alive, then?

He heard yelling and screaming and shouting now and then he smelled something. FIRE.

For a moment, all he could do was scream and then fear washed over him. My parents! Fuji-nee! Sakura! Mai-san! We're all going to die!

His second father had died too and now Shirou was going to join him and he would never even strike one blow for justice before he died.

Please! Father! If there is any magic you can do from beyond the grave, save Fuji-nee. I don't care if I die. Just help her.

He felt something strange inside him, like when he tried to practice his magics, but a hundredfold. A thousandfold. Like when he cooked, too, he now realized, but much more potent.

He heard a gentle whisper. so your heart hungers for justice?

Was that Suguira-sensei? What was she doing here? "Save Fuji-nee and Sakura and Mai-san! There's a crazy woman!"

The red cords on him were magic, he realized. He could sense the power flowing through them. And their weak points. Instinctively, he called upon his one good magic, Reinforce. But Reinforce could be used to find weak points too. "I'll find my own way out of this. Just save her! This is going to take me a while."

then I accept your summons and contract, she whispered. Three rectangles appeared on the inside of his right arm, paralleling the many scars and burns which formed a tangle on the inside of his left arm. Careful inspection would have shown the marks resembled a sword sheath, but he had other things on his mind.

There was a blazing of light and now a woman appeared, Suguira-sensei, but armed with a huge pinkish axe. "Let me get you loose so you can treat your wounds, master."

"I'll be okay! Go save them!"

Suguira-sensei smiled at him. "You are a brave man," she said and crashed through the door. "Heeeere's Johnny!" she shouted, then charged out of sight.

"HMMMM..."

He could hear smashing and crashing sounds and smelled more fire and was close to crapping himself as people yelled and screamed.

He could see the weakspots in the cords binding him. So he extended his will to weaken one of those points further. He pushed and pushed and pushed, until it began to waver, fading in and out, and then he pulled his shirt up around one hand and reinforced the shirt and drove it into the weakpoint, snapping it.

Inch by inch, point by point, he slowly freed himself, though he was in great pain and the fire was bringing him close to raving insanity. Even if he could only smell it.

He was free. He was free.

He staggered to the door. "Fuji-nee, I'm coming," he said.

Sakura now ran up to him. "Shirou-kun!"

He fell into her arms. "You're okay," he mumbled.

"Suguira-sensei and Mai-sempai are fighting the crazy woman," Sakura said.

"Is Fuji-nee okay?" he mumbled.

"Taiga-sensei is running around shouting and trying to help," Sakura said.

I can die now, knowing she's safe too, Shirou thought. "I think I'm going to bleed some more now."

He then passed out.

"I will take this into advisement," Professor Tomoe said to Rin. "It's possible this is just some mundane nutcase too. Good luck."

A chime began to ring, and it tolled twelve times.

Rin checked her watch; it was now 1 AM. "I think you forgot to reset your clock for Daylight Savings Time, Professor Tomoe."

"That is the Cloister Bell. The last Servant has been summoned. The War has now officially begun."

"So no more Servants can be summoned, right?" Rin asked.

"Yes, all the Servants allowed by the Rules are now in the field, one of each class," Professor Tomoe said.

"I guess I can't ask which one," Rin said.

"I'm afraid not," Professor Tomoe said. "The Grail always chooses one Matou, one Tohsaka, and one Einzbern, but beyond that, you're on your own to deduce."

"Either Shinji or his grandfather, Matou Zouken. Sakura would make a terrible master," Rin said. Probably Matou-sama, for all his age. And one of Illyasviel's relatives is probably running around as a Master, using her as bait to draw out his rivals. I won't fall into that trap. Without a good lead on the church burning, I think I'd best poke my nose discreetly into the Matou clan.

Discreetly.

Rei continued to wave her prayer rod in front of the sacred fire with grim determination. She was exhausted, sweat was pouring off her from the heat and she was close to collapse from dehydration. But she would NOT give up.

And then she saw it, the Grail appearing where the Angel of Fuyuki City had once stood, and two people stood there, a pale-haired woman of middling height with a white sword coming out of her right elbow instead of a forearm, and a young blonde girl with spikey hair. The former woman took the Grail and passed it to the young girl, who spoke, and then the entire world caught fire and burned and burned and burned...

"NO!" Rei shouted. "I WILL NOT ALLOW IT!"

And as the anger burned white hot within her heart, the sacred flame roared up in a great pillar and a young girl with her hair done up in four long squiddy-tentacles, wearing the same wedding dress Rei was wearing, stepped out of the flames, holding a flute. "I am Munakata Shiho, the Servant known as Miko." She kneeled before Rei. "Like you, I burn. Please accept my pledge of service."

"I accept. Together, we will find the grail and save this world."

"I accept," Shiho said. "Together, we will find the grail and destroy our enemies with the fire we share."

Three ravens now appeared on Rei's right arm. "Call your Steed, Shiho. We have to go to the city center." Probably that was a possible war ending, but Rei intended to take no chances.

"I hear and obey, big sister," Shiho said and began to play her flute. A huge one-legged raven appeared and they mounted up and flew out of the temple and across the city.

The cloister bell began to ring again, and Professor Tomoe smiled. "Just as I thought, Kaolinite."

"That the rule was arbitrary?" she asked.

"Exactly," he said. "Now the game really begins."

Shingo looked up at the giant raven. "Holy shit."

"Crap," Akira said to Shingo, then tossed him over one shoulder and dropped down to the alley level, running at high speed.

"Hey, the museum is the other way!"

"That thing killed Gennai during the last Grail War and I lost Takumi," Akira said frantically, completely panicked. "I can't...we have to hide!"

Shingo frowned. "Its Master killed your boyfriend during the last Grail War?"

"He wasn't...Takumi..." Akira was becoming more and more frantic.

Shingo's face darkened. "Then it has to be stopped."

"I can't beat it. I'm not good enough," Akira said, sounding utterly frustrated and shamed.

"I've got these," Shingo said, peeling back the sleeve of his shirt to reveal three brown bunnies on his right arm. "You can do impossible deeds with these, right?"

Akira licked her lips nervously. "Yes, but won't the Crow's Master have those also?"

Shingo frowned. "Well, let's follow it. Maybe we'll get an opportunity. If nothing else, at least you'll learn who beat you, right?"

"The Crow might not have the same Master," Akira pointed out as they reversed course and began following it.

"Or it could be the Crow's Master is now a servant like you," Shingo pointed out. "It won't hurt to look."

"You don't have to do this for me. I am the Servant," Akira began.

"I do have to do this for you. What happened to you was bullshit and I won't tolerate bullshit," Shingo said flatly.

Akira smiled a tiny smile as she ran along, carrying Shingo, as they pursued the giant crow.

There was no sign of the grail or any short girls with spikey hair or taller ones with a sword for an arm. "The girl sounds kind of like Alyssa Sears," Shiho said to Rei. "But I don't remember any girls with swords for arms."

"That's probably Saber," Rei said. She could sense fading amounts of spiritual energy here, but it was pretty clear to her now that her vision was a future event.

Which she had to stop.

"Do you have a boyfriend, sempai?" Shiho asked.

"I had one, but I lost him to my best friend," Rei said softly. "And now neither of them remember each other or me."

Shiho grimaced. "That's terrible. She stole your boyfriend?" She looked around as if hoping said best friend would come by for a beating.

"It was destiny," Rei said, then sighed. "But I have to stop the destruction of the world before I can think about a boyfriend."

"There is no such thing as destiny," Shiho said gloomily. "That's just a lie people use to justify stealing boyfriends. We ought to go beat her up."

"She doesn't even remember it or him now," Rei said. "We all died fighting Beryl and she turned back time with the Silver Crystal and none of it ever happened which meant he never dated me or loved her."

Shiho's eyes widened. "Tell me about this."

They mounted up to head home and Rei told her about it all on the way home.

The first thing Shirou heard when he woke up was the TV in the living room. "The Kazahana estate has burned to the ground, killing Kazahana Mashiro, the reclusive young heiress, and her entire personal staff. Coupled with the burning of a Christian chapel and the death of its priest, many fear that some pyromaniac is on the loose," the newscaster said.

Shirou then realized his head was on a lap. Sakura's. He was now wearing blue silk pajamas he hadn't gone to bed in and while he was UTTERLY STARVING, he nevertheless felt no pain and could see no sign of any of the injuries he'd suffered the previous night.

Sakura was somehow sleeping while sitting Indian-
style with his head on her legs. He tried to rise without waking her, but she stirred. "Are you okay?" she asked softly.

"I'm fine, are you okay? Is everyone okay?" he asked. Maybe I just had a nightmare and Sakura came in to hold me so I would sleep peacefully.

Instead of acrid smoke, he smelled tasty food and his stomach rumbled.

Sakura giggled. He couldn't help but laugh.

"Everyone is fine and Mai-san is cooking breakfast with Taiga-sensei and Suguira-sensei."

It was real, he realized.

What was going on?

Sakura led him out to the kitchen, where cooking was in progress. His stomach grumbled to announce his presence.

"Don't worry, the breakfast okonomiyaki are almost ready for toppings," Mai said. She was cooking that while the two teachers prepped the toppings.

Pretty soon, Shirou was stuffing his face. Once his hunger subsided, he asked, "What is going on?"

"I am Chariot," Suguira-sensei said. "But in the fourth festival, I was Rider." She sighed. "Things didn't go well for me."

"You do realize I have no idea what any of that means, right?" Shirou asked Suguira-sensei.

Sakura now cut a piece of okonomiyaki and tried to feed him; he let her and she smiled.

"Okay, your adoptive father, Emiya Shirou, fought in the Grail War, as the master of Saber," Suguira-sensei said. "He took down Caster and Caster's master, who tried to set the city ablaze for some reason. And saved you from the fire."

"What? Saber? Caster?" Shirou asked.

Chariot rubbed her forehead. This was going to take a while.

"Wake up, slee...AAAAA!" Usagi said.

She'd opened the door to Shingo's room to make him get up for breakfast when suddenly there was a short, dark haired boy in her face, about to put a knife to her throat.

She stumbled back and he jumped back, looking embarrassed. "I am SO SORRY, cousin Usagi," Akira said, putting away the knife and bowing. "I didn't realize you actually get up in the morning so I thought it must be an intruder!"

Usagi rubbed her forehead. Her cousin Akira from the future was a little prone to respond dangerously to being surprised. "Please wake up Shingo; Mom wants him to actually eat and go to school on time at least once this week."

"I will ensure he gets out of bed," Akira said, hefting a pillow.

"Thanks," Usagi said. She headed off to breakfast. Hopefully Akira will knock some discipline into that boy, because heaven knows, no one from this century can.

"Maybe you should go home and sleep today," Usagi said to Naru, who resembled a zombie.

Akane, Naru, and Usagi were walking to school together.

"I'm fine," Naru said. "I just have to try it on and adjust it. I worked all night on my new dress."

"Oh wow, I bet it's beautiful," Usagi said.

"It is," Naru said proudly. "I wish we didn't have a uniform so I could wear it to school."

"We're going to stay late and look for any other Servants or Masters, like Lancer, who might be lurking around the school," Akane said to Naru.

"I'm going to go home and work on my dress. Good luck," Naru said. "And if you see Rider, kill her for me," she said, her voice turning vicious.

Usagi frowned, then said, "We'll see if we can find out what happened, Naru-chan."

"Thanks," Naru said. "Mom just cried when I tried to get the truth from her." She grimaced.

Usagi put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault. Mom just hasn't been the same the last few years. She never fully recovered from Dad's death, but it got worse about two years ago. I don't even know why."

Usagi had a flash of killing a monster that looked like Naru's mother. Surely not, she thought. Anyway, she's alive.

Like Rei, who Usagi had seen die.

Usagi grimaced. I can fix everything, once I end this war, she thought. I have to. Please don't let me have had to kill Naru's mother. PLEASE.

"And that is how the Grail War works," Suguira-
sensei concluded. "This may be the Fifth Grail War, or at least in the current time line, it is. However, there is evidence showing it was once called 'The Festival' and revolved around the now dead god, the Obsidian Lord...," she began.

Shirou's eyes were glazing over. Sakura had collapsed under the weight of the knowledge and Mai had fallen asleep, her head in Taiga-sensei's lap. "Which is where you and Mai fought," Taiga-sensei said.

"Reality has changed at least a dozen times in major ways that I can determine and there may have been several dozen more," Suguira-sensei said. "I'm not sure how many of us fought in the Festival, but I think some of those involved and maybe some others, ended up somehow as Heroic Spirits and got summoned for the last war and this one. But not everyone in the last one was from Fuuka in the future. Or the past. Or however things SHOULD have worked. But I have a feeling every Grail War ends with a massive reality rewrite and reality is starting to creak at the seams from all the changes. We have to break this cycle or the universe is eventually going to just shatter. I don't know what will follow that but frankly, I don't want to find out."

"If I was a better mage, I could probably stop that happening with Reinforce," Shirou said, feeling guilty he'd never properly mastered the spell. "But I've never been very good at it."

"I don't know if any mage could stop it no matter how good they were, though I suppose with enough skill and prana, you could save some of the universe," Suguira-
sensei said.

"It's not going to break yet," Taiga-sensei said.

"I just wish I knew what I was doing better," Shirou said.

"Look, after school, we'll come back and experiment on you," Taiga-sensei said. "Maybe between us all we can figure out how to help you, since it's too late for you to back out."

"Damnation, we are going to have to drive like crazy," Suguira-sensei said. "But before we can deal with Assassin, we definitely need to get you up to snuff. And put up better defenses here."

Taiga-sensei gently laid Mai down. "To the Taiga-
mobile! Time to actually use my car for once!"

Shirou prayed he wasn't about to lose all the food he just ate.

"Wards on the Archery Dojo," Rin said. "Either a trap or Lancer's base, I suspect."

They were on the roof of the school, studying the buildings while class was in session.

Archer blinked. "Lancer is based in the Archery Dojo?"

"Maybe. It could be a trap or someone else. It is odd that an Archer summoned Lancer," Rin said. "But that adds to the odds that Shinji is the master. As he's vice-
captain of the Archery team. Once school is over, we're taking him down."

"Do you think maybe his sister knows something?" Archer asked. "Perhaps you should subtly inquire with her."

"I don't think she'll betray her brother. On the other hand, subtle inquiries wouldn't hurt, I think."

Rin had brought two lunches. Perhaps I could invite Sakura to lunch; Shirou probably brought his own, anyway.

Yes, that was definitely a good idea.

"Thank you for sharing, sempai," Sakura said kindly to Rin as they ate together under a tree. Rin had made her patented unagi with eel, cucumber, celery, rice, and peppers. She was quite looking forward to it; the white sauce was an excellent addition to the traditional family recipe.

Sakura took one bite and her eyes crossed. She then said, "Interesting choice of sauce, sempai."

Rin took a big bite, chewing slowly and delicately. "I love it."

"How is your day?" Sakura asked politely as she ate and drank tea; she'd sprung for nice iced tea in a can for each of them since Rin had bought the food.

"Very good. How is your brother doing? Is his club well?"

"Very well," Sakura said. "His new ladyfriend is a little creepy but he seems to like them that way."

"New ladyfriend?" Rin asked casually, working on her food.

Sakura ate slowly and delicately, taking small sips of tea; you could barely hear her eat. "He stays late at school with her, says he's training her in archery." Those who knew Sakura well could sense she was dubious of this; Rin could tell thanks to her hearing what she expected to hear and it lining up with reality, conveniently.

"Night after night?" Rin asked.

"I think so. I'm usually at Shirou-sempai's place," Sakura said.

"Is...Are Taiga-sensei and Emiya-san well?" Rin asked.

"Very good," Sakura said. "But Emiya-san is rather tired; we wore him out yesterday."

Rin smiled. "Good. I expect you'll be there after school?"

"Oh yes," she said.

Good, Rin thought. While Sakura did not impress her, there was no point in risking her getting hurt when it came time to deal with Shinji.

And that time was now.

"A new all-you-can-eat restaurant?" Usagi asked Michiru gleefully.

"Yes. Since the old one in town went bankrupt due to those foreign girls," Michiru said. "Spread the word, won't you?"

"I know where I am dining tonight," Usagi said gleefully.

"We have to stay after school, remember?" Akane said to Usagi.

"But..."

"We have to stay after school," Akane said flatly.

"Okay," Usagi mumbled.

"Don't worry, it's not a one-day offer," Michiru said. "And spread the word around."

"I will!" Usagi said. OH YEAH.

Naru nervously stepped into Ishigami-sensei's office after school. "What do you need me for?" she asked, her heart beating faster. She knew she needed to stop getting crushes on older men, but she just couldn't help it. They were so much more mature and handsome than boys her own age.

She wanted someone mature, not some immature teen macho brat.

But she knew she wasn't actually mature and pretty enough to attract one of them's interest.

"I'd like you to pose for a painting for me," he said. "I think you'd make a good model."

"I'd love to," she said, stunned. "If you really want me."

"Of course," he said. "Could you bring some kind of dress tomorrow? We can stay after school and you can model for me."

"Oh, I have the perfect dress for it," Naru said, eyes shining. "I mean...I could go get it right now."

"It's a long ways to come back here," he said. "Though...where do you live?"

She gave him her address.

"I live just two blocks away from you in Grace Apartments," he said. "We could both go home and you could come over and have leftover fish and rice with me and then you could pose in my little studio room."

"YES," Naru said. I'll just tell Mom I'm going over to Usagi's.

"Okay, then. I'll see you soon."

"So how did you sustain yourself since the last war, Suguira-sensei?" Shirou asked her.

They'd all gone back to his place after school and were now in his and Taiga-sensei's dojo. Sakura had joined them as well and was kneeling down by him as he sat on the floor indian-style.

Taiga-sensei was running through a kata, while Mai kneeled by Suguira-sensei, who was sitting indian-style herself.

"One of my Noble Phantasms, the Sexy Teacher Outfit, allows me to drain small amounts of mana from the lust of everyone drooling over me," Suguira-sensei said, pointing to her combo of very short shorts, midriff-baring red shirt (also low cut) and blue jacket. "So I've been travelling around, teaching at high schools and draining young men of their desire and some of their mana. Several hundred young men drool over me every day, enabling me to absorb a fair amount of mana, enough to survive and stockpile small amounts for the future. Plus, I can gain large amounts of mana by seducing a college professor in this outfit, though I'm not sure how the metaphysics of that works."

Shirou stared, eyes wide. Sakura now put her hands over his eyes. Mai and Suguira-sensei laughed.

"My other Noble Phantasms are my Child, Gakutenou, and my trusty Axe, +5 Keen Holy Axe of Returning."

"It sounds like something from a video game," Shirou said.

Suguira-sensei laughed nervously. "I'm afraid there is a dearth of legends about magical axes for it to have a better name."

"So, do you know how to fix my problems with magic?" Shirou asked.

"Did your Father ever put you through an Initiation ritual?" Suguira-sensei asked. "To open your magic circuits?"

"There's an initiation ritual? We never did anything like that," Shirou said. "I think he was kind of reluctant to teach me."

She took his left arm, which had a lot of old cooking scars. "You have a crude magical crest here, but other than cooking magic and your Reinforce spell, you can't do anything else because your magic circuits haven't been properly initiated," Suguira-sensei said. "I've been studying all this the last ten years, getting ready for this war."

"Wow, I'm lucky, then," Shirou said.

"Very," Sakura mumbled. She didn't sound too happy about it, though.

"There's several forms of initiation ritual. You're a virgin, right?" Suguira-sensei asked.

Shirou turned bright red; so did Mai. Sakura just stared at the floor.

"He's very much a virgin," Taiga-sensei said cheerfully.

"Okay. Properly done, you can activate your magic circuits by losing your virginity," Suguira-sensei said. "That's the easy way."

Sakura winced and crumpled in on herself.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Mai asked her kindly.

Suguira-sensei studied Sakura for a moment, then said, less cheerfully than usual, "Am I making you uncomfortable, Sakura?"

"It's okay, sensei," she said to her feet as she curled up into a ball.

Suguira-sensei pointed at Shirou, then at Sakura.

Shirou blinked in confusion, then looked at Sakura. "Are you hungry?" he asked.

Suguira-sensei slapped her forehead and made an odd gesture with her arms, curving them around in front of her as if holding an invisible pillar.

Shirou mimicked the gesture, looking confused, then Mai came over and hugged Sakura. "It's okay," she said softly. "We'll be back."

"Okay," Shirou said nervously.

Mai led Sakura out.

"You are the biggest idiot ever to walk the Earth," Suguira-sensei said irritably. "She needed a hug, you fool."

"I...oh. No one ever wants a hug from me except Fuji-
nee sometimes," Shirou mumbled. "My hugs aren't worth much."

"Well, I think Sakura wanted you to hug her. Or at least try to comfort her," Suguira-sensei said, sighing. "But it's pretty clear you're not ready for sex if you can't even figure out a woman wants a hug. So there's two other ways."

"Go on," he said, now feeling guilty. He was good at that.

"Well, a near-death experience, usually involving poison or hunger or exhaustion or pain, is another option. There's a variety of rituals we could use of that style."

"Okay," he said nervously.

"Or sometimes, people's magic circuits spontaneously open when someone is trying to kill them, but we can't count on that," she said. "Let's get into the different kind of near-death rites."

"I nearly died in the Great Fire, but it didn't open my channels," Shirou said.

"I think it started to, which is why you can use Reinforce a little and your cooking magic and are starting to develop a Crest," Suguira-sensei said. "Butt ugly as it is. But you were saved before the process finished. Hmm, yes, fire might be the ideal thing to push you to the edge."

Shirou began to sweat.

"It's okay, you're safe here, no one will hurt you," Mai said, holding Sakura tightly.

Sakura mumbled incoherently into Mai's shoulder.

"No one here is going to make you do anything you don't want to do," Mai said soothingly, her eyes watering. She was pretty sure someone had raped Sakura, possibly to activate their own magic circuits, possibly just because they wanted to rape someone. Or both. They weren't incompatible. "You know Shirou would never force you into something. Ever."

"I know, but Suguira-sensei is so pretty and brave and..." she mumbled.

"I won't let her do anything stupid," Mai said to Sakura. "She's not going to steal him away."

Slowly, Sakura relaxed. "Thank you, Tokiha-sempai."

"You can call me Mai," Mai said firmly. "Taiga-
sensei told me to protect both of you and I will."

"My...my..." Sakura tried to speak, but no words came out and she looked intensely frustrated. For a moment, it looked like her skin was rippling and her hair moving of its own accord and then it passed and she began to cry.

Mai stared, then decided she must have seen a trick of the light. She held Sakura tightly until the tears stopped.

Archer frowned at the bottles. "They make me nervous."

"My magic ensures they won't go off until impact. Our tests showed this will work," Rin said. "The dojo will go up like a light and flush out Shinji and his Servant so we can snipe them in the open from a distance."

"But what if he has other Archery club members? Or people he's taken to drain their mana?" Archer asked, frowning. "We might kill innocents."

"You can't make an omlette without breaking eggs," Rin said, though now she frowned deeply. It was allowed to kill innocents but...

"He seems the type to leave them behind to die if the place burns too," Archer said.

Rin grimaced. "Fine. Got another way to flush him out? I'm not going in there."

Archer smiled a little. "This is traditional Japanese architecture, yes?"

"Yeah, they built the Archery dojo with wood and...PAPER," Rin said. "There's just a little box unit for AC and heat and no water or anything so they didn't bother with stone and masonry and whatnot! We can cut a hole in the wall and PEEP."

Rin's pocket knife sufficed for the task and they peeped in; they could see a bunch of archery targets and gear; one end of the building was closed off into a storage room. No sign of Shinji, Assassin, or anything unusual.

Rin frowned. They moved around to peek into the storage room. TOTALLY mundane. No sign even of alarm wards or anything. Though Rin was better at blowing things up then finely detecting magic.

She went back for a second peep on the main floor of the dojo. This time, she noticed something. The dojo was basically a long rectangular box of wood and paper. One of the ends was closed off at the far end to form the storage room. The wall on the other far end had a very faint magic aura she only detected because she spent a long time staring around in frustration.

Illusion magic. Someone had hidden the far end of the room under an illusion. Probably their base!

Unfortunately, Rin's magical training had been self-
taught from books because her father had died in the previous Grail War after only teaching her the very basics. The spells stored in the Tohsaka family crest were good for making things go boom and cursing people but not so good for things like seeing through illusions. She could probably just blow the illusion up but this risked something like 'blow up illusion - stare Medusa in the face - turn to stone', which is how one of her uncles had died.

She told Archer the situation.

"I believe my Child, St. Vrus, can dispel the illusion, for he has power over such things," Archer said. "I can also try to dispel it with my crucifix."

Archer had three Noble Phantasms: her bow, which Rin had named Glorious Dawn, her Child, the giant horse-
like monstrosity St. Vrus, and her crucifix, which she wouldn't let Rin give a name to. Even when Rin begged.

Begged a lot.

"You stay here, outside; I will step inside and attempt it," Archer said.

Rin nodded nervously.

Archer slid the doors open and stepped inside and brandished her crucifix. "In the name of God, OPEN THE WAY!"

It glowed with holy might and the illusion caught fire and burned away. This was somewhat disconcerting as the area revealed briefly seemed covered in fire from the illusion.

Shinji stood in the hidden area, behind a podium with a big book resting on it. He held an arrow with a violet gemstone tied onto the end of it, a crude wand, in one hand. A huge, monstrous house cat, violet in color, crouched at his feet, ready to spring.

"Bakene the mighty! I conjure thee by the power of your command gem! SLAY ARCHER!" Shinji shouted. "But take Rin alive!"

"GLORIOUS DAWN!" Archer shouted and her bow appeared. She nocked an arrow, aiming it at Bakene the mighty.

Bakene snored.

Archer stared, a single drop of sweat rolling down her forehead.

Rin now ran in, pulling out a gem. "Give it up, Shinji! Your Servant could care less about your survival!" He used up his Lesser Miracles ALREADY? What an idiot. Then again, maybe his servant was just trying to force him to use them up.

Shinji kicked the cat in the ass. "WAKE UP!"

"MWROR!" the cat said and turned to pounce on him.

"Hold," Rin said softly to Archer, who kept her glowing arrow nocked.

The gem now flared brightly. "GO KILL THEM YOU LAZY ASS CAT!"

Bakene grumbled and began to slowly slink towards Archer, making unhappy kitty noises.

"I guess it is true the magical blood of House Matou runs thin," Rin said. The gem worried her, though. It seemed to have a lot of mana in it. And some kind of Crest, too. Unfortunately, she didn't have time for a detailed analysis. She aimed a finger at the book. "Casting spells out of a book? You are pathetic, Shinji. Surrender your Lesser Miracles or we open fire."

A Master could choose to surrender his Lesser Miracles to another; this would eliminate them from the War. However, this was a risky thing to demand, as someone armed with Lesser Miracles might come up with a good way to turn the tables on you when transferring them, as this required skin to skin contact. It was rumored that some magi knew how to chop someone's arm off and use their Lesser Miracles that way, but that was beyond Rin's abilities or ethics.

"Bring it on!" he said. "I'll show you the true value of the true heir of the Matou family!"

She was pretty sure that Shinji's grandfather, Zouken, still had the family crest. So that's why Shinji needed the book; he didn't have the family's store of spells laid up in the Crest the way Rin did, though she was sure he must have learned at least a few spells by study as she had. But that was difficult, so he had to rely on the book.

Goodbye Book.

Rin fired up her favorite attack spell, Gand, which created a black sphere of entropy that she could shoot from her finger like a bullet and aimed it at the book. Shinji gestured with his improvised wand and her Gand bullet slowed and began to fall and finally blew a hole in the floor the size of a grain of rice. Shinji grinned.

"Oh, you're a sweet kitty," Archer said.

Shinji and Rin looked over at Archer; Bakene was now on his back and Archer was rubbing his huge fat belly while he made happy kitty noises.

Shinji said, "DAMMIT YOU STUPID CAT, KILL HER NOW!" He gestured with the wand and Bakene howled in pain, then suddenly attacked Archer, knocking her down. Glorious Dawn went spinning off across the floor.

Red threads now descended from the ceiling, wrapping around Rin and pulling her up into the rafters. Assassin held her blades to Rin's throat. "If you even try to use a Lesser Miracle or a spell, I will slit your throat." She hung in the rafters by several red cords from the ceiling. There was a huge spider-like creature up here with her as well. "Julia, dispose of Archer."

Bakene now began trying to groom Archer's face.

Shinji's teeth ground so loudly you could hear them in Chile. "You are the WORST DEMON EVER," he said to Bakene.

Julia dropped towards Archer.

Archer reached for her crucifix but couldn't reach it with Bakene on her torso.

Bakene continued to groom Archer's face.

Rin tried desperately to think of a plan.

GIANT TIGER OUT OF NOWHERE!

Harry crashed into Julia in the air and they both went tumbling out the door.

Akane stood in the doorway with Usagi. Akane was in her waitressing uniform, golden double-tonfas in her hands. Usagi stood next to her, still in her school uniform, a frisbee in each hand.

"THE FUCK?" Assassin said, mouth wide open.

"You won't break any more hearts, Matou-san!" Usagi shouted at Shinji. Then she hurled the frisbees at Assassin's webs. They glowed brightly, slicing through them. Rin and Assassin took a tumble that knocked Rin out when she hit, though she rolled away from Assassin, who gave a cry of pain but bounced to her feet just in time for Akane to send her crashing through a wall with a gust of wind generated by Akane sweeping her tonfas.

"SLEEP," Shinji shouted, pointing at Usagi.

"NAP TIME! YES!" Usagi shouted happily, then fell asleep.

Akane's jaw dropped.

"Please let me up, kitty, I need to fight," Archer pleaded with Bakene, who now was curling up for a nap himself.

"SLEEP!" Shinji shouted, pointing at Akane, but nothing happened.

"Waitresses who sleep on the job get fired!" Akane said. "And use of magic in the restaurant on staff or customers is strictly forbidden!"

Paper walls meant Shinji made a nice cut-out of himself in the wall as Akane blew him, his spell book, and his improvised wand through the wall.

Bakene began to snore, while Archer tried helplessly to get loose.

"Usa..." Akane began but then she heard Harry yelling and she ran through the hole Harry and Julia had made; Assassin and Julia were double-teaming Harry, so she blew Assassin away from him. Assassin tried to tangle Akane with her webs, but Akane parried every attempt, while Harry and Julia rolled around, biting each other.

Shinji walked back in, grabbed Rin, and began dragging her off. "Dammit, Bakene, KILL ARCHER!"

Bakene woke up and looked mournfully at Shinji.

Shinji now held the violet gem in his hand. "This gem means I OWN YOU. NOW KILL HER, DAMMIT!"

The gem flared brightly and Bakene howled and Archer prayed desperately for a miracle because she just wasn't strong enough to get the cat off her; it clearly was some kind of Servant or Demon or something.

Please Lord, she thought. Save Rin. I am a terrible person who broke my oaths to you, but she's a young girl, with her whole life ahead of her. I would guide her to avoid my mistakes if I could but if one of us must die, let it be me. Please.

What she got in answer to her prayer was not so much a miracle as an idea.

Shirou hugged Sakura tightly in silence, her head on his shoulder.

Taiga-sensei started to say something, but Mai and Suguira-sensei dragged her out of the room.

They hugged for a very long time, until Shirou finally said gently, "You can cry if it helps."

She started sobbing onto his shoulder until it was very wet.

"I'm not very good with people," he said. "But you know I'll always be here for you, Sakura."

"I know," she said softly. "Shirou. I have to...to..." She squirmed and her mouth moved but no sounds came out and she looked very frustrated. She tried to write something but she could only make incoherent squiggles on the floor with her pen.

"Sakura, have you been bound in some manner to prevent you saying something?" Shirou asked softly.

"Yes," she managed to say.

"Can you tell me who did this?"

Soundless mouth movements ensued.

He frowned. "We will figure out what happened and help you," Shirou said. "Does Shinji know who did this to you?"

Sakura made incoherent noises and became frantic.

"Is he bound to silence?"

"No," Sakura said, then looked surprised.

"Okay, maybe we can see what he knows and he can help us figure out how to help you."

Sakura shook her head no.

Shirou blinked. "Why not?"

Soundless agony.

"There has to be someone in your family who can help," Shirou said.

Sakura shook her head.

"Look, if you're embarrassed to let Shinji know, I can try approaching it like a theoretical question...no, that would give it away unless he's an idiot," Shirou said. "And he's not stupid. That kind of trick only works in manga." He frowned. "I have to help you, though."

"Later," she said softly. "You...gurgle..."

"I can't just let you suffer."

"I'm okay when you hold me," she said softly, so he pulled her tight.

"I can't hold you forever, though," he said. "I have to cook dinner eventually."

"Just hold me as long as you can," she said softly.

He gently stroked her hair. "I can do that."

She rested her head on his shoulder and smiled.

Bakene began trying to beat Archer to death. Rather in the manner of a cat batting at string. Which is to say that this was going to take a very long time, if it happend at all, as Archer was too tough to be easily killed by being swatted by the flat of the paw of a huge fat monster cat, though it did hurt.

"Dammit, do I have to do everything myself?" Shinji shouted. "Assassin, HURRY UP AND KILL THE DAMN WAITRESS!" What kind of insane mage dresses as a Waitress? He had to admit her Tiger Servant was pretty tough. I guess that must be Berserker, he thought. A man-
eating tiger would make a good Berserker.

The fighting continued outside.

"SLEEP," he said, forcing Archer to pass out. Then he rolled Bakene off Archer (this took some work) and then he took Glorious Dawn and put an arrow through her eye socket into her brain, killing her. She dissolved away into sparkles of light.

Finally, he thought.

Assassin now entered, dragging the tonfa-armed woman with red cords. "This is Higurashi Akane. She must have been a Master in the Grail War I fought in. She sucks; no wonder she vanished early on. But I think she's a Servant."

"USAGI IS A MASTER?" Shinji said, nearly falling down from shock.

"Yeah." Assassin went over and rolled Usagi over and showed Shinji the lesser miracles. "So now we kill them, right?"

"Kill Akane. She's useless and has to die," Shinji said. "But Rin and Usagi, we need to strip them of their Lesser Miracles."

"Can't you just cut their arms off and kill them?" Assassin said.

"I'm not the sort of freak who has sex with a one-
armed corpse!" Shinji said, offended. "I just need you to stand by so they can't try to pull any shit with their Lesser Miracles while I am removing them. Ideally, they will remain asleep under the Seventh Crystal's influence during the whole thing, but they are Masters, after all."

"Man, getting Akane as your Servant. That's pathetic," Nao said. "So how does this work?"

"First we take them back to the house; there may be others still lurking here who might interrupt us and I prefer a soft bed for sex."

Assassin made a face. "You're disgusting."

"You have no room to talk and you WILL obey me," he said, brandishing his arm, which had three arrows on it. "Now, get Julia to pick them up and let's go."

"I'm happy to kill these people, but I won't be a party to that," Assassin said. "Death is clean, but..."

"BY THE POWER OF THE GRAIL, I COMMAND YOU TO TAKE THEM TO MY HOUSE AND STAND GUARD WHILE I DEAL WITH THEM!" he shouted angrily. One of the arrows on his arm vanished and energy rushed into Assassin, who found herself moving like a puppet to take them and transport them.

Assassin grimaced and reminded herself he would be vulnerable later. And then she would show him what obedience meant.

Archer stared in horror at Shinji, who was standing before Saint Vrus with a lustful smile on his face. She was still pinned under Bakene, who had gone back to sleep, but St. Vrus hovered just off the ground in front of Shinji, who had succumbed to St. Vrus' illusion powers. But Archer could see his fantasy in her mind's eye and it utterly revulsed her.

"Finish him," she hissed and St. Vrus opened up like an iron maiden, then clamped down on Shinji hard and he vanished inside it.

St. Vrus now wobbled and fell asleep. Shinji, bleeding profusely, fell out of St. Vrus, then dropped the gem he'd been holding. It rolled across the floor and came to a halt.

Shinji tried to speak. "Assassin. Slay..."

There was a sudden flash of metal and a chain linking many small blade segments flashed across the dojo, hacking off Shinji's right arm.

"...Archer. I command you with the power of the grail, ONE HIT ONE KILL!"

It was too late and now he bled more.

The chain segmented weapon picked up the arm and hauled it to Lancer, who took it by the blood-stained fingers. "You've been a very naughty boy."

Her second shot castrated him as he howled in pain.

"BITCH!" he shouted.

"What you did to Sakura can never, ever be forgiven, not that I am the forgiving kind," Lancer said very calmly, almost flirtatiously.

Her third shot cut the book on the stand into little scraps of paper that burst into fire and soon turned to ash.

She now walked over and picked up the gem, dropping it inside her kimono, apparently into her cleavage, not that you could see it inside her very modest, but truly elegant, clothing. "I should kill you, Shinji. But if I leave you alive, I can do to you what you did to her, every day, for a very long time. And I think that's poetic justice. Don't you agree, Yukariko-miko?"

Lord, forgive me, for I cannot forgive him, Archer thought. I shouldn't...but he is horrible. Horrible. Worse even than me. "I agree. God hates him," she said, feeling terrible for saying it.

"I'm very sorry, Yukariko-miko. I have to kill your mistress, Rin. She is a threat to my mistress. But I will make it as painless as I can, for your sake. Would you like a moment to pray for her soul?" Lancer asked, kindly.

"Yes, please," Archer said and began to pray, desperately.

Her loud prayers revived Rin enough to sit up groggily and say, "Did we win?"

"No," Lancer said and lashed out at her.

"ARCHER! SAVE ME!" Rin shouted, triggering a Lesser Miracle.

Archer moved in a blur of speed, sliding out from under Bakene, seizing Rin and running off at high speed. Glorious Dawn and St. Vrus winked out of existence as she ran off out of sight at blazing speed.

"Ara," Lancer said. She studied Usagi. "I'm afraid you have to die too, as I know you are after Shirou. But I will make it quick and merciful, because you are, at heart, a good girl. But you might tempt him. And stealing hearts is a terrible thing."

Lancer raised her naginata and...

GIANT TIGER OUT OF NOWHERE!

Lancer went crashing through the wall as Harry charged into her. The building now began to collapse from all the damage as Waitress dashed in, grabbed Usagi, and ran. Harry caught up to her and she jumped on his back and RAN LIKE THE WIND.

"Ara, I guess I will take my toys and go home," Lancer said, a little wobbily.

Shinji was now buried under collapsed dojo, however.

Lancer said, "Well, I would have had to feed him anyway." She took off.

Naru tried to stand as still as possible, feeling very nervous and excited at once. She was wearing her dress, which was even prettier than she'd thought it would be; she'd unlaced the front most of the way down, though it made her even more excited and jumpy at once, showing off her cleavage. She was about average in that regard, though the dress made it look more impressive; she was more bosomy than Usagi by a little, which she knew Usagi was jealous of. Really, she was built about like her Mom.

But she could tell Ishigami-sensei enjoyed seeing her like this and that made her nervous and excited at once. She'd had a lot of fantasies about him and this was one of them and it usually ended with them both naked doing things she had never done but wanted to, though she knew she shouldn't.

She was posing with one hand on a candle-stick stand that came up to about chest level; there was a magic 8-ball resting on it which she had her left hand on. Her other hand was on her waist.

"Done," he said. "Come look."

In the painting, she had slightly darker skin and her breasts were a little bigger and her hair was longer, down her back, but it was recognizably her. Her smile was confident and powerful. Her as she wished she looked. And the magic 8-ball was a crystal ball full of stars and galaxies that matched her dress.

"Wow, I look magical," she said softly, amazed.

He drew her around next to him, an arm around her waist. She blushed, then smiled and put her hand on his on that side and he pointed out several features of the painting.

"I wish I was that beautiful," she said softly.

"You are that beautiful to me," he said softly.

"If I was really that beautiful, you'd kiss me," she said, then regretted having ever been born or learned to speak.

So he leaned over and kissed her and she kissed back and she felt the most tremendous thrill of her life to that moment. Her whole body was suddenly flush with energy and she pulled him in close and she soon found out that dress came off pretty easily.

Ishigami-sensei smiled. Everything was going according to plan. Young, naive girls were easy to manipulate. There was more than one way to get into a Grail War; he was quite sure he could make his plan work.

And if he failed, it wasn't himself he was risking.

"Hello, young lady," Grandpa Hino said to Illyasviel Einzbern. "Would you like to be an acolyte at my temple?"

"I represent the German business Barbarossa Cola," she said, smiling brightly and holding out a brightly colored can. "Would you be willing to try our product? It's a free sample!"

"Sure," Grandpa Hino said, smiling brightly. He chugged down the cola swiftly, then his eyes crossed and he began to stagger. "This isn't cola, it's a potion!"

"Berserker, cover me now!" Illyasviel said cheerfully.

Grandpa Hino tried to chant, but the pain was growing too intense.

Berserker leaped down and took up a sword stance; she lashed out, cutting Grandpa Hino's prayer stick in half.

He fell to the ground, coughed up an indigo colored gem and then turned into a red faced oni, hunched over in a rather gorilla like manner.

Illyasviel scooped up the gem. "Pox! You now serve ME."

Pox nodded, then came over and began to try to search the pockets of her long coat.

"STOP," Illyasviel said. "What are you DOING?"

"He's hungry," Berserker said. She knew hungry.

Only Illyasviel's dignity prevented her from crying. Great, now I have a hungry demon to feed as well as my hungry Servant. "Let's go rob a grocery store again," she said, sighing.

"Yaay! You're the best Master ever!," Berserker proclaimed.

"Of course," Illyasviel said proudly, while crying on the inside.

Shirou stared at the holes in his house. "What is all this?"

"This is from us fighting off Assassin last night," Suguira-sensei said nervously. "I thought you were going to fix this, Mai."

"Fix it with what?" Mai asked. "I could burn it. That wouldn't help much. So I hung up some sheets for now. Good thing it's warm this time of year."

"Look, once we get you set up tomorrow with the fire rite, then you can probably fix this all with magic or something," Suguira-sensei said. "I'll go shopping tonight while Mai stands guard, get the supplies for the rite after school tomorrow. For now, we have to live with this."

"Can I stay over again?" Sakura said weakly.

Taiga-sensei hesitated, looked at Mai, then said, "Yes. You can sleep with me. I promise I won't mistake you for a snack and eat you."

Sakura said, "..."

"That was a joke," Taiga-sensei said quickly. "Can you really find the supplies at this hour, Suguira-san?"

"I will go shopping during the day tomorrow," Mai said. "I think we'd best both stay here and stand guard tonight."

"Good idea," Suguira-sensei said. "Now, let's help them with their homework."

"Thanks, sensei," Shirou said. Though it was going to be hard to get it all done in time tonight.

"They're robbing a grocery store," Akira reported by cellphone to Shingo, who was hiding a block away in an arcade, nervously playing videogames.

"Shouldn't you be home, Shingo?" Motoki, the manager, asked Shingo. "It's getting late and we close soon."

"Call me back in a minute," Shingo said to Akira. Akira should be safe with her mad stealth skills.

"Okay."

Shingo hung up the phone. "I'm old enough to stay out if I want to," he said to Motoki. "Isn't my money good enough for you?"

"You should do what Motoki-kun says," Kino Makoto said, folding her arms under her breasts. Shingo knew she was a huge delinquent at one of the high schools, some place called Sukuran. She also had a huge crush on Motoki.

"You know he's dating someone, right?" Shingo asked her.

Shingo now learned he could fly, if not under his own power, but with the help of another.

"I'm not allowed to intervene," Professor Tomoe told Akane. "However, I can tell you that the spell should fade and she will wake up normally in the morning."

"I guess I'll take her home, then," Akane said. "So, with Shinji dead, what happens to Assassin?"

"She must find a source of mana, or she will evaporate. You feel tired, don't you?"

"Yes," Akane said. "I think I spent a lot of power."

"If your master is skilled in energy transfer, she can recharge you with mana," Professor Tomoe said. "Eating and sleeping also helps, but it only provides very small amounts of mana, not enough to sustain a Servant in the long term. Servants need a lot of mana, especially if they use their powers. You can get mana from normal humans, but you'd have to kill a lot of them to get very much." He said this very calmly, greatly disturbing Akane.

"I'd rather evaporate," Akane said.

"Your decision is commendable, but remember, if you get the Grail, any sins you committed to get it can be undone with its powers," he said. "And your rivals may not be so picky."

"Being able to undo my sins doesn't justify them. I will fight honorably without hurting innocents or I would rather fail," Akane said, frowning.

For a moment, he softened. "It would be a better world if more people agreed with you." He then returned to normal. "Your master can also use sex to transfer energy if she doesn't know the appropriate magics."

"Hmm. Hotaru!"

Hotaru now ran in. "Yes, Papa?"

"Would you mind getting a dozen donuts for our guests? I expect that Miss Usagi will be quite famished when she eventually wakes up and I think Miss Akane could use a snack."

"Thank you, sensei," Akane said. SEX?

"A pleasure to serve."

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Shingo said to Akira. "I didn't realize how strong Kino-san is."

"They're out of the store, but moving slowly because their oni has a stomach-ache," Akira said. "We can easily catch up to them. But why are we following them?"

"The crow's mistress is Shiho; Shiho works for Hino Rei, who I assume is one of the Masters in this War," Shingo said. "We need to know where this crazy Master kid lives. Once we know, we leak it to Hino-san. She will fly off to engage the kid. While they're locked in combat, then we strike with Gennai and kill the crow. You get your revenge and the two sides should wipe each other out, while we go have fun. Pretty much my whole plan is to help everyone else self-destruct, and then we will deal with anyone who doesn't." Shingo frowned. "Somehow." It was very much a 'kill or be killed' kind of war, but he didn't really want to kill anyone if he didn't have to. He couldn't back down now; I should have burned that book when I got sent it in the mail. But noooo, I decided it would be fun to monkey around with the occult.

I didn't expect it to WORK. Or that I'd just trapped myself in a war.

But now I have to win this thing.

Somehow.

At least they didn't have to worry about mana. The book had told him about the statue they stole, which absorbed and stored mana from those who got romantic around it, and they'd figured out, with the book's help, how to transfer some of its stored mana to Akira. The thing had been sucking up mana for a loooong time. He was surprised someone hadn't already stolen it for the mana by now.

"Sounds good to me. Let's get moving," Akira said, picking up Shingo and running.

"What are we looking for?" Archer asked, studying the books which Rin was frantically trying to search through.

"Gems. Magical gems. Whatever Shinji had, we need one if possible. Several. If there are demons strong enough to take on a Servant and win or at least heavily inconvenience you, then we have to be able to get our own or learn their weaknesses to take them down," Rin said. "We are not leaving here until we know what's going on and have some idea of a counter-measure or we'll just get beaten again."

"I will do my best, but I really don't know any of this. I wasn't even an exorcist to know about demons," Archer confessed.

"We're down to only two Lesser Miracles. And if those two kids hadn't stepped in, we'd be corpses," Rin said. "I'm surprised they didn't finish us when they had the chance."

"Usagi seems to be a kind, gentle girl and Akane...is not the sort to finish a downed foe," Archer said, smiling a little.

"Fools. How do they expect to win this War?" Rin said. "But now we owe them. And I always pay my debts. So when we have them in our power, we will be merciful," Rin continued.

"Of course," Archer said, smiling a little.

"After all, if Usagi yields up her Lesser Miracles, there's no reason to kill her," Rin continued. "Hmm. So Shinji had Assassin, I have Archer, one of the Einzbern likely has...someone. Lancer's master is unknown but apparently hides and does nothing while Lancer does all the work. Usagi has Akane, who is...she's fast, she has tonfas for weapons...and can summon a giant tiger."

"Akane vanished from Fuuka before our Grail War started. But maybe she was a Master in that war and got picked off. I know...I'm pretty sure Assassin...Nao... was a Master in that war and Lancer did go to Fuuka..." Archer said hesitantly. "And that girl with Illyasviel Einzbern on the TV was Mikoto, who was a student at Fuuka. And Mai was a student at Fuuka too."

"And Akane is Usagi's cousin from the future and you're from the future too," Rin said. "I think somehow we summoned future masters of a future Grail War to our own time."

"Mai has a dragon and shoots fire. Mikoto just has a magic sword but no Child I've ever seen," Archer said.

"Okay, so Mikoto is Saber and works for...surely they didn't send Illyasviel as their champion."

"Child-like summons child-like? You get someone like you, right?" Archer said.

"Okay, so Mikoto is Saber, summoned by the Einzbern, you are Archer, summoned by me. Either Taiga-
sensei or Shirou summoned Mai, who is probably Caster." Rin frowned, not wanting to have to beat up or kill nice people. "Shinji summoned Assassin. Someone who is probably a woman summoned Lancer. Usagi summoned Akane, who then would either be Rider or Berserker."

"Rider. She rode her Tiger to escape. And there is no way that she's Berserker," Archer said.

"So one master is down, five who are not me remain. Berserker's master is yet unknown, and so is Lancer. Usagi and Shirou or Taiga-sensei are least likely to be threats, whereas Berserker's master may be and Saber's definitely will be. Even if she is a kid." She winced. "I was kind of hoping for a bunch of evil masters I could kill without guilt like last time."

"You know, Assassin could take on a new master or sign on with someone," Archer pointed out.

"And there is this demon-summoning gem. Though if we're...that's it. We know the demon's name! Bakene. You go consult the demonology books. They have indexes. I will study gems!"

Archer nodded and went to work.

The moment of awakening one's magic circuits is sometimes called 'opening the third eye'. It usually is accompanied by a moment of transcendent vision. In Naru's case, it was also accompanied by the intense pleasure of orgasm.

In a mental explosion, her lost memories of things which now had never happened or maybe just been undone suddenly returned to her and she remembered it all.

Nephrite.

He died in my arms.

Dissolved away.

She had loved him and he had died and she couldn't save him but now she was full of power.

NEPHRITE!

She screamed across the void and the stars came down and formed into the shape of a man. The first man she had ever loved. And like her father, she had lost him.

"Nephrite, come back to me," she begged. "I can heal you now. I can feel it."

"Naru-chan, my love," he said softly. "The strength of your love for me redeemed me. I am so sorry I had to die and leave you."

"Come to me," she begged, though she was in the arms of another man. But her crush on him couldn't match the feelings she'd had for the first real love of her life. She and Nephrite had never even kissed but they had been through more together in a short time than she'd done with anyone else but Usagi (who she had never kissed either).

"I can become your Servant," he said to her. "But if I do, then we must fight in the Grail War."

"It doesn't matter," she said. "If we win the Grail, we can bring back Father." Her heart beat for joy. NEPHRITE. He was here. How could I have ever forgotten him? She didn't understand at all. "I want to be a Master and fight by Usagi's side. And I want to PUNISH Rider for what she did to Father!" Her anger rose within her.

She reached out for Nephrite then suddenly realized that outside this vision, she was having sex with Ishigami-
sensei. She turned beet red and then suddenly was plunged into mental chaos. All her feelings for Nephrite had returned to her when her memories returned. Far stronger than her crush on Ishigami-sensei.

But Naru really could not think of anything crueller to do to someone than to raise your old boyfriend from the dead in the middle of sex with them and then dump them to run off with the old boyfriend.

But she couldn't pass up this chance. Would it ever come again?

She seized Nephrite's hand and now three extremely complicated circles full of squiggles and symbols and lines appeared on her right arm. "What are these?"

"Your Lesser Miracles, my love," he said to her. "Those are horoscopes. The things you see in newspapers are vague garbage, but a properly drawn horoscope is like that, charting all the relevant stars and planets, and my art as Astrologer is their creation and interpretation. I am First in Prediction of the Future."

"I...Nephrite...I forgot you existed and now...I'm sort of..." Naru tried to figure out how to say this.

"Your art teacher seduced you in hopes of using you as a tool to get access to the Grail and vast cosmic power," Nephrite said sadly. "I am sorry to tell you that."

Naru stared, mouth open wide in shock.

"This isn't the first time he tried this, but that iteration of history was wiped out, so he doesn't remember it. But it meant he was destined to make the same mistake again and now he has. Everything is ruled by the stars and they used him in the role for which he is most suited." Nephrite's voice was sad. "Please forgive him; I was like him but much worse, when you first met me. He is a liar and a user."

"I will punish him gently," Naru said. "But I cannot let him go unpunished." She frowned, then smiled in a manner that would have most people very nervous to see.

She let herself awaken on the floor of the studio, Ishigami-sensei inside her, smiling and looking somewhat lethargic. "That was wonderful," he said softly.

"It was wonderful," she said, feeling Nephrite's presence as he lurked nearby, insubstantial. "Unfortunately, I now know you planned to use me to win the Holy Grail War and seize the power for yourself."

Ishigami-sensei froze up.

"But Nephrite is right. And I did choose to come here and lie with you of my own free will," Naru said, rising and gesturing; her clothing flew back onto her body and her body was cleansed of the after-effects of their lovemaking. She looked the very spitting image of his painting of her now, and all he could do was stare, hardly able to move, though an afterglow of pleasure flowed through him still.

"You remember," he said softly.

"Tell me how you learned of my power and I will let you leave this city alive and unhurt," Naru said firmly. She picked up the magic 8-ball off the stand and extended her power into it; it shimmered and became the globe of stars and galaxies of the painting and she struck the same stance she'd done for the painting.

He stared, caught by her beauty for a moment. Then he said, "I already knew of the Grail War from my failed occult studies." He sounded frustrated. "My efforts to learn magic gave me only a touch of foresight. By making various deals and making paintings for people which I could invest my foresight in, I was able to find out your father had fought in the last war. While he had been unable to pass his Crest to you, I knew this made you a potential master. I studied you and sensed you could become a master if I awakened your abilities. I see that I was right."

"Foresight is dangerous," Nephrite said, now manifesting. "It never shows you everything and your own prejudices shape your understanding of what you see."

"Do you know anything about Rider?" Naru demanded.

"Only that she was your father's Servant and that she vanished during the Great Fire; no one is sure who killed her if anyone," he said. "It's very hard to find out even that much."

"You have three days to leave this city. If you mess with any of my friends or cause any other trouble, I will make you regret it," Naru said angrily, then softened. "Please don't make me regret it, sensei. Part of me still...I really did like you until I found out the truth."

"Thank you for being forgiving," he said, giving a sigh of relief. He would have bowed if he had the energy to move. "I will leave."

"And you were a good art teacher," Naru said, then sighed. "Let's go, Nephrite my love."

Nephrite put an arm around her and they walked off together.

Matou Zouken was in a foul mood. Shinji had bungled everything and Sakura was tempermentally unsuited to the task of going after the Grail. He stood, observing the black worms burrowing into Shinji's flesh; they would restore him to enough functionality to make him useful, though he clearly couldn't handle fighting in the Grail War.

Also, he would need a new arm, but Zouken had several clever ideas for that.

One of the servants came to the door. "Sir, there is a woman named Himeno Fumi to see you."

He blinked. "Who?"

"She says that the death of her previous employer, Kazhana Mashiro, has left her unemployed and she believes you would find her services useful." The servant paused. "Sir, she looks like a french maid with weird pink hair to me."

Mashiro was a magus, or had been, Zouken knew. Ergo, this woman knew something of magely society. This was valuable. "I will see her in the blue room."

The blue room was a nice parlor decorated in shades of blue. One wall was painted to look like the sea.

Zouken had tea and edamame laid out; he had a weakness for edamame even after all these centuries.

Fumi entered and bowed to him, then looked around.

"Sit down," he said, pointing to the chair across the coffee table from him.

"Good day, sir," she said, sitting down.

"Good day, ma'am," he said. "What brings you here?"

"I am a Grail War Servant," she said. "My Master is dead and I do not wish to quietly evaporate. Nor do I wish to stalk the living just so that I can be picked off on my own anyway." She sighed. "I seek to take up service with a magus of your house if possible."

"Why our house?" he asked curiously.

"I only know of the three Great Houses as definite entrants in the war," she said. "I do not trust the Einzbern not to experiment on me and I do not wish to serve a child again, brilliant as she may be. Once is enough." She sounded quite frustrated. "Whereas, you are a mage of experience and repute who will not make elementary mistakes."

"Who killed your master?" Zouken asked.

"Saber, I believe. A crazed boxing demon assaulted me and while I was busy fighting him, she cut my Master's head off with a surprise attack."

He frowned. So Saber has one of the gems. Probably the orange one, the gem of Wrath, the gem of Berserker. Interesting. We must find more of them, especially since Shinji bungled everything and lost the Violet one.

"I am willing to supply you with some mana for whatever information you can share with me about our foes. Should I find you a suitable servant, I will contract with you. I require one thing, however. Which Servant are you?"

"I am Maid," she said.

He blinked. "Maid? There are seven Classes of Servants. Assassin, Caster, Archer, Berserker, Lancer, Saber, and Rider. Not 'Maid'." Eight if you count 'Chariot', but he wasn't sure if that had been a one-time creation of the Einzbern to cheat or not.

She rose. "Behold the power of the Magnificent Maid Uniform!"

Suddenly, she sprang into frenetic action, moving like a blur, and then she sat down. The entire room was so clean it shined. She'd even removed Zouken's eleven PM shadow, leaving him smoothly clean shaven.

"Wheooop-pop!"

She now summoned a scythe. "This is Reaper, the second of my Noble Phantasms."

He studied it and her, casting a spell of analysis with a thought. Amazing. Had this Mashiro somehow created a new class of Servants? His own house had created the Servant system for the Grail Wars. He had to have her service, to study her if nothing else.

"I am impressed," he said. "Let us contract, then."

Fumi bowed and held out her hand and the contract was sealed. Everything was going according to plan B.

Naru lay spent in her lover's arms, back in her own apartment. (Okay, her mother's apartment, her own bedroom.) "I'm going to have to figure out how to explain you to Mother in the morning," Naru said.

"I can assume my spirit form and she won't see or hear me, only you will," he said. "But I must tell you something important about your mother. Several things."

"Go on?" Naru said softly.

"Your mother spent many years trying to get revenge for your father's death. About two and a half years ago, she acquired the Magnificent Beryl, a powerful Mystic Code. Unfortunately, it contained the spirit of an evil Queen, Queen Beryl, who possessed your mother and began trying to resurrect her evil kingdom from inside a Reality Marble known as the Dark Kingdom."

"A what?" Naru asked, eyes wide and horrified.

"A pocket universe. Beryl served a dark goddess, Metallia, and sought to conquer this world for Metallia. Back when she was alive, Beryl corrupted four magical guardians of the Earth with her powers and forced us to serve her. I was one of those guardians who served Prince Endymion, heir to the Golden Kingdom. Beryl found our modern reincarnations and took control of us once she was free in this time. When I met you, I was in her service." His voice was sad and far away.

"Until I set you free," Naru said softly.

"Until you set me free," Nephrite said softly. "It was too late for me. I was slain by General Zoicite's forces. But eventually, Zoicite was brought down and Beryl was defeated. By your best friend Usagi, who is Sailor Moon. She and the other Senshi defeated Beryl, but in some manner I don't understand, time was turned back so that the whole war never happened. History changed, your mother never found the Magnificent Beryl, was never possessed and none of it ever happened."

Naru stared, eyes wide. "Mother was..." She shivered. "So Mother tried to avenge Father and was turned into a monster."

"But Usagi saved her. This means, however, that the Magnificent Beryl is still out there."

Naru's breath caught. "Then we have to find it. And destroy it."

"I do not know where it is; history changed, so it has gone astray. If we are lucky...well, I am not sure if we would be lucky."

Naru cocked her head. "What?"

"Beryl is extremely powerful and your position as the child of two Magi makes you a very suitable vessel for her. Coming near the Magnificent Beryl could be very dangerous," Nephrite warned. "My foresight tells me this."

Naru frowned. "I suppose it probably isn't just sitting around Fuyuki City, anyway."

"Your mother had to go to Germany to acquire it," Nephrite said.

"Well, little chance it's here in Fuyuki City."

"There is nothing edible in that chest!" Illyasviel shouted at Pox as Berserker tried desperately to drag Pox away from the stout wooden, steel-reinforced chest.

Pox made his usual grunty noises and tried to move towards it again.

"What is in that chest?" Berserker asked, slowly shoving Pox back.

Illyasviel now grabbed it and tried to decide where to hide it. "The Magnificent Beryl. A very potent mystical artifact. Grandfather said not to use it unless something happens to you, though. It's a weapon of last resort."

She decided to hide it in the very back of her bedroom closet. Surely Pox would never find it there.

"It's a jewelry box?" Shingo asked in surprise.

"It's locked shut with wards. Maybe we can figure out with the book how to open it. I left the bowling ball, since I didn't know what else to do with it," Akira said.

Observation had made it look like the Magnificent Beryl was very heavy, but Akira had to revise that to 'Illyasviel is a nine year old girl who isn't very strong, so anything is heavy for her'.

"Well, that should weaken her for the battle. Tomorrow, we can send an anonymous letter and watch her run off to clash with Illyasviel," Shingo said, then yawned. "Let's get some sleep."

"I don't have to sleep now," Akira said.

"I'll sleep, you stand guard."

"Of course."

"So, I need a mage in order to use the Grail," Assassin said to Professor Tomoe.

"Yes, only a magus can invoke the wishes the Grail grants. Similarly, a magus needs a Servant to force the Grail to become material for his use once it is summoned. Traditionally, a free Servant can request one wish for himself and the Magus gets two, but you can enter any kind of deal you like. This sort of contract does not grant additional Lesser Miracles, however."

"Can Lancer use those ones on the arm?" Assassin asked.

Kaolinite brought them both some tea and cookies.

Assassin munched down on a cookie with enthusiasm. She was rather hungry.

"No, but she could give them to her Master," Professor Tomoe said. "If she is wise, she will use the arm as a bargaining chip to get a better deal."

"So if I cut off a master's arm and used that as part of the deal with my new master, I could get a better deal," Assassin said thoughtfully.

Professor Tomoe nodded, then sipped his tea. Jasmine. Just how he liked it. "Also, with the arm, you could contract with someone who is not a Master yet, making them into a Master."

That had potential.

Rin was drinking coffee, munching donuts and close to falling asleep anyway when the breakthrough came. "Here we go! 'We dwell now in the age of Metal. Before us came the age of Fire, when passion ruled this world instead of machines, when magic flowed like wine. Those days ended with the corruption of the Golden Kingdom and the War of the Moon and the Earth. And the mightiest of the warriors of the Earth were known as the Seven Shadows. Gesen, Bokushi, Bunpo, Veena, Rikoukeidaa, Pox, and Bakene. It required the power of the Silver Millenium Crystal to defeat them, but in the process, the Silver Crystal split into eight shards; seven bound the Seven Shadows, imprisoning them until the end of the next Age; the eighth crystal hid itself away, and even the sages do not know where.' Hmm, interesting. So that was a shard of the Silver Millenium Crystal."

"What is the Silver Millenium Crystal?" Archer asked.

"A legendary artifact of vast power. You could will virtually any magical effect with it, but if you weren't careful, you could kill yourself by burning all your mana and then your life force. Very risky to use; its destruction was followed by a vast decline in magical power and initiated our own age, the Age of Metal, the age of technology and machines," Rin said.

"They said...in our Grail War, that it would shape the world for the next three hundred years," Archer said hesitantly.

"Yes, but you also remember fighting it in 2004 and it's not possible; there are no records. Things must change in the future."

"Our future didn't seem very different from this present, though," Archer said, frowning.

"We can worry about metaphysics later," Rin said. She lacked the proper grounding to figure such things out but didn't want to admit it. "Now, let's see...the Gem of Vigor and Sloth, the Violet Gem, binds Bakene, who alternates between short intense bursts of vigor and long periods of sloth and lethargy. There are six other gems..."

She spent a while reading and taking notes. "The gems were sent through time to the end of the Age of Metal. Their discovery will mark the end of the Age of Metal and the beginning of the Age of Wood." Whatever that means.

"Biotechnology?" Archer speculated. "Green energy sources and biotechnology."

"Well, not our problem," Rin said, though that sounded plausible to her.

"Seven gems, seven Servants? Coincidence?" Archer asked.

Rin frowned. "These didn't play a role in previous Grail Wars. But now...people are time-travelling from the future! Maybe they somehow called the gems to here by doing this and the next age will be ruled by time travellers or something..." She frowned. "I have to take a nap. Read this, take notes, inform me when I wake." She yawned. "I have to be functional later."

"Of course. Sleep well."

Taiga-sensei woke up to the sound of Sakura moaning and pleading and immediately rolled over and shook her awake. "It's okay. It's okay, you're safe," she said urgently.

Sakura clung to her desperately. "They whisper to me in the night. She's coming."

"Who is coming?" Taiga-sensei asked.

"He's coming," Sakura whispered. "His mouth opens wide to swallow the world."

"Who? What is this?" Taiga-sensei asked, unsure if this was a dream, a prophecy, or what.

Sakura tried to continue but she couldn't speak now.

Mai, who had been on watch duty, frowned. She kneeled down and put a hand on Sakura's shoulder. "A dream?"

"They were taunting me," Sakura said, then couldn't speak again.

"It's okay," Taiga-sensei said. "You're safe here."

"Let's go make breakfast, okay?" Mai said to Sakura. Best to get her mind off things.

"Okay."

Usagi stretched and sat up. "Wow, I feel REALLY refreshed."

"You slept for about twelve hours," Akane said.

"Yawn..."

Usagi turned on her bed and looked over at Akane, who was hanging out in some of Usagi's pajamas. They had similar builds, though Akane was a little taller. "Did I sleep through dinner?"

Her stomach rumbled.

"That answers that."

Usagi blinked.

"Hey, wait! We were in the middle of a battle...Did I fall asleep during a battle?" Usagi was utterly embarrassed.

"I'm afraid so," Akane said. "Master Matou Shinji, master of Assassin, also known as Nao, had some kind of violet colored gem that put you to sleep. But Lancer killed him and took his arm with his Lesser Miracles and the gem."

"Huh..."

"So Nao ran off, shouting 'I AM FREE!'," Akane said. "Then I saved you from Lancer, who was going to kill you too."

Usagi curled into a ball, head between her knees. "I totally blew it. I'm sorry, Akane, without my broach I can't transform and use my magic." A thought hit her. "Wait, that cat..." Memories rushed through her mind. "The Violet Rainbow Crystal! AAAARGH, I AM AN IDIOT!" The cat didn't cough up a hairball, it coughed up the violet rainbow crystal!

STUPID KID STUPID ME STUPID.

"Umm...there's another thing..." Akane said weakly.

"Go on?"

"Well, you see, normally the magus provides the Servant with mana to use her powers with," Akane said.

Usagi nodded. "How do I do that?"

Akane laughed very nervously. "Umm...normally a Master is trained in formal magics to do this."

Usagi grimaced. "If I had my broach with the Silver Crystal, I'm sure I could use it to help you. What happens if you get low on magic?"

"The universe erases me if I run out of mana," Akane said weakly.

"So..."

"I can get a little mana by eating and sleeping but not enough to survive just from that. It just delays the inevitable," Akane said. "But there is...one...thing." She stared at the bed.

"Yes?" Usagi said. "I will NOT let you evaporate. I'll do anything. Anything I have to."

"It sounds so...I swear I am not making this up," Akane said, clutching the sheets nervously.

"I don't have to wear a chicken outfit, do I?" Usagi joked, trying to make Akane relax.

"Hmm..."

She took Akane's hands. "Anything. You saved my life and I swear, I will not let you evaporate, EVER."

"Professor Tomoe said that if we have sex, you can transfer lots of energy to me," Akane said, forcing herself to look Usagi in the eyes.

Usagi was a virgin; she had dim memories of having been in love with a boy during the war with Beryl, but she couldn't remember his name or his face. Something about a Tuxedo... She could remember a few times she'd touched herself, fantasizing about Rei during the war. She blushed at those memories. And she and Naru had gotten drunk once and made out, then never spoke of it again; she wasn't sure if Naru would like that when sober and had been afraid to damage their friendship. They'd been awkward for a while, but had gotten over it.

She'd always thought her first time would be something deeply romantic. But if Akane was going to evaporate otherwise...she could see her friends dying one by one. While she was unable to help them.

But she could save Akane.

And she would. She pulled Akane into an embrace. "Alright," she said softly. "After school, the parents won't be home for a few hours, we can do it then."

Akane turned bright red and nodded.

She could smell something. Was someone making breakfast? But who?

They went downstairs and found Akira cooking fish, rice, and vegetables and making fruit salad. "Hello, cousin Usagi."

"Oh wow, you can cook," Usagi said. "Looks good. Not bad for a boy. You'll make your future wife very happy."

"I can only do very traditional foods," Akira said. "But thank you, cousin."

"Fruit salad is a traditional Japanese food?" Akane asked.

Akira mumbled something they couldn't understand, then said, "Shingo likes it."

"Is he still in bed after staying up WAY too late?" Usagi asked, folding her arms across her chest.

"I'm afraid so," Akira said. "Can you wake him up?"

"I'll wake him up," Akane said, striding off.

"I'm glad you came back to the present," Usagi said to Akira. "Someone has to keep Shingo in line and he won't listen to me any more."

"Did he ever listen to you?" Akira asked, checking the rice as Usagi began setting the table.

"No," she said, then sighed.

The sounds of Akane waking up Shingo echoed through the house and across the neighborhood. Usagi winced and Akira laughed.

"Some things never change, present, past or future," Akira said, laughing softly.

Usagi laughed softly too. "Yeah. So how are your folks doing?"

"I can't tell you about future events, you know the rules," Akira said, now checking the fish.

"I know, I know," Usagi said. "But I had to ask."

"Everyone's fine, that's all I can say," Akira said, now taking the fish out of the frying pan. "Can you fix the drinks?"

"Of course."

"MY SPLEEN!" Shingo shouted.

"I don't think he even knows where his spleen is, since he never goes to school," Usagi said. "You really need to make him go," she said to Akira.

Akira stared silently at the vegetables. "You're going?"

"The parents would crucify me if I didn't go," Usagi said. "Besides, unless he plans to be a delinquent for life, he'll never get into college if he doesn't go to school. He should get a job too to help pay for everything, instead of just leeching off Mom and Dad." She paused. "Wow, I sound like Mom." This seemed to leave her mildly stunned.

"You really care about him," Akira said softly.

"He is my brother. I love him even when he is retarded, which is good or I'd never be able to love him," Usagi said. "I was just like him at that age, but I had to grow up and he has to grow up too. Which reminds me, I have to work tonight." She finished setting out the drinks, having quickly filled them. Waitressing did teach some useful skills. It had improved her memory a lot, so she was doing better in school, if not great.

Akira stared at the vegetables. "He is lucky to have a sister who loves him so much."

Usagi turned a little red. "I'm just doing what every big sister does, right?"

"Lots of siblings are not so caring for each other as you are for him," Akira said, now taking out the vegetables. "You'd best make sure your parents are up. This will cool quickly and be less good."

"Will do," Usagi said, dashing out.

What are we going to do about Usagi, she thought. She's clearly a Master and Akane is her servant. I could care less about Akane, but Shingo...they can't fight each other. And I couldn't...his whole family loves him so much and his parents would never forgive him if he...or forgive her...

"I AM OLD ENOUGH TO BATHE MYSELF, YOU LUSTFUL WOMAN!" Shingo shouted.

Akira twitched, then imagined Akane bathing Shingo. Akira's hands clenched and Akira's eyes crossed and then Akira nearly ended up covered in vegetables.

But that would never happen, right?

I suppose as his Servant, he could command me to bathe him...

Akira wasn't sure how she ended up covered in paper towels. It just kind of happened and when Mama Tsukino walked in, she was still trying to get them off her. "Let me help you," Mama Tsukino said.

"Thank you, auntie," Akira said as she nimbly removed the paper towels.

"Trying to be a mummy?" Mama Tsukino asked, smiling. "And thank you so much for making breakfast."

"I wasn't TRYING to be a mummy," Akira said, embarrassed.

"It's okay," Mama Tsukino said.

"Shingo..." Akira began tensely.

"He's in the bathroom now. Kenji's taking a shower in ours. You might want to go bathe with Shingo, so there will be time for both of you to eat before school and to save hot water."

Akira turned beet red.

"You're so cute," Mama Tsukino said. "You're both boys, so it doesn't matter, you know."

"I know," Akira choked out.

She pushed Akira gently. "Go get clean, then we'll all have breakfast."

This is how Akira ended up in the bathroom, outside the shower. The Tsukinos had modern bathrooms, which is to say each bathroom had a toilet, a sink and cabinet area, and a shower/bathtub combo. Akira was rather more comfortable with Japanese style bathing...WITHOUT ANY BOYS.

"I'll be done quick," Shingo said. "Then you can shower."

"Thank you," Akira said.

"I know you're a girl, or I'd tell you to get in to save time," Shingo said.

DO NOT IMAGINE WHAT HE IS DOING, Akira told herself. Turning away from the shower meant looking at the mirror over the sink which meant looking at Shingo's shadow and knowing how he was touching himself. For cleaning purposes, but this still caused Akira's brain to overheat.

Akira was passed out on the floor when Shingo finished bathing. Oh hell, Shingo thought. "DAAAAD!"

Naru licked her lips nervously. Fortunately, she seemed to be able to use her magic on clothing easily, so she'd adjusted her uniform to fit her new figure. Nephrite seemed to like her new appearance but also be nervous about it, as she now looked more like Beryl than she had before. Which also meant looking more like her mother. Though her mother tended to put her hair up fancily.

Her mother had made breakfast; mind you, this meant pouring cereal in a bowl, cutting up fruit and pouring glasses of milk. And for some reason, frying up one pork chop for each of them, breaded the way Naru liked it. Naru smiled. "Thanks, Mom."

"We're out of bacon and sausage and fish," Osaka Meiko said to her daughter. "I..." She blinked. "Did I sleep for several months?"

Naru blinked back. "What?"

"You look beautiful," her mother said softly, smiling. "But I thought...Weren't you skinnier with shorter hair yesterday or have I been living in the past too much?" she asked, sounding very embarrassed.

"I am a Magus now," Naru said.

Her mother's eyes widened.

"And I have entered the Holy Grail War."

"No," her mother said in horror. "Naru, that war just eats up mages and families and spits them out!"

"If I win, we can have Father back. Don't you want that?" Naru asked, pleading.

"Yes," her mother whispered. "But your Father...he wanted to save his parents and now he's dead."

"It's too late now, Mother," Naru said. "Of course, if you'd told me the truth it might not have come to this," she said irritably.

"I tried to get revenge and I think..." Her mother stared at the floor. "Terrible things happened, but somehow they became only a bad dream."

Naru winced. She'd hoped maybe Nephrite was wrong about this, but...

She came over and hugged her mother tightly. "What kind of magic do you do?"

"Gemstone and Earth magic. I can do a little of all the elements but it's the one where I am really good at it. Our family crest isn't very strong compared to some, but it is full of gemstone magics."

Naru's mother rested her head on her daughter's shoulder. "Your father was a much stronger mage than I and he was destroyed by this," she said softly. "I couldn't bear to lose you."

"I am not going to lose," Naru said firmly. "You're going to be fine and I will bring Father back to you."

"I can't stop you," her mother said. "But I would if I could. Naru..." She began to cry.

Naru held her mother until the tears finally stopped. "It's too late now," she said to her mother.

"There are four likely contenders I can warn you about," her mother said, now fixing herself a cup of very black coffee and a glass of milk for Naru. "Emiya Kits...I can never say his name right. A man named Emiya was the champion for the Einzbern. His son may be a player. Emiya...Emiya the father was the man who killed your father," Naru's mother said, gulping her coffee. "The Einzbern are likely to field a champion. They are powerful alchemists, creators of homoniculi and our distant relatives."

Naru nodded, sitting down to breakfast with her mother.

"One of them came to Japan and married one of my ancestors," Naru's mother continued. "It's where our red hair comes from. Mother used to claim we descended from Frederick Barbarossa, but I don't know if that's true." Naru's mother picked at her cereal.

Naru ate quietly, not wanting to push too hard.

"The Matou specialize in transforming themselves with magic. They have some trick to increase their magic circuits and general power. And the Tohsaka champion is likely Tohsaka Rin. She is said to have very broad powers but lacks formal training."

"What made you give up on revenge?" Naru asked her mother.

"The dreams," she said softly. "Of the horrible things that would happen if I got the Magnificent Beryl. That I would become a monster and try to destroy the world." She stared at her coffee. "I don't know if anyone can wield a power like that of the Grail without becoming corrupted," Naru's mother said softly. "It was a dream, but...Naru. Stay away from anything connected to 'Metallia'. I don't know if she actually exists, but in my dreams, she wanted to crack this planet like an egg, kill and destroy and corrupt everything. She promised me power and I was so stupid..."

"It's okay, Mother. I promise I won't make any contracts like that."

You say that now, but you haven't had time for the power to go to your head, her mother thought despairingly. But she couldn't stop Naru, not if Naru had become one of the Masters of the Grail War. My poor daughter, she thought. I've failed as a mother. But what can I do?

Rei was tearing her hair out and trying to eat breakfast. Grandpa was missing; probably someone knows I am a Master and wants to use him as leverage. DAMMIT.

She decided to skip school; Grandpa wasn't around to enforce it anyway. She had to find him and had to find him fast.

Usagi stared at Naru in surprise as she came out of the apartment above her mother's shop. "Naru-chan, you look different."

Naru hugged Usagi tightly, then let go. "I remember everything now, Usagi-chan," she said softly.

Usagi's eyes widened.

"How you always protected me, how you were Sailor Moon and how you had to fight Beryl," Naru said very softly.

Akane stood nearby, not sure if she should be listening.

"Naru-chan, I..."

"Beryl was my mother. Beryl possessed my mother and tried to conquer the world and you stopped her and turned Mother back to normal. You set her free. Thank you," Naru said, hugging Usagi tightly.

"Naru-chan," Usagi said urgently.

"I'm a Master now," Naru said softly. "Nephrite is my Servant."

"Um..."

"This way, we both have a chance to win and if one of us dies, the other one can bring her back," Naru said. "I can bring Father back and you can free your friends from their time-shift amnesia or whatever exactly happened."

"Naru-chan, I...I couldn't stand to see you get hurt."

"Do you think I could stand to see you die either, Usagi-chan?" Naru asked her softly.

Usagi touched her forehead to Naru's. "I won't forgive you if you sacrifice yourself for me."

"Likewise," Naru said, then smiled.

"And I don't want to fight you, ever," Usagi said.

"Neither do I. We'll work together, win this stupid thing and then we can flip a coin to see who gets the wishes or something," Naru said.

"Ugh, I have to work tonight, but I think Lancer probably has one of the Rainbow Crystals and there are likely more out there and we have to find everyone who has them," Usagi said.

"Yes, but we know who has them," Naru pointed out. "That's a big advantage."

"I think we'd best skip school and go hunting," Akane said. "You two lead; I have no clue where the crystals are."

"Well, we could start with..." Usagi began.

"Tsukino Usagi. You have to kill me before I turn into a monster," a teenager the same age as them, with short dark hair said to Usagi.

"Ryo, where are you going?" a woman yelled distantly, now coming into sight. Ami Mizuno.

Usagi froze up. AMI-CHAN! She felt a sudden rush of relief and joy just to see her again, alive. And were she and Ryo...

"Before my girlfriend catches up. Before I can hurt her, hurt others," he pleaded. "I've seen it, I become a monster."

Deja vu all over again, Usagi thought.

"It would appear the Einzbern have one of the gems, the Indigo gem. It gives command over someone named Pox, who is a kind of squat somewhat monkey-demonesque creature. Who likes to eat things. She is accompanied by the girl we saw on TV, who she calls 'Berserker'," Seer reported.

Michiru frowned. "She may be reluctant to come to a restaurant with the demon in tow."

"We'll see," Haruka said. "Keep tabs on her and expand your search."

They were in Haruka's apartment, in the living room. Rider was watching TV for lack of anything better to do right now.

Yukino's breath suddenly caught.

"What?" Michiru asked, worried.

Yukino expanded the mirror so they all could see it. What they saw was an older version of Yukino, in her early twenties, kissing a voluptous blonde woman; they both wore very nice suit-dresses and appeared to be about to head to work together.

"Damn, looks like you have a pretty hot girlfriend in the future," Haruka said. "Wait, you're scrying into the future?"

"No, this is the present! Over in the fourth ward, I found this while looking for the crystals!" Yukino said. "I don't understand."

"Maybe your future self and your girlfriend time-
travelled back together to now?" Michiru asked, frowning.

"Holy...you and Haruka were a couple? Are a couple? Will be a couple?" Rider asked. I hate time-travel, she thought.

"I want to be," Yukino said, then died of embarrassment.

Older-Other Haruka said, "Please tell me we don't have any meetings this morning. I have to finish that report for the Department head or he will bite my bread off again."

"Head," Older-Yukino said. "I've finished mine; I can help."

"It's okay," Older-Other-Haruka said. "I have to finish this myself. Then we can go skiing this weekend. And this time I will beat you to the bottom of the slope while still wearing my skiis on my hands!"

Other-Yukino smiled and kissed her cheek. "Dream on, my love."

Yukino was shivering and looking alternately hopeful and frustrated.

"Keep an eye on them, just in case, but focus on crystal hunting," Haruka said. "And is she drunk this early in the morning?" She frowned.

Yukino turned and glared angrily at Haruka. "She would not be drunk this early in the morning! Haruka is a wonderful, hard-working person who would never do that! You take that back!" She pointed angrily at Haruka.

Haruka stared in shock.

Michiru smiled a tiny smile. "Her mouth runs ahead of her mind, I take it?"

Yukino shrank in on herself. "She is so full of life, it bubbles over a little too much. But I always know what she means. In my heart," she said softly.

"I know what you mean," Michiru said. "Haruka, apologize to Seer."

"Hey, it was a logical conclusion!," Haruka said, folding her arms across her chest. "Back me up, Natsuki."

"Haruka has a bit of a weird speech impediment and her passion overrides her logic," Natsuki said. "However, I know someone else prone to passion overriding logic." STARE.

"Shut up," Haruka grumbled. "I'm sorry, okay? But what was I to think?"

"Haruka is kind, gentle, and strong and always protected me and when she most needed me, I couldn't save her," Yukino said with a mixture of anger and despair. "I watched her dissolve away into nothing and I couldn't save her. Because of Fujino-san! I HATE HER." She was shaking, angry and scared of her own anger. "I hate her so much. And now...what is this? What is going on? If...it's like...I don't know what it's like!" Yukino was becoming more and more agitated.

"You said you couldn't remember what happened," Michiru said, gently placing her hands on Yukino's shoulders.

"I remember now. We tried to get Fujino-san to resume her duties and she refused because she wanted to spend her time having sex with Natsuki!" Yukino was becoming extremely agitated.

"We didn't have sex!" Natsuki said angrily. She couldn't remember clearly what happened, but she and Shizuru had never had sex. Right?

"And then she killed Diana and Haruka dissolved away into nothing," Yukino said, starting to cry.

Michiru pulled her close. "Diana is alive and it's clear Haruka survived and there you two are, grown up together and happy lovers," she said softly. "I guess that means we are destined to win this, right?"

"Please, you have to bring back my Haruka. Please," Yukino begged Michiru's shoulders and bosom, which she now had her face pressed to.

"All will be well once we win the war, get the Grail, and summon the Messiah to prevent the end of the world," Michiru told her. "Your Haruka will be restored to you, I promise."

Haruka pulled Natsuki aside. "Do you know what's going on?"

"My...my best friend, Fujino Shizuru, the student body president, went crazy during the Grail War. I can't remember exactly what happened," Natsuki said, wincing. She wasn't sure she wanted to remember. "But she went on a killing spree against everyone she thought might threaten me. And apparently took down Yukino and caused Haruka to evaporate, too."

"Haruka evaporated?" Haruka asked, feeling weird to say that.

"When our Servant...our Child...was defeated, then your most important person evaporated," Natsuki said, grimacing. "However, if Diana is back to life, I would think Haruka must be too. But I don't know how all this works with the timeline of history or how we ended up Servants of the Grail...I don't remember ever being defeated. Or how the war ended."

Haruka frowned. Something weird was going on and she didn't like it at all.

But she didn't know what to do about it either.

Akane leaped lightly from roof to roof, carrying Naru, while Usagi trailed alongside her as they followed Ami and Ryo, who were headed for Rovecharate Magnet School, the small high school for super-smart students. It was supposedly named after some American author, but the name had been totally butchered by an effort to render it with katakana, so even the geniuses weren't sure who their school was named after.

Let alone Akane, Usagi, and Ryo.

"Honey, who are those girls?" Ami asked Ryo.

"No one. I mistook them for someone else," Ryo said, staring up at the sky.

Ami sighed. "Ryo, don't lie to me."

He cringed and Usagi frowned. Clearly they were having problems.

"I can't talk about it," he mumbled.

They walked the rest of the way in silence, Ami clearly frustrated and Usagi felt very unhappy for her.

They went into the school and the trio of heroines ended up on a rooftop across the street, watching the classroom that Ami and Ryo were in. Usagi explained what had happened with those two back during the war with Beryl.

"You know, if you have Nephrite as a Servant, it's possible someone has Zoicite," Akane said.

Naru grimaced darkly. "They'll regret that."

Nephrite now materialized, making Usagi nearly fall off the roof in surprise. "I do not think that the case, but I could be wrong. My horoscopes do not show any sign of Zoicite appearing."

"Is he right?" Usagi asked Nephrite. "Is someone coming for him?"

"Yes," Nephrite said.

`"Then we will watch over him and Ami and protect them," Usagi said. "I won't let some idiot ruin their happiness and turn him into a monster."

Nephrite kept his mouth shut; this was the path dictated by the stars, but he feared that Ryo's destiny could not be denied. But if anyone could change destiny, it was Usagi.

"What about the other Rainbow Crystal people?" Akane asked.

"If we split up, we'll be picked off," Usagi said, though she frowned. I'm sorry, she thought. I can't protect all of you at once. Though if things went as usual, they wouldn't be attacked until she came near them. That kept her from feeling as guilty as she might have.

"Two Masters in an alliance," Saber said. She and Chiba Mamoru, her Master, were perched two roofs down the street, watching Usagi and company.

"Nephrite...," Mamoru said softly, sounding pained.

"You know him?" Saber asked curiously.

"Long, long ago, in another life, he was one of my...my knights. But Beryl corrupted my guardians with Dark Magics and turned them into her Generals for the conquest of the entire solar system. Then I had to fight them again...I think." He frowned. His memories were fuzzy and contradictory. He could remember a war with Beryl but he also remembered a totally normal life as a college student during that time too.

They couldn't have BOTH happened.

And now it seemed likely he would have to fight Usagi again. That gave him a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

She just can't stay out of trouble, he thought. But it's clear she doesn't remember me. And that's for the best. I will suffer so she doesn't have to.

"You think?" Saber said, frowning. The fact that her master had contradictory memory sets did not bode well.

"It had to have happened because otherwise, I wouldn't have this." He put his hand to his heart and a sword hilt popped out of his chest. He pulled out the sword, the twin to Saber's own blade, Excalibur. As a Servant, she wielded a copy of the original, but this was the original. Her master's possession of this sword had enabled him to summon her. Indeed, if she could believe his tales, one of his ancestors had forged this blade, the first King of the Golden Kingdom now long lost. It had passed from father to son for generations. How it had then gone from ancient Japan to Britain, neither of them knew. But Saber knew it was the blade she had carried when she ruled as Arturia Pendragon.

Unfortunately, neither of them had the sheath; indeed, Mamoru had told her the sheath must have been made seperately, as it had not existed in his time. And Saber did not have a copy of it, as she had lost it by the time she became a Heroic Spirit.

"Sooner or later, you will have to fight her," Saber said softly.

"I know. But it will be later," Mamoru said. "Let's go check in on Motoki; Reika is supposed to get back from Africa later today."

"We need to..."

"She is one of the crystal carriers," Mamoru said softly. "And Motoki's girlfriend."

Saber frowned. "Is there anyone you do not have a personal connection to?"

"I believe you are the one who knew Emiya Shirou's father," he said.

Saber said, "Let's go check on your friend."

Mamoru smiled a little smile.

"Mamoru! It's good to see you," Motoki said. "We don't open until later, as all the kids are in school, so Makoto-san and I are just cleaning up."

"Hi, Mamoru-san!" Kino Makoto said; she was busy sweeping around the pinball machines.

"Shouldn't she be in school?" Mamoru asked Motoki for about the fiftieth time.

"She won't listen, so better she be doing productive work and earning money for the future, right?" Motoki asked, laughing nervously.

Saber studied her; there was something about that woman...

"Reika gets back from Africa this evening, right?" Mamoru said.

"Yes, I am SO EXCITED," Motoki said. "I haven't seen her face to face in six months and hardly for nearly two years now."

Saber saw Makoto grimace and sweep harder. She shook her head. Foolish girl, you're just a mistress to be tossed aside now that the real mistress of the house is home. She frowned at Motoki; what a terrible man to exploit this poor girl like that.

This sort of thing was why Saber was glad no one had really treated her as a woman in her own time; women tended to be treated badly by the men around them, though she'd succeeded in getting her knights to be chivalrous to women. It was one of the accomplishments she could take some pride in, even if she still felt like a failure as Queen of Britain.

Which is why she was here in the first place.

Once she had the Grail, she could ensure someone more suitable ruled Britain instead of her, that history might follow its rightful course.

"Joan, what's wrong?" Motoki asked, worried.

She almost didn't respond, then remembered Mamoru had told her to go by that name in public. "Just remembering times past," she said.

"Well, they look like terrible times, so why don't I fire up some of the machines? You can play some free games while I chat with Mamoru."

"Thank you," Saber said, though the games didn't actually interest her a lot. But it was knightly to be courteous of one's host. And he was showing the kind of generosity she'd encouraged her knights to show when they were a host. This pleased her.

Moria turned out to be a quite enjoyable game; she selected Aragorn as her character and soon was slaughtering orcs in droves.

Makoto was watching her, she now realized as she took off a troll's head. "You're incredible! Do you type for a living?"

"Yes," Saber lied. She wasn't sure what it meant to 'type for a living', but it was easier than making up her own lie.

"Damn, you must make your boss really happy," Makoto said. "I'm up to seventy words a minute," she said proudly. "I do all the secretarial work for Motoki; it makes his life a lot easier. I've gotten pretty good with word processing and data entry and all that. But you're hella fast."

She can write seventy words in a minute?, Saber thought. That's amazing. Saber wasn't sure she could manage that even with her magical speed and precision as a Servant. "Your dedication to improving your skills is commendable," she said as Aragorn swung across a chasm on a rope, then stabbed three goblins in the face with one swift stroke. Unfortunately, the door on the other side seemed fist and sword proof.

"You needed to get the key from the chest back at the start of the level," Makoto said.

"Wait, the chests are not just part of the backdrop?" Saber asked. They didn't move, so she'd assumed they were just part of the scenery, the same way you couldn't move the tapestries.

"You have to loot them or you don't get items and power-ups you need and you can't move to the next level," Makoto said. "Here, let me help you."

She fired up the second player console and came in as Legolas. Her fingers moved at very high speeds, though not so fast as Saber. "I take it you don't play many video games."

"This is the first time I have ever played one," Saber confessed. "Though I watched some people play a game called 'Street Fighter' during the...a while ago." During the last Grail War.

"You're in your twenties and you've never played a video game?" Makoto asked in disbelief. Legolas now shot down three bats trying to bomb-dive Aragorn.

They began making their way back to the start of the level, fighting bats and orcs and goblins.

"I spent my childhood focused on my future career," Saber said stiffly.

"I spent my childhood beating up punks and fending off guys who wanted to have sex with me when I wasn't interested," Makoto said, grimacing. "Until I met Motoki. I used to be very violent." A bat started chewing on Legolas' head. "DIE YOU STUPID BAT!"

Aragorn stabbed the bat and it died.

"Thanks for the save," Makoto said. "Now, if we go this way, there is a shortcut back to the start." She shot a hidden door open and they went up a staircase. "I know the first eight levels of this game like the back of my hand."

"Why only the first eight?" Saber asked.

"The Balrog always eats me at the end of level eight," Makoto said, grimacing.

"Perhaps together, we can defeat it."

"Motoki's tried to help me take him down a ton of times but he always plays Gandalf, and Gandalf is super-
vulnerable to the Balrog," Makoto said.

"How long have you been with Motoki?" Saber asked curiously as they now bashed open the chest with the key and began pressing forwards to get the other chests.

"Two years. I used to have this stupid crush on this guy, "Crane Machine" Joe, and that brought me here all the time. But Joe's an asshole, and eventually, reality sank in. But I had gotten a job working for Motoki so I could see Joe more often and I just kept working for Motoki and, well, here I am," Makoto said, smiling. Legolas now shot a troll in the eye and while it was blinded, Aragorn cut its legs and arms off, then killed it.

Is she just his vassal?, Saber asked herself. But why the frown at Motoki's girlfriend returning? Or is this 'Reika' not a very nice person? "Do you have a boyfriend?" she asked.

Makoto turned red and mumbled incoherently. Legolas lost one of his lives as he bumbled into an orc's blade.

"There's a guy I'm in love with, but he has a girlfriend he is faithful to even though she ABANDONED HIM and went to another country and hardly ever comes to see him." She sounded very frustrated. "She just strings him along, so he won't give up, even though she clearly puts herself way ahead of him."

If she has a monster inside her, it is likely the monster's nature has leaked into her, Saber thought. So perhaps she is the type to string a guy along as a result. She may change once we remove the monster and the gem. I am sorry, Makoto, she thought. I will do what I must, though you seem a nice girl.

"So how long have you and Mamoru been dating?" Makoto asked, sounding a little sly. She grinned.

She...they must all think I am his girlfriend. She turned a little red at the thought. She'd never had a lover, never even been kissed. Everyone thought Mordred was her son, but he was just a homoniculous made from her blood.

"Oh wow, you are TOTALLY cute like that," Makoto said. Legolas now grabbed Aragorn around the waist and jumped across a chasm with him.

"I...we..." Saber couldn't make words form.

Makoto giggled happily. "So cute."

I wonder what those two are talking about and how soon Mamoru will save me from dying of embarrassment, Saber thought.

"Are you insane? You have let this drag on FOREVER," Mamoru said to Motoki in his office. "Reika is coming back tonight!"

"We haven't ever kissed or anything! You must be imagining it," Motoki insisted stubbornly. "I have been faithful to Reika and Makoto knows it. She gets crushes on various boys all the time. We're just good friends."

Mamoru slapped his forehead. This was going to end in fire, he could just tell.

"Wait, you know Crane Machine Joe?" Saber asked.

"Yeah, I had a big crush on him, like I said. He's a horrible cheater, so I don't let him come here any more and he has to go to Akbar's Arcade," she said.

"It's an arcade for Moslems?" Saber asked in confusion.

"What? I don't think Japan has any Moslems. But the owner is...huh, I guess maybe Faisal Akbar might be a Moslem. He is from Turkey," Makoto said. "He owns a used car dealership, an arcade, a bookstore, a couple of restaurants, a furniture store, and a pawn shop. I don't know what he's really like, but he makes these ads on the radio where he shouts 'Come on down to Akbar's and I will SAVE YOU MONEY!'."

Saber had dim memories of hearing that ten years ago during the last Grail War. "How does he cheat?"

"Well, ,we aren't sure, but I think he has some kind of combination magnet and electronics controller device he uses to rig games, get free games and get whatever he wants on the crane machine," Makoto said. "Also, he makes his dates pay for everything themselves and half the time he shows up late, smelling like beer." She grimaced.

"Thank you," Saber said as Aragorn hacked open the door to the third level and plunged through. You know, this game is pretty fun, she thought. And it is nice to have a skilled partner.

But really, we need to get on the hunt for those gems and the other Masters. Assuming we can find a Master he won't feel guilty fighting, anyway.

But since she had to wait for Mamoru, it wouldn't hurt to keep playing this game.

Shirou stared at the Archery Dojo. Mitsuzuri Ayako stood next to him. "We have no idea what happened. I know...this is bigger than your usual jobs..."

There was nothing left but rubble. Some of which was clearly bloody in one end of it. "Please tell me no one died," he said weakly.

"If they died, someone stole the body," Mitsuzuri Ayako said. She was the Captain of the Archery Club and an old friend of Shirou. "So I think someone must have gotten badly hurt and taken for treatment. But no one in the club has been reported dead. However, Matou-san isn't at school today and isn't answering the phone, so I'm worried he may have been caught in the collapse, though someone must have saved him."

That made Shirou feel better.

Taiga-sensei frowned. "How did it collapse?"

"The police are studying it," Ayako said.

In fact, they were swarming around the taped off rubble right now.

"I'm kind of busy right now, but I would be happy to help rebuild later," Shirou said.

"This is too much for Shirou," Taiga-sensei said. "You're going to have to get the school to pay a proper construction crew. This has been trashed."

They talked to Ayako a little longer, then left to go to class. Taiga-sensei said to Shirou, "I think we have to assume that Shinji is the Matou family master and that Lancer probably works for him and fought someone there. Shinji was probably badly hurt and is hiding at home."

Shirou frowned. Shinji was an old friend of his, though he'd gotten rather erratic in recent years. "You think he's alive?"

"If he could get out from under that rubble, he must be alive," Taiga-sensei said. "There's no trail of blood or anything, so someone probably dug him out and he's in a hospital or something."

"Or held prisoner as bait," Shirou said, frowning. Poor Shinji.

"Well, let's go to class," Taiga-sensei said.

To her displeasure, Usagi, Naru, AND Akane had all skipped today. They're probably at the Crown Arcade or Akbar's Arcade, Taiga-sensei thought. But I can't...oh hoh. Time to call Mai (who was out buying supplies for house repair and Shirou initiation) and have her conduct a little BUST.

Or, given it was Mai, a big bust.

Crane Machine Joe really liked Akbar's Arcade, even if Akbar sometimes showed up and was a giant freak of a man. Akbar went around wearing purple robes with a gold fringe and tried to talk in a dark, ominous voice. He'd been extra creepy lately.

Right now, Akbar was busy hitting on a hot redheaded woman in a long labcoat with thick glasses. Even with that outfit, Professor Eudial was hot in his opinion. However, the times he'd tried to ask her out, she'd mocked him, so he was enjoying seeing Akbar also go down in flames. It made him feel less pathetic.

Professor Eudial was trying to ignore Akbar; she just wanted to shoot some dinosaurs before going to teach one of her classes. She always felt so aimless, like something had gone off the rails with her life. But killing dinosaurs always relieved that for a while.

"Hey, big boy, I hear you're pretty good with...the crane machine," a woman said to him. She clearly was trying to sound sultry but actually she came off sounding more like a little kid who had just eaten lots of sugar. He couldn't help laughing.

He turned around and found himself facing...a pink haired woman in a french maid uniform? One of the ones low cut to show off her rather ample bosom. He felt his brain fog over; her voice was unsexy and her hair style was kind of weird, but her body...

"I, Akbar, am offering you my love at this low, low price," Akbar spieled at Professor Eudial, who stared at him with a mixture of fascination and horror. "Gaze into my crystal ball and you will see our future together!" He produced a crystal ball from his robe pockets.

"What would you like, hotty?" Joe asked. "And what's your name?"

"My name is Juliette," the pink-haired woman said, smiling kindly. She clearly was trying to look seductive but was not actually very good at it.

Joe didn't care. One look at her cleavage and he was sold.

"And I would like a kappa doll."

They went to the crane machine and he went to work. He had just secured the doll when he felt her touch his back, and he made a little happy noise.

Then she whispered, "Mixtecar Shiraz Kabox Gesen," and made a pulling gesture.

He howled loud enough that Akabar stopped his spiel and Professor Eudial turned to stare too. There was a hollow tube through his chest and now a gem floated out of the hollow towards Juliette's hand.

Mai now walked in. "Akane, Usagi, Naru, I've been sent to bring you all back to..." She stared as Crane Machine Joe began to shimmer and twist and change shape.

"Lovely lady Eudial, I think we had best abscond to my office and call the police; even if I have no idea what this is, it can't be legal," Akbar said to Eudial.

Normally, she would never have gone anywhere near anything private with this chump, but she was too scared to argue; they ran to his office.

"Fumi? What are you doing?" Mai said, horrified.

"I'm sorry, Mai," Fumi said. That was her real name. "I must obey my Master."

"Mashiro is here? She sent you to do this? What is this?" What is happening to that poor boy?

The Red Crystal now dropped into Fumi's hand and Crane Machine Joe had become the giant deadly robot demon Gesen, the First Shadow. "I'm sorry, Mai," Fumi said. "But my Master needs these gems and ordered me to destroy anyone who tries to stop me getting them. Gesen, you must destroy Tokiha Mai."

She bowed to Mai. "My apologies."

Mai leaped into the air. "BURNING MANDALAS," she shouted, summoning her Noble Phantasm, her rings of fire. Then she fried the wires that Gesen tried to tangle her up with.

"Report to me once Mai is dead," Fumi said sadly to Gesen. "Goodbye, Mai, I am so very sorry. But I can tell you one good thing before you die."

Mai dodged an effort by Gesen to beat her to death with an extended arm that ended in a mallet. "What?"

"The real Tokiha Mai is happy," Fumi said and pulled out a large printout of a photo. It showed Mai, older, maybe around twenty, in a wedding dress, facing Tate Yuuichi, who was in a tuxedo. Mikoto stood next to Mai, holding out a ring to them and they could see Sister Yukariko presiding over the wedding. "Your suffering, our suffering, it was not for nothing. We are only ghosts and shadows; what we do does not matter. We are but illusions, soon to die. And yet, I am sorry your illusion, your dream must end. But her dream is real. He loved you, Mai and now he will be with the real you for as long as two mortal lives last," Fumi said sadly, though she smiled. "Goodbye, Mai. You were the best of us." And then she ran off at high speed, virtually a blur, tossing Mai the photograph.

Mai caught it, but at the cost of taking a fist to the face. She crashed through the wall into the street. People stared at her in shock. They stared more when Gesen crashed through the wall and began firing bursts of lightning at her. She dodged wildly and fled at high speed with him giving chase. Mai was nosebleeding, which she tried to staunch with a handkerchief. She could call Kagatsuchi, but in theory, this was supposed to be a SECRET war and now she heard distant police sirens.

She flew higher, out of his reach, and threw fire at him, but it didn't hurt him, much to her frustration. And now MORE people could see her.

But now something worse happened.

Mikoto, looking older and more mature than she had looked on television, now rounded the corner at the end of the street, pushing a baby carriage with a little orange haired girl baby in it. Older-Mikoto was wearing a gi and sandals and had a shinai on her back. "Oh yes, you're going to be the greatest swordswoman of your generation when you grow up, Brigit. Your Daddy and I will train you up right," she said cheerfully to the baby, then stopped and stared at Gesen and Mai.

"Baby carriages are worth 2000 bonus points on this level!" Gesen announced. "I NEED POINTS!"

Is she...but the picture...but maybe it's Tate and I's baby..., Mai thought. But whoever's baby it was, she wasn't going to let it get hurt even if she wasn't sure how Mikoto had aged that much since showing up on TV or really, sure of ANYTHING.

She dove down, seized the baby with one hand and Older-Mikoto with the other and flew, even as Gesen smashed the carriage flat with his extending hammer arm. "TWO THOUSAND POINTS!" Then he announced "FROGGER ROUND!" and began running back and forth across the street, dodging cars and shouting about points while people dodged wildly and began crashing into each other and buildings.

"Mai, aren't you supposed to be at work?" Older-
Mikoto asked in confusion. "Your boss is a real hardass, so I always take care of Brigit so you don't get in trouble. Or did I imagine that?"

Mai frantically studied the chaos and the baby and Older-Mikoto. "You shouldn't take her into the middle of a giant robot attack!" she said instinctively and Older-Mikoto winced.

"I didn't know! They didn't announce it on TV or anything!," Older-Mikoto said frantically.

The police now pulled up and began stopping traffic and shouting at Gesen to cease what he's doing and surrender or they would fill out the paperwork allowing them to actually shoot at him.

He must be an Orphan summoned by the Gem...but he looked human before...was it a disguise?, Mai thought. Or did Fumi somehow turn him into an Orphan? I can't kill him...he's a real person...I don't want to hurt any normal people.

Why would Fumi do something so horrible? And why does she think we're not real?

"Mai-chan, what's wrong? And how did you get so young?" Older-Mikoto said, first worried, then curious. "I didn't realize the exercise program was working this good."

"This well," Mai instinctively corrected.

Gesen now announced, "COP-KILLER! The new game from COPCOM! NEW ROUND!" He began bashing policemen flat, blasting them with lightning and ripping their cop cars apart with wires.

Mai stared in horror.

Older-Mikoto said, "Also when do you learn to fly and...HOLY SHIT." She stared in shock.

Mai blazed over to the next street and put Older-
Mikoto down, passing the baby to her. "Go home, get the car...you have keys, right?"

"Yes, of course I have keys to my own car," Older-
Mikoto said a little sarcastically.

"Get Yuuichi and get me from work and just drive until you are far away from here. And don't come back until this chaos is over." Mai shuddered.

"But..how can I get you from work if you're here?" Older-Mikoto asked, confused.

"I can't explain right now. If I try to tell you I wasn't here, don't listen to me. Just get me out of this city, whatever it takes. And don't come back until the fighting ends," Mai said urgently.

Distantly, Gesen shouted, "NEW GAME! FIND THE FLYING WOMAN!" She heard the sound of a giant robot crashing through a video store.

Mai kissed the baby's forehead. "Go, Older-Mikoto. Protect Yuuichi and I and the baby. And run. Get out of this city and don't look back," she said sadly.

"I can't leave you, Mai," Older-Mikoto said urgently. "Also, shouldn't we take Shiho too?"

"Brigit can't stay in a warzone. Protect us, Mikoto. I'm counting on you." Mai took to the air. "RUN!"

Older-Mikoto began to run and cry, confused and afraid for the woman she most loved in this world. What was going on?

Please don't let me have to kill him, Mai thought. Please.

Saber and Makoto were in the throes of throwing down with the Balrog when Makoto suddenly clutched her head and moaned. "She needs me," she mumbled, then suddenly ran towards the door.

"What?" Saber said in confusion. "Why are you leaving?" Did she just get a psychic message?

"Hey, Makoto, where are you..." Motoki began.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Makoto shouted.

"Can you follow her? I'm worried but I can't leave the Arcade right now," Motoki said to Mamoru.

He nodded. "Come on, Joan."

They gave chase.

Usagi was struggling to stay awake; she was bored out of her skull watching people take some MATH CLASS. Naru was starting to zone out and so was Akane. Nephrite remained alert and interested by these new ideas (to him.) They might have some good applications for horoscopes.

A teacher now came into the room and talked to the teaching teacher, then addressed the class, who looked worried. However, he then left and class resumed, though some covertly checked PDAs or looked out the window.

Usagi blinked and looked around.

"Do you sense anything in the near future?" Naru asked Nephrite.

"The stars predict an alignment of Jupiter with the Sun," Nephrite said. "I am still trying to figure out what this means."

"Jupiter...Makoto?" Usagi asked nervously.

"I will try and figure it out more thoroughly," he said, sitting down and beginning to draw lines in the air; they watched him work.

Mai was still reluctant to call Kagatsuchi in the middle of a city. Especially knowing the Caster of the previous war had set the city ablaze and many had died. She was determined to protect Mikoto and Brigit, the baby...her baby. Even if she wasn't sure how she could be married with child and a teenager drafted into a magical war at once. But that child was hers and that Mikoto was her best friend in the world, like a sister to her, and no stupid video game monster was going to hurt them on her watch.

When Gesen crashed through the building, she fled down the street, getting him to chase her, always out of range of his attacks. Unfortunately, her fire didn't seem to do anything but annoy him and make him shout about damn points.

Worse, she could now see a major grocery store full of panicked people. What if he suddenly decided this was the Customer Slaughter game or something?

At least everyone had cleared out but she could hear more cops coming.

She prayed no cops were dead.

Unfortunately, hitting him with everything she had didn't seem to do more than annoy him and put some ash on his exterior. It's like he was hand-designed to fight me, Mai thought.

Maybe he WAS.

But surely Kagatsuchi could kill him. But he might well set the whole neighborhood ablaze.

She looked over; she could see Older-Mikoto running down one of the streets, crying, carrying Brigit in her arms, her sword bouncing on her back.

There's no choice, she told herself. Innocent people are going to be hurt. The people in the grocery store had thankfully retreated inside the building, but it wouldn't help them if...

No. I won't let it happen, Mai thought. This city isn't going to burn again.

"BLUE ELF SHOT THE FOOD!," Gesen shouted and aimed a lighting blast at the grocery store.

Never again.

But the shot was passing under her and she couldn't stop it in time.

There was a blur and a shout that pierced the heavens and the lighting blast was stopped; a teenage girl with long wavy auburn hair stood where the blast had ended; her clothing had been shredded down to her underwear, but she didn't seem to notice. "Joe, you are the biggest idiot in the universe!" she shouted. "Now look what you've gone and done!" Then she rushed forwards, grabbed him, leaped upwards and tumbled, slamming him to the ground and standing on his prone body. "I don't know where my transformation pen's run off to, but frankly, I can kick your ass without it!"

However, Gesen now sent her tumbling with a mallet fist to the face and she rolled across the gravel, grimacing. She stood up and dusted herself off. "You want some, you moron? COME AND GET IT!"

Down the block, Saber and Mamoru observed the fight in progress. "Not what I expected," Saber said curiously.

"She was Sailor Jupiter before history changed or we got amnesia or whatever happened," Mamoru said softly. "She is a Magus, but I doubt she's a Master in the war; it's pretty clear she was pretty much settled down trying to steal Motoki from his girlfriend." He sighed. "We had best stay concealed; my disguise magics don't work on you and I don't want to blow your cover. Also, I expect whichever Servant that is...probably Caster...is enough to deal with this thing in alliance with Jupiter. But for now, we observe."

Saber nodded approvingly. "It's wise to learn more of your potential foes if that is a Servant, and I expect she is."

Mai studied the ongoing brawl between Gesen and the now down to her underwear girl. Her fire didn't seem to do anything, deploying Kagatsuchi was too risky and unless her school uniform was a Noble Phantasm with powers they forgot to tell her about, she wasn't sure what else she could do.

Makoto tried to figure out where everyone was. Shouldn't they be here? Why had Joe turned into Gesen again? And why did she remember two different pasts? And where was Usagi? She'd gotten the distinct feeling Usagi was in danger, but her instincts had led her here, to where the flying woman with the fire powers now seemed content to hang out and watch, looking worried.

"DO SOMETHING," she shouted at the flying woman. "If nothing else, GET ME SOME CLOTHING!"

An idea now struck Mai, who flew over, grabbed a chunk of rubble from the street and flew at Gesen from behind, aiming for the back of his knee, using the rubble as a lance. The impact hurt, but now his knee snapped and he fell to one knee, sparks flying from the damaged point.

More cops were coming. Mai racked her brain for a good idea of how to deal with them.

Without hurting them or getting more of them hurt.

I am going to be in so much trouble, she thought.

Makoto now moved and grabbed more rubble and broke Gesen's other knee, then began bashing at his head now that he couldn't stand.

"Wait, he's a person who turned into a monster. We can't just kill him. Please tell me you know something where we won't have to kill him," Mai said urgently. Though maybe Taiga-sensei could do something with her magic broach... "We need to take him to someone I know. I think she can help him." I hope.

"Can you carry him?" Makoto asked.

"I know you can; I will carry you," Mai said.

To her surprise, she could pull this off; her powers did seem even stronger as a Servant than when she had been a Master. But that was why they summoned Servants, after all. She just hoped no one was following them.

Saber and Mamoru were, in fact, trying, but then lost them. "Well, explaining this to Motoki is going to be difficult," Mamoru muttered. "Well, while we hunt, I will tell you about the Seven Shadows. If one of them is here, I fear they all are."

Saber did not like the sound of that.

Usagi stared at her phone. They were watching a live feed from one of the TV stations of the cleanup of the 'giant robot attack'. No one had gotten it on film, but witnesses asserted that a giant robot had been beaten up by 'a naked woman' and 'a flying woman with a flamethrower'.

"Maybe it's Rei? But when did she learn to fly?" Usagi asked.

"Caster, I think," Nephrite said smoothly.

"Rei is Caster?" Usagi asked in confusion.

"I do not sense the presence of the planet Mars, but instead the influence of Jupiter and the fire signs," Nephrite said.

"Do you think...do you think Caster could turn him back to normal?" Usagi asked. "Or is he dead?" She cringed at the thought.

"He still has a future," Nephrite said after some calculations. "Even if I'm not sure if it's a good one. There are some dark influences here."

"Usagi, you can turn them back to normal, right?"

"I could if I had my moon wand," Usagi said. "Unfortunately, it's lost or maybe never existed and I don't know how to make a new one." She frowned.

"So what are we going to do if Ryo DOES get turned into a monster?"

"I haven't figured that out yet," Usagi confessed.

It was starting to seem likely nothing was going to actually happen any time soon, so she would have time to think.

Taiga-sensei stared at the twitching giant robot. "This was a person?"

"Yes," Mai said to her. "And this is..."

"Sailor Jupiter," Makoto said.

"You look more like you'd be saying 'Hello Sailor' in that," Taiga-sensei said critically. "Shouldn't you be dressed and in school?"

"Would you rather I let this thing kill people?" Makoto said crankily. "And I would be wearing clothing if I had a choice.

They were in the back of the school grounds, hidden in the swimming pool area, which wasn't currently in use. Taiga-sensei had feigned the need to go to the bathroom to leave her class after Mai had texted her a message.

Taiga-sensei pulled out her broach / necklace. "Shiny Magic Rock, HEAL THIS MAN!"

Makoto stared at it, eyes wide. "Is that the Silver Millenium Crystal?"

"No, it's the Shiny Magic Rock," Taiga-sensei said as white light bathed over the giant robot, turning him back into Crane Machine Joe, who was now unconscious. "I can show you the receipt."

Taiga-sensei's stomach rumbled. "Great, now I'm going to be starving until lunch."

"I don't suppose you can make a transformation pen with that?" Makoto asked hesitantly.

"A what?"

"I can't turn into Sailor Jupiter without my transformation pen."

"Shiny Magic Rock, make me a Sailor Jupiter Transformation Ring!" Taiga-sensei said. "No wait, don't turn me into one!" she said in a panic.

Shiny white light created a ring which now sank down into Taiga-sensei's hands. She then wobbled and passed out.

"Taiga-sensei!" Mai shouted and caught her.

Makoto took the ring and put it on. "JUPITER POWER, MAKEUP!"

'Makeup?', Mai thought.

TONS OF LIGHTNING.

Sailor Jupiter said, "Oh yeah, Sailor Jupiter is back." She grinned. "So what is going on here?"

"Taiga-sensei, are you okay?" She was breathing, anyway.

"Is she your princess?" Sailor Jupiter asked.

"I fight for her and protect her," Mai said.

Sailor Jupiter smiled a little smile. I have to find Usagi. And figure out why my memories aren't making any sense.

It now hit her...Mamoru and Joan had followed her out of the store. They were probably looking for her...

"Here's my cellphone number," Sailor Jupiter said. "We should talk later. But some people are looking for me. Is she going to be okay?"

Mai gave her cell number to Makoto. "Well, this is going to make it hard for her to teach," Mai said. She looked at the broach. Can I wish her awake? How powerful IS that thing, anyway?

"I have to go find Mamoru and his new girlfriend. But I'll call you later."

"Okay," Mai said. She was able to save this guy. "Wait, this guy...you know him?"

"This has happened before," Sailor Jupiter said, then frowned. "I think. My memories are scrambled. Hey wait, what's your name?"

"I am the Dragon-Princess," Mai said. "This is the Tiger Princess, who I serve." Best not to give out too much information, though Jupiter did seem pretty trustworthy and friendly.

"Does she like to eat and sleep?" Sailor Jupiter asked curiously.

"Very much," Mai said. "How did you know that?"

"Instinct," Jupiter said. "See you!" I wonder if that IS Usagi. Maybe whatever messed up everything turned Usagi into a grownup or something.

Well, going to have to see about Usagi later; let's go find Mamoru and Joan, Jupiter thought.

Mai looked at the school nurse.

"She'll be okay, she just needs rest. My goodness, what happened?"

"She must have not eaten enough breakfast somehow," Mai lied. "I'm supposed to make sure she's well fed." She sounded very embarrassed. "I cook for her."

"How nice of you, Tokiha-san," the school nurse said. "You can get back to class; she'll rest here just fine."

"Okay," Mai thought. Time to go shopping.

"I'm very sorry," Makoto said, bowing to Motoki. "I didn't mean to make you worry; I guess I just had a teenagerness attack."

He blinked, then laughed. "It's okay. I was worried about you," he said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Motoki, you idiot, don't encourage her!, Mamoru thought, burying his face in his hands.

"I just started thinking about my old boyfriend for no good reason and I freaked out," Makoto said, staring at the floor. But she put a hand on his hand and smiled a little.

"You two will come with us to pick up Reika at the airport, right?" Motoki said to Mamoru.

"Yes," Mamoru said. Both so I can kick your ass and because Reika is one of the Seven Shadows and I smell an attack coming.

"Hey, you're Umino Gurio, right?" the redheaded girl said shyly to Umino from behind her glasses. She wore the school uniform of Fuyuki High East, but he'd never seen her before.

Umino was sitting under a tree, watching a Ben 10 sub; these American cartoons were way better than the crap on Japanese TV, he was quite sure. "Hello," he said a little nervously. "I am, but I don't know you."

"My name is Juliet. Juliet Zhang." She shook his hand and sat down by him, very close. "You don't have a girlfriend, do you?"

"'Cause, I sort of think you're very cute but I've been afraid to approach you and I brought you a lunch," she said, words spilling from her mouth in a terrified cascade. She shoved it into his hands.

"Oh wow, thanks. And...you think I'm cute?" His glasses fogged over.

She nodded. "Way cute," she said firmly, then moved a little closer.

She had short red hair, curled in ringlets and vivid eyes and soft lips and her figure wasn't hugely impressive but Umino was not the sort to look a gift horse in the chest. "You're very beautiful," he said hesitantly.

She blushed and stared at the ground. "Really?"

"Yes," he said. "Please eat lunch with me."

She smiled and got out another one. "I don't suppose you're into Spiderman and Spiderwoman?" she asked, glancing at the frozen image on his video player.

"I love American superheroes," Umino confessed. "They're much less silly than sentai. And less formulaic."

"I know, every sentai show is totally the same. Though there was a Japanese adaptation of Spiderman which was pretty cool. Before either of us were born."

"Oh wow. Got the torrent addy?" Umino asked.

They were soon hard at work downloading bootleg ancient Spiderman and Umino was VERY happy.

Assassin could feel his energy rising and she smiled. He would be PERFECT.

Taiga-sensei eventually woke up, had a sandwich from the school lunch bar and ate her lunch Shirou and Mai had made her and felt alive but still drained. But she was too full to eat any more without getting sick.

She mostly lazed around watching once they went home, while Sakura, Suguira-sensei, Shirou, and Mai set everything up for the fire rite.

"So how exactly does this work?" Shirou asked.

"Basically, we scare you shitless with fire," Suguira-
sensei said.

"We push you to the brink of your terror and force you to jump past it; the experience should open your magical circuits. Or possibly traumatize you for life," Suguira-
sensei said. "But we have to take that chance, since sex is out."

Sakura grimaced. "Shirou-kun shouldn't..."

"I know, I know, that's why we're not doing it," Suguira-sensei said hastily.

Shirou turned a little red.

"Anyway, he's too young for me, I like older men," Suguira-sensei said. "Mai, you'll need to monitor and control the flames."

Mai nodded.

Then Taiga-sensei's phone rang. "Hello?"

"This is Professor Tomoe. I understand your Servant made quite a mess fighting a giant robot in the business district," he said.

Taiga-sensei laughed nervously. "Yes, sir."

"Our business must be conducted covertly. This is your warning. If this happens again, I will have to punish you for breaking the rules."

"Yes, sir, it won't happen again," Taiga-sensei said urgently.

"Where on earth did a giant robot come from, anyway?" he asked.

"Mai told me that a woman she knew from Fuuka, Fumi, pulled a gem out of some teenager hanging around an arcade, and turned him into a monster," Taiga-sensei said. "Then I healed him once she and someone calling herself 'Sailor Jupiter' defeated him."

Tomoe's breath caught, then he said, "It sounds like Servant Fumi has a very strange Noble Phantasm. I don't think anyone's ever summoned her before."

"I wouldn't know, sir," Taiga-sensei said very seriously.

"Thank you for the information," he said. "I will take it into account."

"You're welcome."

He hung up and she sighed. "I'm in the doghouse. Professor Tomoe called me and chewed me out because too many people saw Mai's fight with the robot guy."

"I'm sorry," Mai said, bowing.

"Generally, we only fight at night for just that reason," Suguira-sensei said. "Usually late at night."

"It's okay," Taiga-sensei said. "I think we should cook dinner before we barbeque Shirou for dessert."

Shirou laughed nervously. "Let's get this set up and then we cook."

Nephrite, after further calculations, had informed them that it was unlikely anyone would attack Ryo today. So, Usagi had taken off for work with Akane in tow and Naru and Nephrite had gone back to her place to try and work astrology together to figure out when the attack would come.

Akane had quickly impressed the boss enough to get a job herself and the two of them had a busy evening serving food, though their boss was worried about the new all-you-
can-eat place cutting into their profits in the future. Usagi resolved to try it out tomorrow.

But for now, work.

Much to her relief, Illyasviel had figured out how to make Pox insubstantial. This meant he couldn't eat everything in sight or do other messy things. He was powerful but bone deep stupid.

Illyasviel worked on her pork and rice, while Berserker pretty well stuffed herself. How can she eat so much, Ilyasviel wondered. I guess Berserkers do need a lot of energy.

She touched the gem; she'd set it into a necklace and tucked it inside her shirt. Once they finished eating, it was time to go show her big brother who was the boss in this family. I hope he's a Master, she thought. Unfortunately, Professor Tomoe had refused to say. Best to take out a rival and settle things with oniichan at the same time, she thought.

Berserker FINALLY finished eating. "Naptime," she said.

"No! No napping! We have to go visit my big brother and turn him into my slave," Illyasviel said.

"That's kind of mean," Berserker said. "Shouldn't you love your big brother? I love mine!"

"Father loved him more than he loved me," she said curtly. "He must be punished."

Mikoto frowned. Illyasviel was the boss, but that seemed kind of mean. But maybe he deserved it. She would reserve judgement.

Illyasviel's phone rang. "Madam," one of the maids said. "A crazy woman with fire powers and her insane flautist friend and a giant rampaging crow are trashing the castle."

Oniichan would have to wait, apparently. Fire powers? Must be Caster. Interesting.

Mamoru sat tensely in the airport; he could see Makoto was very tense, and Motoki looked a little jumpy. Only Saber seemed relaxed; she couldn't sense any Servants anywhere nearby or any other source of trouble and Motoki's personal life was basically irrelevant to her.

Then cellphones began to ring all around them, though none of them got a call. They could hear panicked talk and chatter and then distantly, an explosion.

The waiting area was now full of wailing and panic and Motoki grabbed a nearby panicking caller. "What's going on?"

"An albino took over the flight, announcing she was from the Ainu Liberation Front. She had a machine gun instead of a right arm," the man said.

"How the hell did someone with a machine gun prosthetic get onto a flight?" Motoki asked in disbelief.

"I don't know, but Taiki wouldn't lie to me," the man said frantically. "He's been my partner for twenty years, but now I think he's dead, as I heard the explosion over the phone and heard it out there and now the line is dead...SHIT!" His toupee fell off in his agitation, revealing his huge bald spot.

Makoto instinctively picked it up and put it on his head, driven to help but this was all she could do.

Motoki became more and more agitated as they waited and then the announcement came. Some mad albino terrorist had taken over the plane and started throwing passengers out of the plane. When they finally tried to mob her, the plane blew up. Four passengers had survived being thrown out of the plane into the ocean, but they were gravely injured. Everyone else was clearly dead.

Mamoru, Saber, and Makoto had to take Motoki home; he was curled up in a ball of despair and guilt (even though he hadn't done anything even vaguely to blame for this.) Makoto laid him down in his bed and then went to talk to the others in the living room. "Thank you for helping," she said softly, staring at the floor.

Mamoru felt very guilty. While he didn't know which Master was behind this, it could be no coincidence. One of them had killed everyone on the plane in order to get at Reika's gem. He couldn't just lurk around and wait to save people as his instincts tended to tell him.

"He will be safe," Saber said. "It's clear he was not a target. This is just an unlucky coincidence for him."

Makoto grimaced. "If I get my hands on that damn albino..."

"Given she blew up the plane with herself in it, that is unlikely," Saber said to her. "You are unlikely to ever have revenge on her."

Makoto stared at the floor again, fists clenched. "Dammit."

"Please take care of Motoki," Mamoru said to her. "I am going to be busy for a while, so I may not be able to come around much. But I know you will take care of him better than I could." Even if you're too young for him and he's an idiot who strung you along like this, Mamoru thought. But he is going to need you now.

"Let's go, Joan," he said to Saber, who nodded.

"Where are we going?" she asked, once they got outside.

"In the last war, your master served the Einzbern, right?"

"Yes," Saber said. "He fought dishonorably." She grimaced. "But he was rather ruthlessly effective."

"And they're experts at making homoniculi, right? Who then could be used to, say, blow up a plane in a suicide attack without losing anyone they'd consider valuable?"

"Yes," Saber said.

"I think it's time to deal with the Einzbern, then," Mamoru said grimly.

Saber nodded. It was time to get serious.

Shirou sat inside the pentagram of fire, wearing nothing but boxer shorts and socks. He felt less naked if he had the socks on. He was pouring sweat all over and the urge to flee screaming was intense. If his friends hadn't been gathered around him...and if he hadn't been boxed in by fire...he would have run.

"Please tell me we're done," he moaned.

"You haven't passed out and had a vision yet," Suguira-sensei said.

Sakura frowned. "This goes on until he collapses?"

"Near-death experience," Suguira-sensei said. "Don't worry, Mai won't roast him alive."

Sakura began to sweat.

The doorbell rang. Taiga-sensei said, "I'll go get it."

She left and Mai said to Suguira-sensei, "I ran into Mikoto earlier today."

"Is she a Servant?" Suguira-sensei asked, frowning.

"She looked to be around twenty," Mai said softly. "And apparently she's living with Tate and I, who are grown up too and have a baby, who she was walking in a stroller."

Suguira-sensei blinked. "What?"

"And Fumi is a servant. I told Taiga-sensei about this but you need to know too. Fumi said...we're just ghosts. Illusions. Not real." Mai stared at the ground.

"You seem pretty real to me," Shirou said. "This fire sure seems real."

Sakura made an odd noise.

"What, Sakura?" Suguira-sensei said.

"Nothing," Sakura said, looking up at the stars. "The Buddhists teach all of this is illusion, though. That nothing is real, not even our self. We're just God having a hallucination. You're an illusion, but so am I." Softly, she repeated, "So am I."

"Yes, but if everything is an illusion, then being an illusion doesn't matter. How is it practically any different from if everything was real?" Suguira-sensei asked.

"It means the bad things weren't real and you can forget them because they're not real," Sakura said, studying the stars.

"But it means the good things are fake too," Mai said.

Sakura didn't reply at first, then she turned to Shirou. "You should open your mind and practice Reinforce. It will help this."

He closed his eyes and began focusing on it, reinforcing his boxer shorts; this made his groin a little less hot, which was a relief.

"Sakura, have you..." Suguira-sensei began.

"The Matou family have a long history of..." Her lips moved silently and she sighed. "I know things."

They heard Taiga-sensei shout and then weird noises ensued...were those lightsaber sounds?

"I'd better go see what's going on," Suguira-sensei said. "Mai, you keep slow roasting Shirou."

Mai rubbed her forehead. "Yes, sensei."

Please don't level more of my house while I'm stuck here, Shirou thought. "I should be helping."

"You can help best by getting your magic circuits to fully open," Suguira-sensei said, running through a hole in the wall into the house.

OPEN FASTER, he thought.

Taiga-sensei was sprawled on her ass with a lightsabre in her hand when Suguira-sensei arrived. Several dead worms the size of snakes were lying around the living room and Shinji was here, now with a silver right arm covered with runes and gemstones for eyes. More worms were somehow oozing out of his body and crawling towards Taiga-sensei, and as Suguira-sensei entered the room, she nearly got hit by a burst of intense cold from the hand which now coated the wall with frost.

"+5 Keen Holy Axe of Returning!" Suguira-sensei said, then charged at Shinji, parrying arctic blasts. He turned and ran out the front door, even as Taiga-sensei got up.

A dozen men were waiting outside in black robes with silver runes on them, armed with long silver blades with runes. A limousine sat by them; a thirteenth man sat behind the wheel, listening to classical music on the car radio.

"I'll handle them!" Taiga-sensei said, and began flipping about with insane agility, slashing their blades with her lightsabre. They couldn't touch her, whereas she disarmed one of them with every stroke. Her broach glowed from inside her clothing, bright enough for anyone to see it, if not to know what was making the light.

Suguira-sensei had a feeling Taiga-sensei was going to knock herself out again soon. I have to make this quick.

She didn't want to use a lot of mana before Shirou achieved his full potential, or else she'd have serious recharging problems, given that if you didn't know the right magic, the other option was sex, which would probably break Sakura's heart. It was pretty clear she was sweet on Shirou and Suguira-sensei didn't want to hurt her. Or violate the statutory rape laws, for that matter.

Plus, Shirou would almost certainly be incompetent at it.

However, she had to make this quick and prevent escape. "GAKUTENOU!"

She hopped on board as Shinji and company now fled to the limousine and roared out. She took off in pursuit of them, racing through the streets; they were on the fringe of the city here, but she felt pretty comfortable that people would just think some idiots were having a drag-race and wouldn't want to get involved.

Plus...THIS WAS FUN. Oh yeah.

Suddenly, out of a clear sky, a huge amount of mud and grease poured down on Mai, Sakura, and Shirou, dousing the fires around him and making a huge mess of the yard.

Then there was a sudden blur around them and everything was cleaned up, lickety split.

Then Fumi hit Mai in the back of the head with a spoon.

CLONK, she fell down.

Sakura and Shirou stared in shock.

As Mai tried to recover, Fumi said, "REAPER," pulled out a scythe and proceeded to stab Mai in the chest. Mai gave a scream and then fire erupted everywhere. Fumi kicked her into the fire around Shirou. The last thing Shirou saw before the fire hit him was Fumi grabbing Sakura and fleeing at high speed.

As they chased Shinji, Taiga-sensei's gem pulsed even brighter and she said, "Turn back! Something's wrong! MAI!"

"What..."

"BACK!"

Dammit. Suguira-sensei cursed and made a bootlegger reverse with Gakutenou, which was kind of satisfying, and raced back at high speed.

Fumi landed on the roof of the limousine, Sakura squirming frantically, and passed her down to the men inside, then pulled her cellphone. "Caster is dead and we have secured Sakura. However, Rider was also present, trying to kill Shinji but she has now broken off her pursuit."

"Very good, Maid," Zouken said. "And Emiya Shirou?"

"He was on fire, the last I saw," Fumi said. "As you expected, Caster lost control of her powers once critically injured. And we cannot be blamed."

"You have done well," he said. "Even if you did lose Gesen."

"You emphasized the gem was more important than the demon, sir, so I chose to sacrifice the latter to ensure the former."

"Return to base," he said. "Did the gem work well?"

"As you thought, it can easily conjure solids and liquids; I did not have a chance to test its ability to steal objects," Fumi said to him.

"We can test that here. Make sure Shinji returns intact; did he fight well?"

"I don't know; you will have to ask the support troops, as I left as soon as he knocked."

"Alright," Zouken said. "See you soon. Over and out."

"Over and out," Fumi said, then hung up. I'm sorry to hurt you, Mai, she thought. But if you are the same as you were at Fuuka, you don't die so easily.

The world was fire. Everything was burning. Burning. Burning. Inside and outside of Mai, there was nothing but fire. Fire.

Kagatsuchi, god of fire.

And Shirou.

Shirou?

Mai was naked in the flames and so was he and they both turned beet red and looked at Kagatsuchi instead of them.

Mai remembered everything now; she'd been killed and left for dead in the last war by Berserker while trying to put out the fires started by Assassin, but Kagatsuchi had saved her by immolating her, activating her strongest, secret Noble Phantasm, the Egg of the Phoenix. If she died by fire, she would always be reborn; the same applied to Kagatsuchi. This made them both very hard to kill, if they had the mana available for it, anyway, as it wasn't cheap.

Unfortunately, it looked like the Egg had sort of caught Shirou in the middle of it.

"I hope it doesn't hurt too much," Mai said nervously.

"It's weirdly comforting," Shirou said. "I guess this must be the vision part of it," he mumbled.

"We're both dead, but should come back to life in just a minute," Mai said. "I've done this before."

"Are you unkillable?" Shirou asked. "I mean...that looked pretty deadly."

"I just hope I haven't burned your house to the ground," Mai mumbled.

Shirou felt a strange energy flowing through him and now the scars on his left arm lit up. Hot dogs and marshmellows appeared and began roasting in the flames.

Kagatsuchi sweatdropped.

Mai stared then began eating; she was extremely hungry.

So was Shirou, so he did likewise. Really, floating here naked was kind of soothing.

And then the fires went out and they returned to reality, naked in the back yard on a pile of ashes with the sound of fire trucks in the distance and Taiga-sensei and Suguira-sensei running up to them.

Also, there were a lot of well cooked hotdogs and marshmellows lying all around them.

"Hi," Shirou said. "I think I'm going to pass out now."

"Me too," Mai said.

CLONK.

"Wow, I didn't think stone could burn," Berserker said to Illyasviel as they approached the now burning Castle Einzbern. (The Einzbern had built this castle for the first Grail War and used it as a base for Grail Wars, ever since.)

"With the proper application of alchemy, anything can burn, but I don't WANT it to burn," Illyasviel said.

Distantly, they heard a woman shout, "WHERE HAVE YOU PUT GRANDPA!?"

Berserker blinked. "Grandpa?"

"Pox. He must have been someone's grandfather." Illyasviel studied the giant raven flying around the burning castle. Her family had paid off the police and the media to ignore the castle, which hadn't been cheap, but someone was going to notice this and she didn't want to get in trouble like whoever had turned the giant robot loose likely had. That had to be some Master's work.

"Can Miroku fly?" she asked.

"Yes," Berserker said.

"Call him and we take to the skies."

Miroku, a giant suit of armor with a club, erupted out of the ground and they climbed up onto his shoulders and took to the skies. The raven had two women riding on it; a kiddy looking one with red squid hair and a flute and a teenage one with long black hair. Illyasviel had no idea who they were. "Berserker, take out the older one. I will deal with the boss."

Berserker jumped into the air towards the Raven, which changed course so that Berserker was now arcing up over the castle, then plummeted down into the inferno. The Raven fired feathers like giant knives at Miroku, but they mostly bounced off his armor. A few lodged into cracks and joints, though.

Illyasviel hurled a bottle at the flautist, who shrieked and got hit in the face. BOOM. She fell off the raven, which now raked Miroku with its claws and drew around for another pass.

Illyasviel pulled another bottle out of her pockets, right as the other priestess shouted something and now was dressed in a short skirt and leotard. She shouted again as Illyasviel shouted and hurled another bottle at her. The explosion seemed to only mildly annoy the older priestess, but now dozens of prayer strips attached themselves to Miroku, who evaporated.

Illyasviel now plummeted like a rock. As she fell, she saw a giant robot toad thing suddenly fire a gigantic mace and chain right through the middle of the giant raven, which dissolved away into nothing; that was some small comfort.

Then she realized something. "BERSERKER, SAVE ME!" She activated a Lesser Miracle and a battered, groggy Berserker leaped out of the burning castle, caught her, landed lightly on the ground, then said, "FEED ME, MASTER."

Illyasviel pulled out another bottle and poured it down Berserker's throat, refreshing her mana. "Thank you," she said.

"Illyasviel von Einzbern," Saber said. "Did you arrange to blow up Flight 235?"

They blinked in surprise, and now saw a man in a tuxedo with a cane and a mask sitting on a nearby roof and at ground level, Saber in full battle regalia. Weirdly, she held a sword hilt but you couldn't actually see the blade; winds whipped around it.

"What? Why would I blow up an airplane?" Illyasviel said.

"Someone in this war blew up that plane," the man on the roof said.

"It was not me, unless you're talking about the raven, which got killed by a giant frog with a mace and chain," Illyasviel said. "So you are Saber's master?"

"Yes," he said.

"Good, this will save me time," she said. "Berserker, kill Saber. I will deal with Mr. Tuxedo."

"I prefer Tuxedo Mask," he said.

Berserker charged Saber, shouting loudly, and began driving her back with a ferocious, no holds barred onslaught of blows. Saber fought defensively, giving ground.

Illyasviel pulled out her indigo-colored gem. "POX! SLAY HIM!"

Pox appeared and charged towards Tuxedo Mask, who met him in the air, cane against claws, clashing as they crashed to the ground. Pox drove back Tuxedo Mask with a vicious onslaught.

Illyasviel pulled out another bottle and prepared to hurl it. Then there was a gunshot and the bottle exploded in her hands and she passed out.

Rider roared up, grabbed Illyasviel, and roared off with her. Berserker was too lost in battle to notice.

Dammit, Mamoru thought. That must be Rider. But I can't follow her now.

He was too busy staving off being eaten.

Sailor Mars walked angrily through the burning castle. She'd survived the fall, but she was in a lot of pain. "Shiho! Where are you?"

Distantly, she heard a pained moaning and she ran to it.

Shiho was half-buried in rubble and looked close to death. "I'm sorry, big sister, I failed you," she mumbled. "We didn't rescue your grandfather or get even with the evil girl who stole your boyfriend."

Sailor Mars felt something go past her, then realized she couldn't move; a weird knife was pinning her shadow to the ground and somehow preventing her moving.

"You murdered the man I loved!" a voice said angrily from nearby. "NOW YOU DIE!"

"SAILOR TELEPORT SHIHO AND I," Sailor Mars shouted, activating one of her Lesser Miracles.

She and a still mangled Shiho appeared in the Shrine. "Who was that?" she asked Shiho.

"I don't know, I can't remember most of the war I fought in. But I think I'm going to die now. I'm not very tough physically, just spiritually potent," Shiho mumbled. "I'm sorry."

"BE HEALED," Rei commanded with another Lesser Miracle.

A shining cup appeared and poured something that looked like wine down Shiho's throat. Her wounds healed and even her clothing fixed itself. Then it vanished.

"You spent a Lesser Miracle to save me?" Shiho asked in shock. "You could have found another Servant once some of the other masters died."

"I'm not letting someone die fighting by my side," Rei said determinedly. "It's my responsibility to protect you and keep you alive."

Shiho came over and began to cry on Rei's shoulder. "You're so nice, big sister."

"We're going to need a better plan," Rei said. She only had one Lesser Miracle left. And Shiho's Noble Phantasm, Yatagarasu, was destroyed by the frog-thing. Which must be someone else's Noble Phantasm.

"I feel so safe with you," Shiho said softly.

"You are," Rei said. This was not going well at all; how are we going to do this all on our own? But I can't drag the others into it; I couldn't restore their memories without blowing my last Lesser Miracle, anyway.

What a disaster of a night this has been.

Berserker looked extremely frustrated; Saber seemed able to take a huge amount of punishment and this was taking far too long. Am I doing something wrong? No choice but to summon Miroku again. Assuming he wasn't destroyed.

"MIROKU!" she shouted.

He erupted up out of the ground and slammed Saber into the side of a building. Rei's power had disrupted him but not destroyed him; it would take a Servant's power to destroy him. (To the frustration of many a Mage, Servants are stronger in their strongest areas and often in middling areas than most Magi.)

"Saber!" Mamoru shouted, hurling a sword to her. She caught it in her left hand, then leaped at Miroku, swords flashing.

Mamoru hurled a rose, cracking Miroku's armor to create a weakpoint. "DO IT NOW, SABER!" She felt a rush of mana and burned it all in her attack, along with a large chunk of her reserves, needed for the dual attack.

Seconds later, Saber was breathing very hard, but Miroku fell apart into shards of metal which began dissolving away. The power of twin Excaliburs backed by the power of the Servant who was the strongest in the clash of weapons was too much for him, though it left Saber drained to use both.

Pox now turned and ran away for no clear reason.

"Surrender," Mamoru said to Berserker. "Your master has been taken by Rider and your demon ally has abandoned you and your Noble Phantasm servant has perished. You cannot hope to defeat my sword, Excalibur, or my servant, Joan of Arc, and her weapon, the Winds of the Holy Spirit."

"God wills it," Saber intoned as Mamoru had instructed her. She smiled a little smile. She always got mistaken for Joan; might as well exploit that.

"MAAAIII WHERE ARE YOU! HELP!" Berserker shouted and ran at high speed.

They tried to keep up with her, but her frenzied flight was too quick for them and they soon lost her.

Saber handed the sword back to Mamoru. "Well, that was a victory but not a total one. I have sustained a fair amount of damage, but I have enough mana left to heal it, though I will need recharging after that."

"Begin healing yourself. Now we pick through the burning rubble for clues."

There was a sound of fire trucks.

"Or possibly for now, we hide."

Shirou stared at the ticket. "Where am I going to get this kind of money?"

The fire department had shown up, decided he had been engaged in illegal trash burning, and now he owed the city 200,000 yen.

"I can beg Daddy for money and we can challenge it in court, later," Taiga-sensei said. "We have a bigger problem."

"Where is Sakura?" he asked.

Taiga-sensei's stomach grumbled. "Ugh, hungry again. Sakura's vanished."

"Fumi has her," Mai said. "I saw it just before I passed out and exploded." She sighed. "The Kazahana estate burned; we saw that on the news, so she must have a new Master, but I have no idea who."

"Maybe someone in the Matou family?" Taiga-sensei asked. "If freaky worm spewing Cyber-Shinji was attacking from the front, maybe he is Fumi's master now."

"What?" Shirou asked in confusion.

"He has a cold-blasting cyber rune arm and worms come out of him and he's all freaky with gemstone eyes now," Taiga-sensei said. "He demanded I hand over Sakura to him and when I told him to be polite, he decided to kill me."

"But why would Shinji kidnap Sakura and try to kill you?" Shirou asked.

"It's pretty clear he's the Matou Master and he likely knows now that Taiga-sensei is a Master and will want to kill her," Suguira-sensei said bluntly. "Someone probably came within an inch of killing him in the dojo but he survived and has rebuilt himself as cyber-magic-worm Shinji."

Shirou stared at the ground. "He's been my friend for a long time."

Mai said, "Maybe we can get him to surrender."

"Maybe," Suguira-sensei said. "I don't want to kill anyone if I can help it, but this is likely to be killed or be killed. We know what Fumi did to Mai."

Shirou grimaced. Isn't there some way to be a hero without having to kill people? I want to save Sakura, but I don't want to have to kill Shinji.

"Well, if we can talk some sense into him, then we might be able to get him to surrender his Lesser Miracles," Suguira-sensei said. "And let him take refuge with Tomoe-
sensei." She sounded hopeful and dubious at once.

I hope Mikoto was able to get...the other me and Tate to go, Mai thought. But I can worry about that, later.

"It's not safe here," Older-Mikoto said urgently to Older-Yuuichi, Older-Mai, and Older-Shiho. "You told me to get everyone and run!"

Older-Mai put a hand to her forehead. "You claimed I was sixteen again, too."

"You shouldn't drink and drive the baby carriage," Older-Shiho said. "I'll miss my classes if I leave town now." She was still attending Fuyuki University, as was Older-Mikoto, whereas Older-Mai and Older-Yuuichi already had their degrees.

"I WAS NOT DRINKING!" Older-Mikoto protested. "You heard the report on TV! There really was a giant robot."

"Mikoto, I can't be at work and flying around blasting giant robots with fire," Older-Mai said, then turned and started feeding Brigit her bottle of milk while everyone else was watching TV at the end of a long day.

"I called Yukino and she says her contacts inform her that Castle Einzbern is on fire! And people say they saw a giant raven!"

"Yukino's been watching too much anime," Older-Mai said. "There are no giant ravens who set castles on fire. And it's not on any of the news channels."

Older-Yuuichi said, "I don't know what happened to you, Mikoto, but we can't just leave town. What would your students do without you?" Older-Mikoto was teaching martial arts (mainly swordsmanship) to pay for her college education.

"I'm just afraid everyone's going to get hurt," Older-
Mikoto said, pleadingly.

"It's going to be fine," Older-Yuuichi said. "No need to leave Fuyuki City."

Older-Mikoto frowned. She had a bad feeling about this.

"Do you think she's dead?" Archer asked Rin as they studied the burning castle with binoculars from a safe distance.

"No," Rin said. "If she has Saber as her servant, Saber is VERY tough." Rin had hoped to get Saber but ended up with Archer instead.

"Well, I suppose she could be anywhere by now."

Rin grimaced. "Yes. And there's good reason to think Shinji somehow survived. Given the lack of a body. Time to check out the Matou estate, I think."

Archer nodded, and they headed out.

Taiga-sensei and Shirou wolfed down hamburgers from MacDonald's. They'd been able to recharge their Servants with the help of the Shiny Magic Rock, but it seemed to basically make them both starving with much use.

Suguira-sensei was driving Taiga-sensei's car while the two Masters ate like maniacs. Mai sat in the front passenger seat, watching for trouble.

"Are you worrying whether we're real or not?" Suguira-sensei asked Mai.

"Yes," she said, then sighed.

"You're real," Taiga-sensei said. "You breathe, you eat, you sleep, you poop, you wear clothing, what more proof do you need?"

"Why are there two of me?"

"Time Travel," Taiga-sensei said. "You're both from the future, right? So your future self also came back in time."

Mai wanted to believe that, but why? Why would her future family come back in time? And why did she remember being sixteen in 2004?

It just didn't make any sense. Especially since apparently the older Mikoto didn't remember any of the events from Fuuka at all. What is going on?

Juliet Zhang studied Umino's face as he slept. He's so gullible and trusting, she thought. She felt a pang of guilt and frowned. He wanted to fuck me, she thought. I only gave him what he wanted. He was using me too.

But she knew better. He was young and naive and...

She hated guilt above all things.

Well, she could give him one of the wishes, when they got the Grail. One to bring back her family, one to kill all those bitches who had looked down on her and one for him. That's fair, she thought.

Now I just need to get some Lesser Miracles so I can make him a proper Master, she thought.

And teach him to fuck properly so I don't go crazy doing this to refresh my mana.

Yes, it would be fair as long as he got a wish.

And then she would have HER REVENGE.

"You have to kill the enemy masters!," Haruka said.

"She's just a KID," Rider said. "I can't just shoot a kid in the head."

"Fine, I will do it myself," Haruka said, whipping out a gaudy, jeweled sword from somewhere, as Michiru watched impassively and Yukino stared in horror.

Rider stared at the kid, then at Haruka and said, "No."

Haruka was about to do it anyway, but then she grimaced. "I can't do it. The world could be destroyed if this child lives, but I can't just stab an unconscious kid in the head."

"What do we do with her, then?" Michiru asked.

"Hold her captive, eliminate the other masters, gather the gems and summon the Messiah," Haruka said. "Before it's too late."

"I will scout in insubstantial form," Suguira-sensei said. "Mai, you cover Shirou and Taiga-sensei."

"I want to come," Shirou said.

"Can you walk through walls?"

"No," he mumbled.

"Well, then stay here." She now vanished.

Shirou paced back and forth in frustration, while Taiga-sensei sat in the car behind the wheel with the engine running, in case they had to make a getaway. They'd parked a block away from the Matou mansion in order to avoid being seen.

Mai fiddled with her cellphone, using a telephone number lookup. She could find all her old friends from Fuuka, several of the teachers, and many others here. She even found the Fuuka Academy homepage. Everything seemed consistent with her having been sixteen in 2004 and this being 2010.

But then, what am I? If what I did didn't happen, how could I be a Heroic Spirit?

While Mai was angsting, Taiga-sensei was chilling, and Shirou was trying to dig a hole down to China with his feet, Suguira-sensei now returned.

"Well, the basic situation is that they've locked Sakura in her bedroom, while the old man and Shinji the cyber-
whatever are busy experimenting on creating things with a red gem in a laboratory in the basement."

"The gem that was pulled out of the boy in the arcade?" Mai asked.

"It looks like what you described," Suguira-sensei said. "But I can't see Fumi anywhere, which could mean they've sent her out, but more likely means she's hiding to guard Shinji or the old man, whichever is her master."

"They're not sacrificing her or anything?" Taiga-sensei asked, surprised.

"Not yet, but given their willingness to kill us, we can't leave Sakura in their hands. I'm thinking Shirou can go rescue Sakura and the rest of us will take them on downstairs," Suguira-sensei said.

"All by myself?" Shirou asked, half surprised and half pleased.

"She knows and trusts you the most," Suguira-sensei said. And that way, you'll be out of danger. "With Reinforce, you should be able to smash open any locks, and the like, by reinforcing something nice and heavy."

Shirou got a shovel out of the car. "I'm ready."

Suguira-sensei grinned. "Alright, let's get down to it."

"This place is riddled with alarm wards and other wards," Rin said to Archer, studying the Matou mansion through binoculars. "Your chess piece thing can fly, right?"

"Yes," Archer said.

"Good. We ride St. Vrus over the roof, then we try and open the wards on that attic window. We can infiltrate from there."

"ST. VRUS!"

He appeared in all his mutant horse thing glory and they mounted up and rode.

Shirou bashed the door down; it was easy with a reinforced chair. "Sakura!"

She sat up in her pajamas, turning a little red. She had been looking at some kind of scrapbook and crying before he entered, sitting on her bed with the sheets over her legs. "Shirou?"

"We've come to get you out of here and capture Shinji. To remove him from this war," Shirou said, feeling more heroic than he'd ever felt before in his life.

"You came for me," she said softly.

"Of course," he said.

She tried to speak, but the words wouldn't come.

He walked over to her and saw the scrapbook; it was pictures of her with him and Taiga-sensei. Mostly of her and him; some of these he had copies of himself. "I have a book like this too," he said.

She flailed, trying to speak, and pointing towards the doorway.

He blinked. Looking back, he saw nothing. "What's wrong?" he asked, turning back to her.

SPOON TO THE HEAD.

"Now, I must kill you, as I was commanded," Fumi said.

Sakura jumped at her, howling but Fumi tapped her lightly on the head, knocking her out. "But not you. I'm sorry, child. Both of...oh dear, my master needs me." She didn't sound too sad about that. Then she vanished through the wall.

"The problem with being inside here is that there isn't enough room for St. Vrus and we're both ranged specialists," Archer said.

"I know but we'll never find Shinji by watching from the outside. We have to finish him off," Rin said.

The house suddenly shook. "What was that?" Archer asked.

"It can't be good. RUN."

Shinji fired a blast of cold at Caster; her fire cut through it and damaged his rune forged arm. Zouken cursed at the inadequacy of the boy, no matter what is done with him. He had created a wall blocking the madwoman with the axe. To his pleasure, the gem proved able to make a barrier strong enough to stop even a Servant. At least for the moment.

Then Fumi dropped out of the ceiling and began slugging it out toe to toe with the madwoman, scythe against axe. They seemed quite evenly matched.

Meanwhile, he now began reinforcing Shinji's ice blasts with the gem. And he was able to repair the arm with the gem too. This forced Caster to dodge Shinji's now powerful shots at the cost of trashing parts of the lab. She was slowly being driven towards the corner. Oh yes, this was going well.

"You fools, rushing in here without a thought for whether I might have prepared wards to warn me of your coming," Zouken said. "Now you will die and your masters die as well."

"I did not have time to kill Emiya Shirou before you recalled me, Master," Fumi said. "But I did knock him out."

"That's fine," Zouken said. "He is a young, untrained idiot who can be disposed of later. I take it he ran straight to Sakura?"

"I'm surprised you thought he would still be alive," Fumi said.

"Leaving someone to die never ever works. You have to make sure they are dead, and ideally that you scattered the ashes yourself," Zouken said. He almost had Mai pinned in and trapped now.

"So what are you going to do to Sakura?" Suguira-
sensei demanded.

"I am not the sort of idiot who reveals my plans to my foes," Zouken said.

Dammit, Suguira-sensei thought. "Come on, you know we'll die and can't tell anyone."

He twitched. "NO."

Suddenly, there was a WHOOP and the electricity went out. Suguira-sensei and Mai now whipped out the night vision goggles Taiga-sensei had made for them. FINALLY, Suguira-sensei thought.

She knocked Fumi into the wall, then aimed at Zouken, hurling her axe. "I bet you didn't think to ward your breaker box! Taiga-sensei just ensured you're out of electricity!"

"Shwoop!"

Night-vision goggles appeared on the faces of Zouken, Fumi, and Shinji, but the gem got hit and went flying wildly into the air.

Fumi leaped for it, Suguira-sensei bodychecked her out of the way and Mai caught it, then touched it to her rotating bracelets; it joined with the Noble Phantasm and now she pointed her fingers like a gun at Shinji and Zouken. "Surrender or I cut loose!"

Zouken tried desperately to think of a backup plan.

Rin felt the assault before Archer did. "ARCHER, shield your mind!"

Archer seized her crucifix and began to focus her mind, staying awake. Rin washed her magic circuits with mana, forcing out the power, but now she fell to her knees. So strong...

Lancer strode towards them lazily; her naginata now had a violet gem mounted where the blade met the pole. "So nice of you to drop in. I'm afraid I can't be a better hostess, as you both have to die before you can threaten my mistress."

Dammit, Rin thought. She couldn't take out Lancer by herself and probably couldn't even resist that damn gem for long. Nothing is going right for me in this war. Nothing!

There was a sudden weird noise and now Lancer suddenly went flying down the hallway, crashing through double doors into the living room. Taiga-sensei, holding a lightsaber, said, "No one casts evil spells on one of my students and gets away with it!"

Rin could barely stay awake and Archer was still struggling; the source of the spell was gone, but it hadn't been disrupted. "Sensei...you know as Masters, we're supposed to be enemies."

"I am a teacher. It is my duty to protect my students," Taiga-sensei said, picking up Rin and Archer and running. "Wow, I'm strong now that I'm a Jedi."

"The ones in the movies don't get as hungry as I do, though."

They could hear Lancer coming, slowly.

"But..."

"You can pay me back later," Taiga-sensei said. "Maybe buy me something to eat on the way home. Do you like Chinese?"

"Yes," Archer said.

They crashed out the front door. "I'll just drop you two off in the car and come back."

Rin was too groggy to fight back.

"ANGRA MAIYU!" Zouken shouted. "Great Lord of the Dark, our plan cannot be fulfilled if I perish here!" Mind you, he had been planning to rip Angra Maiyu off in order to get true immortality, but you don't mention that to the great demon king you are trying to con.

Seven glowing eyes blinked on across his body. The same appeared on Shinji, who began to twist and distort, as did Zouken, who now discovered that perhaps his conning abilities had not been as good as he'd thought.

"No...NOT AGAIN!" Mai shouted and unleashed the full force of her fire. It badly damaged the growing twisted thing and two of its eyes burned off.

Fumi now turned translucent. "I see I was not the only one planning a double-cross," she said weakly. She turned solid, cut off a limb and a third eye of the thing. "Very cunning, Zouken..." She faded halfway out again.

Each time she faded, some of Zouken's wounds began to heal. Suguira-sensei hacked off a fourth limb but another of its limbs was growing back now. "Fumi?"

"At least I will gain a small revenge," Fumi said and buried her scythe in the creature's skull, cracking it open. "Mai, NOW!"

Fumi evaporated as Mai fired into the twisted monstrosity's skull, frying its brain. Worms began spilling out of the creature and Mai fried them all.

"What did he do to Fumi?" Mai asked, horrified.

The building began to shake.

"Great, a load-bearing boss," Suguira-sensei complained. "He must have used some spell on her to be able to drain her energy if she turned on him. He tried to use her energy to regenerate. He was a powerful and cunning and ancient sorceror. Let's get out of here!"

They fled; only Mai's ability to burn all the falling building bits out of the way enabled them to escape. They could see well drilled servants fleeing the building as well in all directions.

Wise people don't sign on with evil magi without an escape plan.

The Cloister Bell rang twice quickly, then chimed twice more slowly. It rang thrice quickly, then chimed once. Then it stutter-chimed.

Professor Tomoe frowned. "Two masters have fallen, four more must fall before the Grail can be summoned. Kaolinite, what does that mean? The odd one at the end?"

"I believe it means the Grail captured some spiritual energy of indeterminate origin, sir," Kaolinite said.

"Best we'd check; the last thing we need is some spiritual entity taking over the Grail before everything comes to fruition," he told her. "To the lab!"

Rin perked up a little in the car, noting that Shirou and Sakura clearly had both been taken out by Lancer, whereas she and Archer were barely clinging to consciousness. Suguira-sensei was being carried by Mai, who was flying over the car as they drove home. "Did you fight Assassin? I think she was Shinji's servant."

"I just shut the power down; I'm not sure who Mai and Midori-sensei had to fight," Taiga-sensei said. "Anyway, we'll be home soon and then you two can rest."

"We're supposed to be enemies," Rin said. "You people are all crazy."

"The Jedi code forbids killing my students," Taiga-
sensei said. "And requires you to buy us some Chinese in return for me saving you."

"I always pay my debts," Rin said. "Is anywhere open at this hour?"

"I know just the place," Taiga-sensei said.

Of course you do, Rin thought. At least I didn't have to blow another Lesser Miracle.

Usagi and Akane sat nervously on the edge of the bed. They'd finished waitressing and now they needed to recharge Akane's mana. Neither of them, however, had ever had sex, and neither of them was the type to even collect porn. Which probably would have lied to them, mind you.

"I still have some mana, probably enough for another fight if I'm careful," Akane said hesitantly.

"No," Usagi said. "I am not losing anyone else." She turned to face Akane, taking her hands. "I'm going to recharge you and we're going to save Ami and Ryo and no one is going to die for me. Not again." She began to shiver and now Akane pulled her into an embrace.

"Tell me everything," Akane said softly, and Usagi began to tell the tale of how her friends had all sacrificed themselves to stop Beryl. By the end, she was crying, soaking Akane's pajamas with her head on Akane's shoulders, her legs wrapped around her, sitting in Akane's lap.

"You love them very much," Akane said softly.

"I stopped Beryl, but they all died. And even if they came back, it's not enough. They shouldn't...I couldn't stand to see you die. You saved me and I failed you and I will not fail you again." Usagi spoke faster and faster and then she kissed Akane so ferociously Akane fell back on the bed, surprised by the impact and by the burst of mana she got just from the kiss.

Soon, she was too lost in clumsy pleasure to worry about such things.

"Tell me you have noble phantasm earplugs," Shingo mumbled to Akira, who was sitting guard as he tried to sleep.

"Will this wake your parents?" Akira asked, worried.

"Nothing on earth wakes my parents," Shingo said. "Usually, that helps me, but right now, I wish they didn't get so worn out and sleep so soundly."

Eventually, the sounds stopped and he got some sleep.

Akane laid spent, utterly stunned by how good she felt. "Wow," she mumbled.

Usagi waved the Moon Wand around. "I never thought to use this for that before...hey! I thought I lost this!"

When she thought about it, she realized it had gradually formed in the middle of their love-making and then she'd used it for a finishing move on Akane. "Wow, I think we made it out of our love," she said.

Akane said, "We can do that?"

"I guess you're just special," Usagi said, then kissed her. "Sleeping now." CLONK.

Akane smiled and ruffled her hair. I'm so lucky you're the one who summoned me, she thought. I will do everything I can to keep you safe. Good night, Usagi.

"You and Archer can sleep here," Taiga-sensei said, leading them into a guest room. "Suguira-sensei is going to stand guard, Mai and Sakura with me, Shirou in his room."

"Taiga-sensei," Rin began.

Taiga-sensei yawned. "Sleep. We can talk war shop in the morning. I am ZONKED."

"Yes, sensei," Rin said softly.

She set up some basic wards quickly on her room, just alarms, then laid down with Archer kneeling by her, praying. "Do you think it's a trap?"

"Of course not, Taiga-sensei doesn't want to fight you."

"Why is she a master? What on Earth is the Grail thinking?" Rin asked.

"Have you considered that perhaps fighting to the death is not the best way to get the Grail?" Archer asked.

"But that's how it's always been done!"

"Has it been working well for your family?"

"No," Rin mumbled. "No Tohsaka has ever won the Grail."

"Well, then," Archer said. "Let us pray together."

What the hell, Rin thought. It can't hurt. She prayed with Archer a while and then fell asleep and had pleasant dreams.

Older-Mikoto woke out of her sleep when someone flopped down on her. "So hungry..." the intruder said WITH HER VOICE.

Older-Mai, Older-Yuuichi, and Older-Shiho all stirred. "Leftovers in the fridge," Shiho mumbled.

"Thank you," the voice said and now Older-Mikoto heard footsteps heading for the kitchen.

She sat up. "Mai, I think there's a duplicate of me now!"

Older-Mai groaned and tried to sit up but this was hard as she had an arm around Older-Yuuichi, under him and he had an arm around her. And Older-Shiho had her head on Older-Yuuichi's chest the way Older-Mikoto's had been on Mai's until just now.

Everyone now shook awake; they could hear the sound of ferocious eating in the kitchen.

Older-Mai said, "Who is in the kitchen?"

"A younger version of me! Come on!"

They soon found Berserker pigging out on the leftovers.

"I TOLD YOU," Older-Mikoto said triumphantly.

"This is a younger you, not a younger Mai," Older-
Shiho said, though her voice wobbled a little in its indignation.

"Mikoto?" Older-Yuuichi asked hesitantly.

"Hi, Yuuichi! You look weirdly old in the dark," Berserker said. "Mai! There you...hey!" She pointed at Older-Mikoto. "You're like me but older!" Then she pointed at Older-Shiho. "Who are you?"

"I'm Shiho, you idiot!" Older-Shiho said irritably.

"Oh wow, you're really super-pretty now!" Berserker said. "I like the pony-tail too."

Older-Shiho looked a little embarrassed. "Thank you, Mikoto." She played with her long red pony-tail. "It was Mai's idea, though."

Older-Mai stepped up and took Berserker's hands. "Mikoto, what's going on?"

"Oh, I'm helping my Master win the Holy Grail War," Berserker said cheerfully. "Except she got kidnapped and I can't find her and I don't know what to do!" Abject panic sank in. "You've got to help me, Mai!"

Older-Mai instinctively embraced her. "It'll be okay," Older-Mai said. "Come sit with us and tell us everything. You're safe here with us."

The tale which ensued was hard to believe.

"What's wrong?" Taiga-sensei asked Mai softly as Mai laid next to her, trying to rest.

"I keep wondering if I'm real," she said softly.

"You really are hung up on that," Taiga-sensei said. "When we get the Grail, I'll make you real if I have to."

"What is your plan for the grail?" Mai asked softly.

"I dunno. There's nothing I want that requires a wish. I'd like a boyfriend, but wishing someone into loving me would be immoral. I want to rise in Kendo rank, but I can do that without magic. I love my job. I guess I would like more room for adventure. I'd like to see the world. So maybe I'd wish for some wealth, enough to see the world when I'm on vacation. I'll have to think about it," Taiga-
sensei said. "Maybe train some more Jedi."

"I think it's the rock, not being a Jedi," Mai said hesitantly.

"Well, it doesn't tire me out so fast as creating things does," Taiga-sensei said. "Anyway, you should sleep. I'll give you some mana in the morning. We've done enough for one night."

"Good night, sensei."

Older-Mikoto told herself again not to be jealous of Berserker being snuggled up to Older-Mai. Mind you, she and Older-Yuuichi were busy changing the baby's diaper right now, while Older-Shiho and Older-Mai talked to Berserker.

"I'd forgotten how tiny and skinny you were," Older-
Yuuichi said to Older-Mikoto as he worked on cleaning the baby's butt.

"I'm still pretty small and skinny, but yeah," Older-
Mikoto confessed. In theory, she weighed fifteen pounds more than an average woman of her height. In practice, that was all muscle and so was some of the rest. She could easily pass for a boy still if she wanted to, though she wasn't the sort to want that. She was, however, a good five centimeters taller than Berserker. Mind you, this left her still shorter than Older-Mai or Older-Shiho, though not by much. She'd hit puberty late and had a late growth spurt. Not enough of one to quite catch up.

Once Brigit was ready, Older-Mikoto expertly slipped on and secured the diaper with the skill born of experience. She usually baby-sat during the day as she could take Brigit to class or put her in a crib at the dojo easier than Older-
Yuuichi or Older-Mai. Though Older-Shiho helped out too, of course.

She kissed Brigit's forehead. "She's going to be beautiful and strong when she grows up."

Older-Yuuichi kissed Older-Mikoto's forehead. "She'll have to buy three times as many Mother's Day presents as most babies, though."

Older-Mikoto blushed a little, then Older-Yuuichi picked up Brigit and they went to get the bottle that Brigit was inevitably going to want. So she could then make another mess for them to clean up. This is the cycle of life with baby and they were used to it. Having four people for one baby was a huge help in preserving their sanity.

They then came over to the others and Older-Yuuichi sat down by them with the baby in his lap. Older-Mikoto kneeled down next to him.

"Hmm, yeah, the only number I can find online is our Mai's," Older-Shiho said, fiddling with her smartphone. "And I don't remember Mai's old number at all."

"It had 7s in it," Older-Mai said. "That's all I remember."

She didn't know what to think of Berserker's story. It didn't match her memories very much at all, with all the dragons and fire blasting and people fighting to the death for Holy Grails. She had met Older-Mikoto on the boat to Fuuka; Older-Mikoto had tried to swim all the way there and Older-Mai had had to give her CPR, which saved her life, beginning their friendship. She'd met Older-Shiho and Older-Yuuichi on the same boat. They'd done a ton of things together and now the four of them had a...she didn't know the right word for it. She and Older-Yuuichi were formally married, but all four of them had slept with each other at various times. And they generally slept in one big bed.

"I'm just totally lost now," Berserker confessed.

Older-Mai knew, in her heart, this was Mikoto. Not the same one she had gone to bed with tonight, but this was, somehow, a younger version of Older-Mikoto. She'd heard about all the recent time travel from the future, but were people coming from the past? But why did she think all this crazy stuff? On the other hand, she'd shown them how she could summon up a sword from nowhere, so some of it could be true but how could it be true?

"Look, you can stay with us and we'll try to figure out where your Mai is so she can help you," Older-Mai said. "I don't know anything about magic or Grail Wars or anything, but you're my friend Mikoto and I won't leave you out in the cold."

"Thank you," Berserker said softly. "I guess older-me gets first call on your breasts."

Older-Mai said, "..."

"You can come use mine, they're quite good," Older-
Shiho said. She wasn't as big as Mai, but she came pretty close.

"She makes a great pillow," Older-Mikoto advised Berserker.

Older-Mai yawned. "I can call Yukino tomorrow. She can probably find your Mai if anyone can. We should go to bed once Brigit is full."

They talked a little bit more, then went to bed. Older-
Mikoto was the last one to drop off to sleep, because she was even more worried now that Young-Mai had been right to tell them to GET OUT of the city.

But unless she could convince the others, there was nothing they could do.

"I need more mana," Saber confessed to Mamoru as they stood on the balcony of his apartment. He was trying to use his intuition to sense where they needed to go next. He had a strong intuition for 'where he needed to be', but couldn't really control it. He hoped maybe he could make it trigger if he tried hard enough; it beat sitting around waiting. "Berserker inflicted serious damage on me and now that I have healed it, my reserves are low."

"I am not really trained in modern magecraft," Mamoru said. "And my memories of my old training are cloudy."

"This is a serious problem if you cannot recharge me. Slaughtering innocents for their mana is inefficient, immoral, and dishonorable," she said.

"I know a trick that might help but it normally...I've never used it outside combat," he said thoughtfully. "It usually provided a burst of energy to its recipient, usually to help them do a finishing move."

"Like you did when I attacked Berserker's Servant," Saber said thoughtfully.

"Yes."

"That helped some," she said.

"I think it only works if you're spending mana." He paced thoughtfully.

He spun and whipped out a rose and tucked it into her hair. "For the fair lady," he said.

PING, 1% mana increase. "That helped a little," she said.

Soon, he was getting tired and she was covered in roses, looking more like the Rose-Thing than a former Queen / King of England. But her mana was back to full.

"I sleep now," he said.

"I will, of course, stand guard," she said.

While he slept, she cleaned up the roses and filled many vases with them.

But she kept one in her hair, over her right ear.

"Dammit, Yukino, stop watching yourself and Haruka sleep," Natsuki said; she was watching TV with the sound off, while Yukino continued to scry. But one of Yukino's scrying windows was now permanently watching herself and Haruka. In fact, two of them were, one for each of them.

"I can't stop watching," Yukino mumbled.

"It's not healthy," Natsuki said. "Damned if I know what's going on, but let them have their own lives. It may be your own future which likely isn't healthy to know, anyway." If she wasn't so bored, she would have been less cranky, but she found this simultaneously kind of creepy and she wanted to know if there was another one of her running around but didn't want to admit it.

"Also, doesn't all that scrying constantly drain your mana?" Natsuki asked.

"Michiru's mirror sustains us easily; you aren't having any mana trouble, are you?" Yukino asked Natsuki.

"That's true. So she linked you? Haruka has to periodically booster me."

"Diana's power and that of the Mirror are so similar it was really easy to build a permanent link. I can draw all the mana I've needed so far without hardly thinking about it," Yukino said.

Natsuki was a little jealous of that. "They're lovers, right?"

"W...oh, you mean Haruka and Michiru. Yes."

Natsuki suddenly wondered how Shizuru was doing. Is she part of this war? Is there an older one running around? What if... She turned a little red.

"Oh my," Yukino said weakly.

"I'm not thinking about those two!" Natsuki protested. "I wonder what that gemstone does," she said, changing the subject.

"I don't know, but Haruka mounted it on her sword, so I guess it's a damage upgrade."

"So how do our masters have their own Noble Phantasms, anyway?"

"If I understand right, Heroic Spirits like us have Noble Phantasms, but Magi have 'Mystic Codes', items with some kind of spell pre-programmed in it. Noble Phantasms are much stronger because Heroic Spirits are stronger in their strong points than even the greatest of Magi," Yukino said. "I can outscry any human mage, you can move faster when mounted than any human mage, and so on. Mind you, I'm not sure how much use my Noble Phantasm Cellphone is going to be, even if it is a pretty nice smartphone."

Natsuki had Dhuran, her Bike Heroine Uniform and her pistols as her Noble Phantasms. "Hmm, show me your Element."

Yukino said, "It's in dispersed form linked to Diana right now." She pointed at all the mirrors.

"Hmm, I am wondering if your Noble Phantasm maybe is based on Michiru's mirror thing directly, really," Natsuki said, studying them.

"The outward design isn't the same, but it's an interesting idea. I think that it's possible Haruka and Michuru have the original Imperial regalia of Japan. Sword, Mirror, you just need the Orb."

"I don't suppose..."

"There are seven of the crystals and they all seem to be bound to evil monsters," Yukino said. "But someone must have the Orb, right?"

The Gate of Time was sealed. Sailor Pluto floated in the void, guarding it still, but she could only reach out of it in dreams, and even then only to those most attuned to her. Things had gone horribly wrong, but they were beyond her power to fix. Her only hope was that she had managed to awaken her two disciples to their power and turn them loose to do what she could not.

There was a weird noise and a large blue phone box appeared.

Her eyes widened. GRANDFATHER?

"Hello, granddaughter," he said, stepping out, but looking younger than her. But sad, so very sad.

She rushed to embrace him and he rested his head on her shoulder. "You're so tall in this incarnation," he told her.

"I rather like it," she confessed. "I was so utterly awkward the last time I saw you. Decided you were tired of being old?"

He sagged. "I'm about to die again, my dear," he said. "I just came by for a quick hello when I realized you were still alive. I had thought you died when the Daleks rewrote history to freeze the Earth over several thousand years too early."

"I just regenerated and ended up taking up a new career," she confessed.

"I was wondering about the outfit," he said.

"It is a bit risque, but that just distracts my enemies. Grandfather, can you get me out of here?"

"I should be dead," he said softly. "I'm only allowed to give you a little help." He pulled out a book and handed it to her. 'Make your own TARDIS for Fun and Profit'. "Over time, you should be able to use this to make your own TARDIS powered by your staff in order to escape." He kissed her forehead. "I'll try to find my way back once I've regenerated, but I've never been very good at that and this place is rather hard to find."

"Thank you, grandfather. How are Ian and Barbara?"

"You know, I should check in on them. I suppose I shouldn't show them a picture of you in that, though."

He grinned. "Anyway, they got back to their own time, got married, had children, and then I haven't seen them since the early seventies. I suppose they'd be getting old by now."

"You should say hello to them, Grandfather."

He stared at the ground, then nodded. "You're right, I should. So what do they call you in this form?"

"Sailor Pluto," Susan said.

"What, like the dog?" he teased.

"THE PLANET."

"It's not really a planet, you know," he said.

"It is a PLANET and it is MY planet," she said, hands on her hips. "And you're no one to make fun of names."

"Now, now, I'm not..."

"Grandfather Aloysius."

He cringed.

"Aloysius Death Reubeus Pumblechook III, to be precise."

He cringed more. "People will hear! I depend on my mystique!"

"PUMBLECHOOK."

"Okay, Pluto is a planet! I surrender! Just stop before anyone hears us!"

"I'm sure no one can hear us and know your secret you hid so long, Grandfather," she said.

Too late.

"I can't just punch her unconscious every time she wakes up," Natsuki said to Haruka in the morning.

"Unless someone here is hiding their knowledge of sleeping drugs, we have to keep her unconscious or she can send telepathic messages to Berserker," Haruka said, then beamed the same message into Natsuki's brain to make her point. "We can't just kill her, but if she's conscious, she could say 'Oh yes, I surrender' and then call Berserker."

"If she gives up her lesser miracles, she's out of the war, though," Natsuki said.

"Well, we could try to bluff her," Yukino said.

"That's true," Haruka said. She grimaced. I ought to be able to kill this kid but she's just...just a kid. The world may burn because I can't kill one evil magi. Assuming she's evil. No, cute does not equal good. But does she really understand?

Haruka sighed. "We'll see when she wakes up. For now, we scry."

"You okay?" Mai asked Shirou while they were cooking breakfast.

"I'm fine. You'd think I'd have a bruise or something but Sakura and I are both totally fine," Shirou said, confused. "I have always healed pretty fast, though."

"Me too," Mai said.

They worked quietly for a little while and then he asked, "Are you okay?"

"Just wondering if...I'm fine," Mai said, flipping pancakes.

Shirou was busy cutting fruit. "You sure?"

"Yes," Mai said. I need to stop angsting continually over this. I am here, there are people who need me and I really need to make sure Mikoto got the other me and the baby and Tate out of here.

"My big hero moment didn't go so well," Shirou said. "I guess Suguira-sensei must have come and gotten us out. Or was it you?"

"You know, you were already in the car when I got there," Mai said.

"We don't know who saved you," Suguira-sensei said.

They both jumped. A pancake flew extra high but Mai flew up and caught it.

"Tell me you're going to make sausage," Suguira-
sensei said.

"Crabcakes. My special ones. They're much better than sausage, which is totally unhealthy," Shirou said. "Trust me, you'll love it. You don't know?"

"You two were inside the car when Taiga-sensei rescued Rin and Sister Yukariko," Suguira-sensei said.

"I wonder if maybe I somehow teleported us in my sleep," Shirou said thoughtfully.

"Teleportation is EXTREMELY mana costly and not something you can do in your sleep," Suguira-sensei said. "Mages take planes or ride brooms because it's vastly cheaper in mana. Most mages couldn't even survive spending that much or land accurately if they did. Servants can fake it because we can go insubstantial, but we still move normally when insubstantial, though with some effort you can jump up through a floor or drop down through a ceiling."

"But you couldn't just run upwards in the air."

"Yeah," Suguira-sensei said. "Crabcakes? Interesting. I'm going to go make sure Sakura's okay."

"Thanks," Shirou said. Now I wonder who saved me.

"This evening? Well, normally Naru and I go out on Friday nights," Usagi said.

Akane and Usagi were having breakfast at Naru's house; Naru had gotten up early and made everyone breakfast (which meant pork fried rice, pork, fruit, and milk this morning). Naru's mother was up and ate quietly, listening, but looking depressed while everyone else felt uncomfortable.

Except Nephrite, who was downright chipper. "Well, you'll be going out. Just to see what the big conjunction I foresee is going to be. Besides Bad." He ate some pork fried rice, then said, "I believe we may clash with other Senshi."

Usagi choked on her food. "What?"

"I speak of the Outer Senshi. They may have awakened."

"The what?" Usagi asked.

Everyone blinked, except Naru's mother, who said, "As Servants or Masters?"

"Probably Masters," Nephrite said. "We've seen no evidence that any Senshi have become Servants, probably because Usagi erased everyone's memory of their existence."

Usagi laughed nervously.

"What's an 'Outer' Senshi?" Naru asked.

"The Inner Senshi, like we Guardians for Prince Endymion, were the bodyguards and ladies in waiting of Princess Serenity, each chosen from the colonies on or around their world. The Outer Senshi were chosen likewise but had the duty to protect the Solar System from intrusion along with the Outer Guardians. They were more powerful than the Inner Senshi and we Inner Guardians," he said.

Usagi winced. "Why didn't they show up when Beryl attacked?"

"Beryl led a rebellion inside the Kingdoms; they were stuck defending the Solar System from everything driven out of it by the Crystal Masters who freed the Solar System from the rule of monsters. I don't know the exact details, but I assume they died and have now been reborn. As for why they didn't show up during your war on Beryl, I assume that they must have reincarnated normally, given they were not present for Queen Serenity to reincarnate everyone. The stars knew you could defeat Beryl, ergo, they were not needed. The stars apparently feel a need for them now."

"Why? Does it mean we will fail?" Usagi asked, worried.

"The stars tell me what will happen but not why," Nephrite said. "I cannot pretend to know how they will act or why; I only dimly remember their old selves and they may be as different as you and Naru."

Naru started. "Was I..."

"You were just a court lady, though a beautiful and gracious one," Nephrite said. "Serenity knew you well as Lady Vigor, but I did not."

Naru smiled a little smile.

"Naru," her mother began.

"Momma, I love you but I can't back out of this," Naru said, pained, turning to her mother and taking her hand. "It's too late now."

"I have to know...is the Magnificent Beryl in Fuyuki City?" Naru's mother asked.

"I don't know," Naru said.

"I can try to see if it will influence events," Neprite said.

"Mother, you..." Naru began.

"You have to destroy it. You have to," Naru's mother said tensely. "It's going to do something terrible soon. I can feel it. In my bones."

Naru wasn't sure if this was her mother's guilt speaking or true magical intuition. She looked at Nephrite.

"In your dreams, you went to Germany and bought it, right?" Nephrite asked softly.

"Yes," Naru's mother said.

"Did the Einzbern compete in the auction?" Nephrite asked.

"Yes," Naru's mother said.

"My best guess is that probably they have it in the new timeline," Nephrite said. "Though I emphasize this is only speculation."

Naru frowned. "The news didn't cover it, but a bunch of people sent me messages asking if I'd heard Castle Einzbern burned last night."

"Maybe the Outer Senshi attacked to try to find and destroy the Magnificent Beryl," Akane speculated.

"I think it might be worth our time to pick through the rubble if we can; depending on casualty levels, it may be sitting in a vault or something. It could be another Master tried to or even succeeded at wiping out the Einzberns without knowing the Beryl was there or caring about it," Nephrite said. "The conjunction is nearly twelve hours from now. I suggest we go explore the ruins."

"If we can get past the cops," Akane said.

"Yes," Nephrite said. "But even I can't predict that."

Naru laughed but he was disappointed the others didn't laugh more.

"Am I going to be flat forever?" Berserker asked Older-Mikoto. She was tending to the rice.

"I'm not ENTIRELY flat," Older-Mikoto said as they made breakfast with Older-Shiho. Older-Mikoto was busy cooking some vegetables in a wok. Older-Mai was feeding Brigit and Older-Yuuichi was calling Older-Yukino.

"You have very nice muscles," Older-Shiho said to Older-Mikoto. "But you're basically flat, unlike me," she said proudly as she tried to force the shrimp to boil faster by pure force of will. "But I like your muscles," she said, running a finger along Older-Mikoto's right arm and smiling. Then she turned back to mentally immolating the far too slow shrimp.

"I...did you ever find your big brother?" Berserker asked hesitantly as she waited for the rice to do its thing.

Older-Mikoto skillfully flipped the peppers and beans. "Yes," she said. "He wanted to marry Mai and it got kind of messy, though, between me and him for a while, but we eventually made up and now he's dating some French girl with a stupid name," she said, clearly not approving of this woman.

"She's American, but if I ever hear about her naturally curly hair again, I may have to kill her," Older-Shiho said. "Besides, my hair is prettier than hers." MAX EYE BEAM FORCE AT SHRIMP. They seemed strangely resistant.

"Okay, rice is ready," Berserker said cheerfully.

"Vegetables almost ready," Older-Mikoto said.

"Shrimp is EVIL and refuses to finish cooking," Older-Shiho grumbled.

"Did you add a little salt to make the water temperature rise faster?" Older-Mikoto asked.

"Wait, you can do that?" Berserker asked.

"Yes, I learned it from Mai," Older-Mikoto said proudly.

"I learned it from my mother, and I already did it," Older-Shiho said. "This is where Mai being able to shoot flames from her hands would be useful."

Berserker said, "My Mai is a super-duper chef and her flame bracelets can really cook things quick."

"Hmm. Maybe someone at that genetics place that was near Fuuka cloned us," Older-Mikoto speculated.

"But the clones would be six years old," Older-Shiho said. "Still...hmm..."

They were arguing over genetics when the shrimp finished cooking and started working on over-cooking.

Older-Haruka said to Older-Yukino, "You've got to be kidding me."

"It sounds insane, but it won't hurt to find Mai's old number, if I can and I expect I can," Older-Yukino said. "Also, he got both Mikotos on the line at the same time."

Both of them were unaware that Yukino was scrying on them with Haruka watching too.

The Haruka who was Master of Rider but had nothing to do with Suzushiro Haruka, girlfriend of Older-Yukino, said, "So there are two of Berserker. Apparently living with a duplicate of your friend Mai?"

"And Tate Yuuichi," Yukino said nervously.

"Well, we can use this to trap her, I think," Michiru said.

"Do we have to? Mikoto was one of my few friends," Yukino said guitily. "Isn't she basically out of the war if she's hanging out with...whatever these older versions of us are? We only have to eliminate the Masters from the War to get the Grail, right?" Yukino asked.

"We can't take any chances Berserker will rescue Illyasviel or sign up with another Master," Michiru said.

"But...she's my friend," Yukino said pleadingly. "She and Haruka were my only close friends."

"And what happens if Berserker is sent by her master to, say, kidnap Haruka?" Michiru asked. "Because you know Illyasviel will do that if she thinks of it."

"Maybe you shouldn't say that in front of her, in case she's faking slumber or remembers anything she hears in her sleep," Natsuki said.

"Dammit, Rider, take her to the guest room, watch her, shoot her if she seems likely to make a break for it. You're right. I owe you one, Rider," Haruka said to her.

"I'm sorry," Michiru said.

"It's okay, none of us even thought of that. But she is mage. She may have all kinds of tricks," Haruka said, then sighed.

"She's the enemy and she's not a little kid like Illyasviel," Michiru said to Yukino. "I know it's not easy, but she was summoned to fight us and maybe kill us. We probably should kill Illyasviel and take no chances," Michiru said.

"I can't," Haruka said, grimacing.

"I'm not going to just kill a captive little kid!" Natsuki shouted from the guest room. "Also, talk quieter!"

Michiru closed the door, then said, "The world is going to be destroyed! And if our vision was right, it's a little blond girl who does it! What are you going to do whenever we confront THAT kid, Haruka?"

"What I have to," Haruka said miserably.

"I don't...," Yukino began.

"Look, I don't like this at all, but there is no way I'm going to allow that kid to destroy the world!"

"Shouldn't I be scrying for her instead of looking for these gems?" Yukino asked.

"We need the Messiah," Michiru said. "Pluto was clear about that. And to find the Messiah, we need all seven gems. And we know Tomoe is involved, which apparently is because he is the Grail Arbiter, and the Messiah needs the Grail, so we will get it."

"I could try scrying," Yukino said hesitantly. "I have not just one but two Noble Phantasms for scrying, after all." And a cellphone. It was a GREAT one that could do things like play Civilization V, but it was still just a cellphone. Super Internet Access probably wasn't going to save the world.

"You can't find the Messiah by scrying," Michiru said.

"Try it," Haruka said.

"What?"

"It can't hurt to try," Haruka said. "Send one of your spies searching for the Messiah."

"I'm on it," Yukino said.

"It can't be that easy," Michiru said.

"Noble Phantasms can work miracles that can't happen naturally in this world," Haruka said. "If anything can find the Messiah short of Pluto's message to us, that's it. Good luck, Yukino."

"Thank you."

"Now, Berserker. Time to come up with a plan."

Makoto was making breakfast, feeling guilty, when the doorbell rang. She'd wanted her rival out of the way but not like this. Never like this. It would break his heart and she ached for him and felt bad as if her envy of her rival had somehow caused the terrorist to attack.

She ran to the door and found Mamoru and Joan; he had on an apron over his usual snazzy clothing and was carrying a pot full of chicken, pasta, and vegetables, while Joan was somehow carrying six vases full of roses and had one tucked over her ear.

Makoto stared in shock for a moment, then smiled weakly. "You didn't have to."

"Nothing hurts worse than for those you care about to die and you to be unable to save them," Joan said firmly. "I know."

Makoto took the vases and directed Mamoru to the kitchen of Motoki's apartment. She said, "He's still asleep. Can you wake him up, Mamoru?"

"Of course," Mamoru said. "Please help her, Joan."

"Do you do much cooking?" Makoto asked Joan as Mamoru vanished into the bedroom.

"I am proficient in the creation of trail rations and a variety of ways to cook rabbits, venison, pork, chicken, turnips, various kinds of greens, mutton, fish, carrots, peas, and beets. Mostly in soups and stews. I can also bake bread, but I have to buy the flour. I can make oat, rye, barley, and wheat bread, but not 'white bread'. What is the 'white' it is made from?" she asked curiously.

Makoto blinked. She can make all that but she doesn't know what white bread is? "You remove the bran and the germ from the wheat flower. Also, it's sometimes bleached a bit. I don't eat much white bread because it's less nutritious, but it stays fresh much longer than regular bread."

"Why?"

"I have no clue at all," Makoto said. "Can you chop these vegetables for me?"

Joan not only could chop them but basically sliced them at blazing speed. "Done."

"..." Well, that saves some time.

"How long have you and Mamoru been together?" she asked. "I don't remember him even hinting you exist until recently."

Joan did not like lying more than she had to; indeed, she'd advised Mamoru it was best to avoid contact with those outside the war, but he had not listened to her. This tended to be a problem of Magi, she'd learned; they all think they are ALWAYS right and don't listen to little things like the fact that she remembered ALL the Grail Wars.

Though Emiya Kiritsugu had won the last war, ignoring her advice, morality, honor, etc. He'd just used her to lure out other Masters to put a bullet in their brain. She didn't want to win like that.

"We only got together recently; I am from Britain, but I've come to Japan as an exchange student. I am a historian of Dark Age Britain," she said.

"Oh wow. You speak Latin and all that?"

Saber said, in Latin, "I speak it very well."

"WOW," Makoto said. "Have you ever used a wok?"

"A what?"

Makoto showed her how to use it and soon the vegetables were cooking. We're going to have way too much food, she thought, but we can save the rest for later. I may have to run the arcade without him but he won't go hungry. He'll insist on running it, that idiot.

"I am surprised you are not more happy," Joan said, studying her as she began to cry a little.

"HAPPY? How can I be happy when Motoki hurts so much?" Makoto asked, angrily. "Reika wasn't good for him, but this was...now he'll feel guilty FOREVER that she died."

"I am sorry," Joan said softly, though somewhat stiffly. "I should have thought of it that way. I did...I just...I am sorry, I misjudged you."

"Am I that obvious?" Makoto asked weakly.

"Beyond obvious," Joan said, stirring the vegetables nimbly.

She learns quick, Makoto thought.

"You must not let him dwell on it," Joan said softly. "Or it will eat him alive. Get him to focus on his work. Something. Anything that will keep him from slowly drowning himself in his sorrow."

"I don't know if he'll be able to work," Makoto said softly.

"He has to try. At least once the formal mourning is over. Until he talks to her family and everything, it's unavoidable," Joan said. "But once he's past that, you must keep his mind off it. Or it will make him a shell of a man."

She had the tone of someone who had seen this before; it sounded authoritative. "Thank you," Makoto said.

Joan glanced towards the bedroom. "Have they known each other a long time?"

"Motoki is Mamoru's first friend ever, I think, and Mamoru is the one friend from high school who Motoki still has. They both applied to different colleges but neither got their first choice and they had the same second," Makoto said. "Seeing Motoki in this kind of pain is a knife in my gut but it's a knife in Mamoru's, too."

They finished the cooking and laid everything out for when the boys finished whatever they were doing. Makoto poured tea for herself and Joan. "So who did you lose?"

"Too many. Many of my...my closest friends perished recently. But I survived without them. I wasn't good enough," Joan said somberly, drinking her tea.

Makoto grimaced and drank some of her tea. "I won't bug you about it, unless you want to talk about it." She thought about her memories...dying for Usagi... "I..." Did Usagi remember? She didn't even know if Usagi was here.

"The past cannot be changed," Joan said. Unless I find the Grail, she thought. Then I can fix things. Make someone more appropriate than me to rule Britain in my stead. So I don't have to live with having spent my life a failure. I couldn't even make poor Guenevere happy. And when I tried to let her find her own happiness, it all turned hideous and everything came apart.

Love is a terrible thing, she thought. It brings so much pain and so little joy and can destroy so much.

But going without it and living for duty hadn't saved her either.

Or enabled her to ever actually gain access to the Grail.

But if Duty and Love were both failures, what else was there?

Makoto sighed. Now I've made her depressed too. And she looked so cheerful with her rose when she arrived. "Mamoru gave you that rose, right?" she said softly.

"Yes," Joan said, touching it. It was strangely comforting.

"Mamoru loves flowers; it's his way of showing love," Makoto said.

"You sound authoritative," Joan said, wondering now if she was trying to hint...surely not. Such relations between a Master and a Servant couldn't end well. What point to fall in love for a few days and then never see each other again?

"Mamoru would never give a flower to someone who wasn't important to him. Though I was rather surprised he brought Motoki THIS MANY flowers," she said, pointing to them all.

"It was my idea," Joan said. She studied Makoto curiously. "If you had to fight for something, what would you fight for?"

"Love and Justice, of course," Makoto said as if EVERYONE knew that.

"Love is often not just and vice versa," Joan said.

"I know, that's why you have to fight for it and can't take it for granted," Makoto said then rose. "This food is going to turn to ice if I don't act quickly."

She strode over to the bedroom door. "Come eat, or I'm going to come in, get naked, and jump on both of you!"

Joan stared; even Emiya-san had never done anything like that.

They came out swiftly; Motoki was half-laughing and half somber, like his mind kept flicking back and forth. Mamoru just looked sorrowful, though his lips smiled.

"Come on, let's eat, then you can call her parents again," Makoto said to Motoki.

"I don't know what I'd do without you right now," Motoki mumbled to the food.

"Lie around starving, naked and filthy, probably," Makoto said crisply. "Now, eat or I will feed you." Her earlier guilt and hesitation seemed to be gone.

"I'm not hungry...Mamoru, do not pry my mouth open!" Motoki protested.

Mamoru pulled back. "Feed yourself or we will feed you."

Motoki began eating as did the others. Joan felt a small amount of mana trickle into her. To her surprise, this was rather more than usual. Certainly if Mamoru could put this much mana into food, she could stave off her losses better than him burying her in roses.

"This is very good," Joan said as she ate.

"Food with affection in it is the best food," Makoto said. "Mamoru and I both care very much about Motoki."

"I am very lucky to have two such good friends," Motoki said, reaching over to pat each of them on the shoulder before he wolfed down more food.

"Motoki actually taught me this recipe," Mamoru said. "This is just me giving back to him."

They talked quietly as they ate, sharing old times, and Joan listened quietly, wishing a little she'd been there to have stories of her own. It was like the old days, at Christmas, when all her knights were gathered in and the Round Table would remember the fallen. Her father...Sir Ector was only her foster father, but she had loved Ector and Kay. And they loved her. Ector had finally succumbed to old age and Kay...he had died with a poison dagger in his back at the hands of Morgan le Fay. The Orkneys and the De Galis clans had slaughtered each other in their endless feud. Galahad never returned from the Grail Quest and Bors...his heart never returned form it. Percival, who might have ended the feud never came back either. If only we had found the Grail... but we failed and so many of the best died or never returned and then it all came apart.

"Bedivere, whatever happened to you..." Joan asked, suddenly agonized by the weight of her memories.

"No one knows," Mamoru said.

Joan tried to force herself calm, but the pain she'd long suppressed was trying to rise up against her.

"Bedivere returned Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake, then rides out of legend into an unknown fate. Arthur is taken to Avalon to be healed, and it is said that when the world most needs him, Arthur will return from Avalon," Mamoru said. "The Once and Future King. It's not such a big legend in Japan, but in English-speaking countries, it's been a several century long off and on obsession, retold a billion times."

"But he fails," Joan said softly.

"He fails trying to do his very best," Motoki said. "There is no shame in defeat if you did your very best. There is only shame if you didn't try your best and failed as a result." He stared at his food, grimacing, then attacked the pasta side of his plate.

"I agree completely," Mamoru said. "If you try with all your strength, there is no shame in defeat."

Did I do my very best? She had tried with everything she had, and yet it wasn't enough. She had done her duty, provided justice, fought honorably, picked the best knights she could find to lead. What did I do wrong?

"But the kingdom was destroyed, the Round Table was dead, and the Saxons swept in and destroyed everything he fought to preserve," Joan protested. "How could that not be a source of shame?"

"Would a failure have been chosen to return again to save his people in their time of greatest need?" Makoto asked. She could remember the Fall of the Moon Kingdom. "Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, things go badly. But if you did the right thing, then no one has the right to hold it against you. You can't always win, no matter how good you are. And I think it's better to die honorably, doing the right thing, than to live on forever, doing the wrong things." Her voice was very firm, almost regal in a way Joan found hard to reconcile with the teenage girl with a crush on her boss. What exactly was this girl? Beyond clearly a Magus, and yet...

She could hear Mamoru's voice in her mind and he told her about how he had been used against Usagi... Princess Serenity... who he loved by Beryl. And how her love had set him free. He would always feel guilty for his failure, his weakness, but it became a spur to him now to do better. To not fail again. He ended with a Japanese proverb, 'fall down seven times, get up eight'.

"I was nothing, a failure, when Motoki found me, and now I am a much better person, because I didn't give up. He wouldn't let me give up," Makoto said softly.

"You did it all yourself. I just gave you an opportunity," Motoki said firmly. He waved his chopsticks about. "You're the one who taught yourself everything from my manuals and books with just a little guidance from me. Now you know those machines inside and out, probably better than I do. You've got a real knack for electronics, Makoto."

She smiled. "Electricity likes me," she said softly.

Ergo, Jupiter, Joan thought.

"Which is why you need to go to school regularly or you'll never make it to college. Which is more important now than ever," Mamoru said firmly.

"He's right," Motoki said. "Everyone needs an education, right, Joan?"

"It's very helpful," Joan said, then ate, trying to still the disquiet inside her, but food could not comfort her.

"We'll worry about that when you're ready to work alone during the day," Makoto said to Motoki. "Which won't be for a while."

He sighed. "I tried to talk to Reika's parents, but they're even...even..." He started crying, looking utterly sorrowful and ashamed to be crying in front of people.

"She will be AVENGED," Joan said firmly, angered by the slaughter of innocents and the price others paid for this war. Angered by the willingness of some Masters to just slaughter anyone in sight to achieve their goals, like her own wicked sister, Morgan.

Motoki said, "It's okay, Joan. I know I'm a wreck right now but you don't have to go that far to make me feel better." He fumbled his food with his chopsticks, tried to pick them up and nearly poked himself in the eye. Makoto patiently arranged them in his hands; he looked even more embarrassed now.

"I have spoken, and as I speak, so I do," Joan said flatly, but then softened and said, "Thank you, Motoki-san, Makoto-san, for this meal."

"You're welcome, Joan," Motoki said, trying to stop crying.

"Thanks for helping me," Makoto said.

Was this not why knights existed? To use their strength to protect the innocent and the just and the kind and the generous? Motoki was no warrior, but he was a good man and he deserved better.

He deserved justice. And that was one of the two highest duties of a king.

She was not good at love, but justice. Justice she could do.

"We should be killing each other," Rin said, though instead of starting any killing, she worked on eating more rice and vegetables.

"I think Archer is right," Taiga-sensei said. "I frankly can't see how God would want us to kill each other for the Grail."

"God didn't make this Grail, humans did," Rin said. "Everything has a price; those who wish the power of the Grail have to fight for it."

"It's not really the Grail if humans made it," Taiga-
sensei said. "In the stories of King Arthur, you had to purify yourself in order to find the Grail, and overcome your sins and weaknesses."

"I have no weaknesses," Rin said, continuing to eat.

Shirou laughed.

"HEY!"

"Everyone has weaknesses," Shirou said. "I tried to save Sakura and got taken out with one blow."

Sakura patted his shoulder. "It's okay. Humans can't fight Servants and win." She didn't mention it was a SPOON used to do the deed.

"All of us are sinners," Archer said. "We should find out who murdered that poor priest and avenge him."

"Lancer," Rin said. "I...look. I'll help you deal with him. The Church doesn't like our kind much, but he was a kind man and he didn't deserve to have his church burnt and him killed." With me RIGHT THERE. I can't tolerate that.

Taiga-sensei held her hand out as did Shirou. Rin put her free hand on theirs. "Alright. We'll find out who killed that poor priest and deal with them," Taiga-sensei said. "Is there some way to find Servants?"

"If you get close enough, you can sense them with magic," Rin said. "But it is a serious problem. We should also probably go check Castle Einzbern, see if Illyasviel has moved back in or if she's dead or what. Given it burned, something had to have gone down."

"I suppose whoever did that probably got their warning from Professor Tomoe," Mai said. "Isn't such a huge act of arson a violation of the rules?"

"If it was blatantly supernatural," Rin said. "Or if it draws too much attention. Anyway, we should visit the Church, look for any clues at all, then try to figure out who Lancer serves. We know for some reason, she wouldn't kill Emiya-san, but she would gleefully kill just about anyone else."

"She serves a mistress," Archer said. "She said Rin was a threat to her mistress."

"I'm a threat to any Mistress in the Grail War, though," Rin said. "Though it does mean she serves a woman. Possibly one who has a crush on Shirou, so Shirou is off the kill list."

"And she really hated Shinji," Archer said. "She said..." 'What you did to Sakura can never be forgiven.' Which probably means...but I shouldn't mention that in front of Rin. It's Sakura's private business. "She knew about Shinji raping someone."

Everyone cringed at that. Shirou stared. "He...I can't believe Shinji would do that."

"When I saw...his fantasy of triumph basically involved...him violating Rin and Usagi..." Archer said, grimacing at the thought.

Rin stared, eyes wide. "You didn't mention that!"

"I didn't want to think about it," Archer said, staring at the floor.

Shirou stared at the floor. What had happened to Shinji? He'd gotten kind of obnoxious the last few years, but...could he...

He could see Sakura had pulled her knees up to her chest and pressed her face to them and he slid over and put a hand on her back; she practically jumped on him and he fell down, hugging her.

Rin looked over at her and nearly lost her breakfast as realization sank in. "Shinji is dead, right?" she asked. "Because if he isn't, I want to kill him and get it right."

"He's dead or eaten," Mai said.

Rin looked over at Sakura. "I'm sorry. I would have killed him faster if I knew."

Sakura didn't reply, she just pressed her face to Shirou's chest while he held her tightly.

"You know, Shinji rejected Usagi pretty hard and humiliated her in public last year...," Taiga-sensei began.

"Akane is Usagi's servant," Rin said. "She took on Assassin head to head, even if I can't figure out what class she is. Okay, here's my thoughts. I have Archer. I assume Suguira-sensei is Rider again."

"I am Chariot," Suguira-sensei said. "I survived the last Grail War, then contracted with Shirou."

"You can't just declare yourself a new class!" Rin said.

"You can if you have ten years to lay the groundwork. Took a lot of work, but I managed to do it. It's the duty of Heroic Spirits to do the impossible."

Rin rubbed her forehead. "Did you replace Rider, then?"

"Maybe," Suguira-sensei said. "We can assume that for now."

"I think Akane is Rider, and we may actually have eight Servants," Archer said. "She rode on her tiger, remember?"

"We rode on your horse, but you aren't Rider," Rin said. "We'll get Akane in a minute. Let's hit ones we're sure of. Mikoto is clearly Saber, summoned by the Einzbern. Mai is Caster, summoned by Taiga-sensei. Shinji summoned Asssassin."

"Fumi," Suguira-sensei said. "Summoned by Matou Zouken."

"Cheaters! There is only supposed to be one Master per Great Family," Rin said angrily.

"I think she was originally summoned by Kazahana Mashiro, who got killed somehow; it was on the news. So then she contracted with Zouken," Suguira-sensei said.

"Assassin is free to contract with someone else; Shinji lost his Lesser Miracles and his arm and Lancer took them, probably to her master."

"Who now has six Lesser Miracles?" Rin said. UGH. This alliance was going to be a matter of survival, then.

"We have to assume that," Archer said.

"Maybe Fumi was Berserker?" Shirou said.

"Fumi? Berserker?" Mai said. "That makes no sense."

"She can't be Saber and seems unlikely to be Rider," Suguira-sensei said. "But she was clearly a Servant."

"She knocked out Shirou with one blow," Sakura said.

"Any melee Servant could do that," Rin said. "I could probably do that."

"HEY!"

Rin smiled benevolently. Or something. "Are we sure she was a Servant and not a Magus who hired on?"

"She could go insubstantial and fight me toe to toe," Suguira-sensei said.

"She must be an unusually chosen Berserker," Rin said.

"She did take me down with one blow by surprise from her Noble Phantasm," Mai pointed out.

"Berserker does the most damage. So I think we have to theorize she was Berserker. Akane is Rider, serving Usagi. Mai is Caster. I am Archer's Master. Suguira-
sensei is an extra, eighth servant, due to cheating. Saber is Mikoto, serving the Einzbern. Assassin is now a free agent and will have to be dealt with. Lancer serves a woman with reason to hate Shinji but like Shirou."

Which fit Usagi, but she couldn't have two servants, Taiga-sensei thought. Then a thought hit her. "Naru, maybe? She mostly crushes on older men, but maybe she likes Shirou?"

"Lancer wanted to kill Usagi, if I didn't dream that," Shirou said.

"Mikoto may have been eliminated," Mai said, sighing. "Given the huge mess at the Einzbern castle."

"How do you even know when the war is over?" Shirou asked.

"The Arbiter declares an ending and informs the last Master or the last Master with a Servant," Rin said. "He knows how many Masters and Servants remain but can only tell us if all Servants have been summoned, starting the war, or if the war is over."

"Well..." Suguira-sensei said. "I have an idea on how to draw out Lancer," she said. "It might hideously backfire or just not work at all, though. Depending on whether Lancer has some way to find us."

Rin held a finger up and cast a spell, concentrating. "Okay, Lancer is not lurking close enough to hear us, insubstantial. Unfortunately, Assassin might be; she is First in Stealth and I doubt even my strength of magic can find her."

Taiga-sensei rose, closed her eyes, and stretched out her arms. A bright light shone from under her shirt.

"What is that?" The magic...so potent, Rin thought.

"Using the Force, shhh," Taiga-sensei said.

Shirou grinned a little. Sakura smiled a tiny smile.

Archer also began to quietly pray, holding her crucifix.

"I sense no minds but ours," Taiga-sensei said. "And I don't feel any disturbances in the Force nearby."

It suddenly hit Rin. The more people who believed in a form of Magecraft, the stronger it got...how many people believe in the Force? Very clever, Taiga-sensei. You only look goofy.

This gave Taiga-sensei far too much credit; she actually DID believe in the Force.

"Dammit, my lightsabre evaporated again."

"Things which are not real and created by magic fade once they use up their mana," Rin said. "Especially Phantasms, things which do not match any real thing. If you've been making yourself a lightsabre with magic, it's going to evaporate every few hours, I expect."

"Blast." The light under her shirt faded. It must be her Crest, Rin thought.

"Okay, here's the plan," Suguira-sensei said. "It's VERY clever."

"Yukino will call you as soon as she has the number," Older-Mai said to Berserker.

"Thank you, Mai," Berserker said firmly; her stomach rumbled.

"How can you eat so much?" Older-Mai asked in disbelief.

"I need mana. I burn it at a high rate, unfortunately, and unless I get recharged, I'm going to evaporate," Berserker said, sighing.

"You didn't say that before!" Older-Shiho said. That couldn't be true.

"I didn't want you all to worry," Berserker said. "And it only really sank in now. My master fed me these special soft drinks that recharged me, because she said we were too young for the other way."

"The other way?" Older-Mai asked.

"I guess maybe driving, as neither of us is old enough for a driver's license. Or alcohol? Yeah, I bet she meant alcohol as that castle had a TON of it and the maids wouldn't let us touch it at all," Berserker said. "You have to be twenty, right?"

If they had energy soda, why not energy alcohol? It made as much sense as any of this crazy stuff, Older-Mai thought.

Older-Yuuichi said, "I have to get to work." He kissed everyone but Berserker, then patted her forehead, not sure what to do. She was Mikoto but not and too young, but...

"I don't have to be there until noon," Older-Mai said. "See you later, Yuuichi."

Everyone said bye and he took off.

"Unfortunately, I can only eat so much and even I don't want to eat all the time," Berserker said. "Maybe I'd better have a snack, though."

Older-Shiho paused. "Something's watching us." She frowned.

Berserker summoned her blade. "Where? Is there a Servant here? A Master? Show yourself!"

Older-Mikoto now came into the living room out of the bathroom with Brigit. "What's wrong?"

Berserker began pacing around her friends' older selves. "Show yourself! I won't let you hurt them!"

Older-Shiho frowned. "Why do I feel like Natsuki is here?"

Older-Mai got her phone out.

It now rang. "Hello," Older-Mai said.

"Put Berserker on," the woman's voice was cold.

"Who are you?" Older-Mai asked. The number had no name on her Caller ID.

"Put her on NOW," the woman commanded. "If you wish to ever see your husband again."

Older-Mai's breath caught. "What have you done to him?" she asked in a panic.

"Nothing yet," the woman said. "Now put Berserker on if you wish it to stay that way."

Older-Shiho frowned and got out her phone.

Older-Mikoto said, "I told you we needed to leave this city. Someone took Yuuichi, didn't they." She could feel this in her gut.

"Dammit! SHOW YOURSELF!" Berserker said, getting angry. Her necklace was beginning to sparkle purple.

"It's for you," Older-Mai said, handing the phone to Berserker.

"Show yourself!" Berserker shouted into the phone. "What have you done with Yuuichi?"

"Tonight, you will come to a place of our choosing. We will call you once the sun sets. If you do not, Yuuichi dies and your precious Mai is next and I will dine on roast baby tonight," the woman said coldly.

The cellphone frame began to crack in Berserker's hands. "You BITCH!"

"I do what I must for the good of the world. Further, if you accept even one command from Illyasviel von Einzbern before this, I will know and they all will die, everyone you care about, one by one. Including Yukino," the woman said coldly. Her voice was strangely musical despite its dispassionate threats.

"I will never let you hurt them! NEVER!"

"You really saved Illyasviel von Einzbern so well, right? You think you can protect them, who have no powers, any better?" the woman asked.

"Natsuki, where are you?" Older-Shiho asked Older-
Natsuki.

"Playing a racing game while Shizuru does her homework." Older-Shizuru was in business school; Older-
Natsuki was her bodyguard / lover. "What's up?"

"So you're, what, a good 3 miles from us?" Older-
Shiho asked.

"Uh, yeah," Older-Natsuki said. "If you're at home." She sounded confused. "Why are you asking me this?"

The cellphone hovered on the edge of a total breakdown as Berserker breathed heavily into it.

Hesitantly, Older-Mai put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry about us," she said.

"They took Yuuichi, didn't they," Older-Mikoto said frantically.

"I just had this weird feeling like you were here. Though why you'd be here in our living room doesn't make any sense, Natsuki," Older-Shiho said. "However, it looks like someone's kidnapped Yuuichi for some fucked up reason and is making clones of us all, so I will have to call you back."

"Hey, you can't just..."

Click.

What the fuck is going on?, Older-Natsuki asked herself. "Shizuru. I think we have to go see Mai right now."

"Ara, ara, am I not woman enough for you?" Older-
Shizuru teased.

"Maybe Shiho forgot her meds again, but I think she said something about Yuuichi being kidnapped," Older-
Natsuki said. "And, well, clones."

"That's strange even for Shiho. Let's go make sure they're okay," Older-Shizuru said, rising. "You can drive."

"I ALWAYS drive," Older-Natsuki said.

Back at Older-Mai's house, Berserker went from the edge of a frenzy to crying. "I failed and you took her and I couldn't protect her and...I HATE YOU!" She screamed through the crying.

Everyone around her jumped.

"Fine. I will come when you call. But I am going to KILL YOU," Berserker said. "ENEMIES ARE FOR KILLING."

"That's fine. Now, tell no one about this and don't let them tell anyone," the woman said to Berserker. "And remember, if you call the police, anything like that, Yuuichi dies."

"Who are you?" Berserker said angrily. "You're Joan of Arc, aren't you? You couldn't beat me in a real fight, so now you're cheating! And you teamed up with Rider, too! CHEATER!"

Joan of Arc?, Older-Mai thought. This can't be real.

"Yes, I am. Now, do as I tell you and I will spare them. Fail me and I will kill them all and let God sort it out," the woman said harshly. "And if any of them try to leave the city, they die."

"I hate you so much," Berserker said. The cellphone was cracking now; it just couldn't take any more of this. "I HATE YOU."

The cellphone shattered in her hands, cutting her palms and she stared at the blood.

"Mikoto!" Older-Mai said.

"I'm sorry, this is all my fault, I dragged you into this and I'm a failure and everyone is going to die, and I'm sorry," Berserker said, collapsing into tears as Older-Mai tried to pick the bits of cellphone out of her hands.

"You should be sorry," Older-Shiho said sharply.

"I said that we should have left the city!" Older-
Mikoto said angrily.

"If you leave, she's going to kill you and eat Brigit," Berserker said, then collapsed completely.

"Who the hell is this psycho?" Older-Shiho demanded angrily.

"Joan of Arc," Berserker moaned. "And King Arthur is working with her."

"He had Excalibur! Who else could he be?"

"Doesn't the sword get stolen by Morgan le Fay or something?" Older-Shiho asked, trying to remember.

"THAT WAS NO LADY!" Berserker insisted.

I have gone insane, Older-Mai decided. There was no other explanation. I have gone stark, raving, mad.

"Natsuki's gone...I must be going crazy," Older-Shiho mumbled.

"We're not being watched?" Berserker asked her.

"I don't think so," Older-Shiho said.

"Okay, let me try to explain everything one more time," she said as Older-Mai washed and cleaned her hand.

I'm sorry, Brigit, Older-Mikoto thought. I should have clonked them all in the head and run. But I was afraid I'd hurt them. But now we're in deep trouble.

Brigit decided now was a good time to try to crawl inside Older-Mikoto's shirt. That's another thing babies do well.

"I really don't like skipping school," Taiga-sensei said.

"Probably no one will try anything, especially since we represent half the surviving masters, nearly," Rin said. "But it's best that we not be dispersed to be picked off one by one, in case whoever was crazy enough to burn Castle Einzbern is also crazy enough to burn the school."

Shirou shivered at that.

"I would suggest that we send Caster, insubstantial, to look around the school for any sign of any other missing students who might be Masters and for any Masters who might actually have gone to school, as it does seem likely that whoever this is, knows us all from school. Note that Lancer was at the school and I doubt she came there to fight Archer and I, because we went to investigate the school and how could she know that?" Rin said.

Mai nodded. She could use something to get it all off her mind.

"Wouldn't our plan work better if we're both at school to spread the news around, though?" Shirou asked.

"Yes, I think so," Taiga-sensei said. "Even if we are already late now."

Rin grimaced. Operation evading boring school... failure for today. But they were right, it would help flush out Lancer and her master. "To school, then!"

"TO THE TAIGA-MOBILE!"

"You wouldn't really eat a baby, would you?" Yukino asked Michiru hesitantly.

"Of course not!," Michiru said. "My goal was to break her will so she obeys us and marches into our trap and dies. We can't risk Illyasviel waking up until Berserker is dead," Michiru continued. "How could you even think I would eat a baby?" she said angrily.

"You wanted to shoot a nine year old in the head," Yukino said miserably. "And you're going to kill my friend Mikoto." The more this went on, the less happy she was. But Other-Haruka and Other-Yukino seemed to be safe right now. That kept her sane.

"We have no choice! Would you see this world burn with her in it in order to save your Mikoto so she could die anyway?" Michiru said angrily.

"The older Shiho could tell I was there," Rider said. "What if they have our powers and don't know about it? Let me tell you something. If Mai comes after us with Kagatsuchi, unless you can hit it with more power than a bridge-destroying LASER SATELLITE with a 30 foot wide beam, she is going to kill us all. She can breathe in SPACE. Being vaporized caused her to RISE FROM THE DEAD WITH HER DRAGON, then fly into space and blow up a satellite then come back like it was A WALK IN THE PARK. Mai's very peaceable, but you threatened to EAT HER BABY." She pulled her hair in frustration. "God only knows what kind of powers Shiho might have. And Mikoto is a walking death machine. What if we have TWO of Berserker to deal with now?"

"QUIET," Haruka shouted.

There was a banging on the door.

"Hide everything funky."

Yukino went insubstantial with Diana and her mirrors. Natsuki just put her pistols away.

Two police officers stood at the door; one was a short redhead with huge hair; the other was a tall, confident man with short brown hair and sunglasses. Their nametags read 'Romanova' for the woman and 'McNichols' for the man.

Haruka blinked. Gaijin cops? In Fuyuki City?

"Can I help you, officers?" Haruka asked.

"Your upstairs, downstairs and two adjacent neighbors all called in noise reports," he said. "I'm Officer Leon McNichols and this is my partner, Officer Romanova."

"I'm new; nice to meet you all," Officer Romanova said brightly.

"My usual partner has the flu," Officer Leon said.

Officer Romanova giggled as if she knew something.

"Okay, give us the ticket, we'll send a check to the Police or come to court or whatever when the time comes," Haruka said. "And I promise we'll keep it down."

He studied the room; no sound of violence, none of them were armed. Probably just college students getting rowdy. He remembered those days.

He glanced at Officer Romanova, who nodded.

"Can I see your badge? Nothing personal, but you don't look native or have native names," Haruka said.

"We get that a lot for some reason," Officer McNichols said.

He showed her his badge, which identified him as Fuyuki City Police; Romanova showed hers as well.

"Here's your citation," he said, writing it out, checking driver's licenses, and then handing it over. "Please keep it quiet."

"We will, sir," Haruka said very seriously.

He took a long lingering look at Michiru, who did her best to pose just a touch cocquettishly, then he said softly to Haruka, "You're a lucky guy," and then he and Officer Romanova left.

Once the door was shut, Haruka relaxed, grinning a little, then said, "Reality really is starting to glitch hard. Yukino, can you look those two up?"

"Look, I know we have to take Berserker down, but I think you got overaggressive," Natsuki said, holding onto a chair to let her stress out on it. "I don't know what's going on with this time travel or how the history you know and the one I know mesh together or whether these older versions of us have any powers. But if they do, there is going to be huge amounts of trouble. Did I mention Shizuru has a giant nine headed dragon roughly the size of this apartment building with which she killed an entire research facility with armed guards with things like rocket launchers and anti-tank weapons? That there is another Yukino out there who might have virtually undetectable scrying and be listening to us right now?"

"I could detect and counter her," Yukino said. "No one is watching us."

"I don't know what Sister Yuka..."

"I get it, I get it, you were all tough back in the day," Haruka said wearily. "We had to make sure Berserker was scared, alright? And that she came alone so we could eliminate her. The other option was to charge in guns-a-
blazing and kill everything that moves so the news can't get out. Would you have liked that?" Haruka said, voice rising a little.

"No," Natsuki said, then sighed. "How are you so sure the world will die?"

"We've seen it," Haruka said. "And we know and trust our source. And she's never wrong."

"Why isn't she here?" Natsuki asked.

"She's been imprisoned. She got us a message but that's all."

Natsuki frowned. "Can't Yukino scry for her?"

"Too risky," Haruka said. "Anything that could imprison her is beyond our power to mess with, without the Messiah."

"I don't believe in Messiahs," Natsuki said.

"I'd rather not have to, but, well, sometimes you don't get to choose how the universe works," Haruka said.

"He's still asleep, right?" Michiru said to Yukino.

"Yes, he's asleep on your bed. He's got a bad bruise, though," Yukino said, frowning. "And Illyasviel is still out in the guest room."

"I'll take care of his forehead," Michiru said. "Then we can go over the plan again, make sure it goes well."

Natsuki had a feeling they could go over the plan until doomsday and there would be trouble.

"Usagi, shouldn't you be in school?" Yumeno Yumeni asked Usagi. She was Usagi's friend and art mentor; Usagi frequently brought her art pieces to critique. Yumeno Yumeni was a professional artist of some fame and success; she currently had a show at the Bow Gallery.

"Today is Natural Gas Celebration Day, no school," Usagi lied. She'd wanted to check on Yumeni-san, now that she remembered Yumeni was one of the Seven Shadows.

"Oh, okay," Yumeini-san said. She was just a little gullible and out of touch with reality; this helped her fantasy art pieces but not her dealings with, well, reality.

"I just wanted to see how you're doing. Oh, this is Naru's boyfriend...," Usagi began.

"Maxfield," Nephrite said smoothly. "Maxfield Stanton, from the US. I'm an exchange student."

"You look very mature," Yumeno Yumeni said hesitantly.

"My mother is a weight lifter; the extra testosterone gave us a boost in the womb and we matured very quickly," Nephrite said to her, smiling charmingly.

Her eyes glazed for a moment and then she flushed red, and then she said, "Of course, Mr. Stanton."

"You can call me Maxfield."

"Okay, Maxfield."

Naru frowned at the way Yumeni-san was looking at HER BOYFRIEND.

Usagi stared. Even I know that's complete bullshit. It is complete bullshit, right? She looked over at Akane.

Do not mention how hot Naru's boyfriend is, Akane thought. Not when Usagi's right here and she's holding my hand and she kisses so good and... Akane turned to study a painting so no one could see how flustered she was.

"Hey, this painting looks kind of like N...M...Mr. Stanton," Akane said, pointing.

It showed five couples. The dark haired man in the middle wore black and silver armor and the short haired blonde next to him wore blue and silver armor; each of them wielded the same sword with one hand and held hands with the other. To the upper left of him, you could see a beautiful white-haired princess with hair like Usagi's, kissing a short haired brunette in a maid's uniform; the latter had the same hairstyle as Akane. To the upper right of him was a man very much like Nephrite, busy kissing a beautiful noblewoman with long red hair; he was tracing an astrological sign on her arm as they kissed; much of her face was hidden. To the lower right were two priestesses standing back to back in the same pose with prayerstick and a raven, though one had long black hair and the other long red hair in four long pony-tails. To the lower left were an auburn-haired princess with a rather ample chest and strong muscles barely hidden by her long, modest dress, standing next to a tall man with short blond hair; both of them were playing chess and smiling at each other.

"She looks like me," Naru said, pleased, studying the woman kissing the Nephrite look alike.

"Oh wow, you do look just like my painting! I thought you looked familiar," Yumeni said.

Akane squeezed Usagi's hand and smiled nervously at her. Usagi smiled back brightly, then stared. That was Mamoru! But who was he with? Had the future changed? She'd had hoped, but now Akane...

"Who is that couple in the middle?" Usagi asked hesitantly.

"I don't know, but I like them," Yumeno Yumeni said. She smiled. "I think they're a heroic king and queen who fight together in war."

"Why do they have the same sword?" Naru asked.

"I don't know. It just seemed right," Yumeno Yumeni said. "Sometimes I imagine I'm her, but a guy like that would never kiss someone like me." She suddenly turned red and shrank in on herself. "I can't believe I said that!"

She was about to run away, when Usagi grabbed her hands. "You should believe in yourself, Yumeni-chan," Usagi said. "You're very pretty and lots of boys would LOVE to kiss you, I'm sure."

Just don't kiss MY boyfriend, Naru thought.

Nephrite kept his mouth shut, as he could read her mood.

"There is this one boy who comes in here sometimes...but he has a girlfriend," Yumeni-san said. "And he's probably a little young for me. I am 27."

"And he's?" Usagi said.

"You know, you look kind of like his girlfriend, but younger," Yumeno Yumeni said to Akane. "She's got long hair and isn't as slender as you, though. Do you have an older sister? I think she and him are about 22."

"I'm an only child," Akane said. "Is...Is he from the future?"

"Not that I know of," Yumeno Yumeni said. "His name is...wait, what's your name? Usagi, you never introduced your girlfriend to me!"

Usagi turned red. "I..."

"My name is Daidouji Tomoyo," Akane said hastily.

"His name is Kurauchi Kazuya and his girlfriend is Higurashi Akane. I think they've been dating a long time. And they love my art." Yumeni-san stared at the ground. "He's so cute but she's much prettier than me."

Shouldn't we be MARRIED by now, Akane asked. Even if I understood how there could be two of me at once without...it has to be time travel, but...

Usagi stared longingly at the painting, then looked over at Akane, who was staring at the ground, looking unhappy and worried. I shouldn't think about a relationship I somehow made never happen, Usagi thought. When I have...Akane right here. She needs me. She pulled Akane into a tight embrace and Akane relaxed against her.

But something about that woman definitely made her jealous. Who was she?

Saber and Mamoru sparred in Mamoru's guest room, which he used as a makeshift dojo. He had his cane; she used a wooden sword. "You're remarkably good for a Magus," she said. She had the upper hand, of course, and could have crushed him on pure skill, nevertheless, he was likely good enough to actually fight a non-Melee oriented servant on fair terms. Or maybe even win to her surprise.

"I was the Prince of the Earth and trained in this. The instincts come back to me more easily than formal memories," he said.

"So you remember your past lives?" She was sure that was unusual.

"Yes," he said. "And you remember the past times you were summoned. Normally, Servants forget, right?"

"Yes," she said. "I am not a normal Servant." She paused, then decided she trusted him enough for this. "I do not go back to the Throne of Heroes when I die or the War ends," she said.

He blinked in surprise, her blade broke through his guard unexpectedly and she tapped his shoulder. "Touche," he said ruefully. "Where does it go?"

"I am waiting for Bedevere to return from throwing Excalibur into the lake. As I wait, I have experienced each summons, then I am back in Britain, awaiting his return and my death."

"Did he already fake throwing it away?" Mamoru asked.

Now he scored an unexpected touch to the wrist. "Yes," she said, grimacing. "Even Bedevere failed me in the end. Kay...he died a hero," she said firmly. "There is no shame in failure if you gave it your all, right?" she said.

"Yes," he said. "There is no shame in failure if you fought with all your strength."

"There is no shame for Kay, who fell defending me from Morgan's poisoned knife at the return feast," she said, her voice calm, but her attacks growing in strength. It became harder for Mamoru to defend himself.

"He saved you, yes?" Mamoru said.

"Yes," Saber said firmly, switching her grip and suddenly going for a thrust to the throat.

He flipped back away from her and then suddenly his cane extended, lashing at her throat, but she jumped to one side and parried it, then tried to follow up with a leaping swing.

That forced him to go upwards to avoid it, vaulting over her. And crashing into the ceiling and falling flat on his face and stomach. "Then I would say he did not fail. He was your brother, right? Who loved you?"

"He should not have had to die for me; I should have known Morgan could never be forgiven. I thought to check the food, but not the silverware." Saber stood, lost in thought. "We were sisters, but she hated me."

"Did you hate her?" Mamoru asked as Saber now helped him up.

"No. Yes. Both," Saber said. "We were raised apart; she clung to the past and I looked to the future. She could be so wise, so kind, so loving...and then turn vicious in an instant when her jealousy or her pride was touched." She assumed a ready position. "Your cane, it is a Magic Crest?"

"With several tricks, yes," Mamoru said. "Here, you try it."

He showed off the stunts it could do, which ended up with him and Saber both clad in tuxedos and masks.

"You look good," he said, smiling.

"Really? I am most comfortable in my armor, but I can wear other garb as a disguise if you think it wise."

"I think it may be for operations. But I think it actually looks good on you."

They had to go to the bathroom. "Hmm, not bad, but why is the hat so huge? No one's head is shaped like that."

"It's tradition," he said.

She knew about that. "Do you have any siblings?"

"In neither life, but Motoki is my brother in all but name and my four Guardians were like brothers to me. Like you and Kay."

"Many there were who ran Kay down and he could certainly make an idiot of himself with the best of them," Tuxedo Saber said, adjusting her domino mask and tie. She then adjusted Tuxedo Mask's tie. "But I would give my left hand to have him here, by my side, now. In the darkest hour, he would never give up. And he was only harsh to the young ones to get them to prove themselves the heroes he knew they could be."

For a moment, her hand wobbled. "Like me."

Tuxedo Mask produced a rose and tucked it into Tuxedo Saber's hatband. "When we have the Grail, you could make that happen, you know. Bring him back. All the knights you loved."

"Dare I? Determine my own fate, I am comfortable with. I could be replaced with someone better, someone who wouldn't make the mistakes. But it feels like it would be selfish to simply erase my mistakes yet cling to the fruits of my...non-mistakes." Tuxedo Saber stared at herself in the mirror.

"What makes you so sure they want to see you go? To see some other person take your place? Your story is a tragedy, but if the tragedy is removed, do you really think Kay and Ector and all the other knights who followed you want you to write yourself out of history?" Tuxedo Mask said softly. "I know, it is noble to sacrifice yourself for others. I died for Usagi, though I don't know if I will ever know her love again. But after all you went through with your knights, who loved and trusted you, do you think they want some guy with an ugly beard to take your place?"

"Lancelot...I failed him. He asked...I met him in the last Grail War. He succumbed to his family's curse and became Berserker because I failed him. As I failed everyone," she mumbled.

"Lancelot tried to come to your aid with all the knights of Ganis, but he was delayed crossing the channel by the weather and arrived after Camlann, after everyone else died and you went to Avalon and Bedivere vanished into the mists of legend," Tuxedo Mask said. "When he learned he had failed you, he went into a monastery and Guenevere became a nun."

"His family's bane of battle madness consumed him in the end," Tuxedo Saber said, pained. "I had to fight him in the last Grail War." She was pained by the memory. "I could never love Guenevere like she deserved, never be the man she wanted, I tried to set her free, they loved each other, and it all came apart. I once...just once...tried to help the cause of love and it destroyed everything. I sacrificed my life, my self, everything, to create a kingdom of justice and peace and when I tried once to be human, it all shattered," Tuxedo Saber said very tensely, staring stiffly at herself in the mirror.

"Beryl destroyed the Earth and the Moon Kingdoms because she was jealous that I loved Serenity and not herself. She surrendered herself to the darkness. And yet, I cannot give up on love or friendship or being human. You cannot live on duty alone. Or even justice. Love, even friendship can destroy. But so can duty and justice. Anything, by itself, can consume us. Which is why we must balance ourselves to many virtues and causes," Tuxedo Mask said. "Or we will break or become monsters."

"And Avalon is not a place. It is the sheath of Excalibur. Without it, I, Arthuria Pendragon, will surely die of my wounds back in my own time. Only my sheer force of will and my bargain with the World Spirit keeps me alive then. I will die," she whispered. "Do you remember anything of what lies beyond death?"

"No, but I did not stay dead," Tuxedo Mask said, studying her in the mirror.

"Kay...Ector...They loved me. Everyone else feared me, respected me, some of them even adored me. But they knew me as I truly was, with all my flaws and warts and they loved me anyway. I was Ursa to them. Ursa Minor. Father was Ursa Major. Kay insisted on being Orion, of course." She smiled a weak smile. "I could be happy then."

"Before Ursa had to become Arturia."

"Had to become Arthur, Arthur Pendragon, High King of the Britons, King of Logres, Victor over the Saxons, Defender of the Faith and Emperor of Rome," Tuxedo Saber said softly. "They would not follow a woman; only a man could rule them. I studied all the texts on kingship. I followed all of Merlin's advice. What did I do wrong? Why did it all fail?" she asked, agonized. "How do I know I won't do it again if I get a second chance?"

"Because now you have learned from your mistakes," Tuxedo Kamen said. "Fall down seven times, get up eight, as I told you before."

"I don't know what I did wrong, that's the problem," Tuxedo Saber said urgently. "I followed the laws of chivalry and honor. And yet I failed."

"Law must be tempered with mercy and love," Tuxedo Kamen said. "There is no easy answer or formula. Balance in all things, as Aristotle advised, maybe comes closest. Unrestrained mercy is weakness, unrestrained love is favoritism at best and possessive or worse easily, unrestrained justice cannot adapt or forgive, and unrestrained duty pales and sours because service to duty can never be perfect," Tuxedo Kamen said. "I wish I could give you simple advice, clear maxims, but it is a life long struggle to find that balance."

"Merlin kept things simple," Tuxedo Saber said a little wistfully.

"Simple sometimes is too simple; life is complex," Tuxedo Kamen said, then cocked his head slightly at an angle. "Just remember, you may view yourself a failure, but the stories of you and your knights have inspired thousands, millions, maybe billions of young boys and girls to want to be like you and your Knights of the Round Table. I don't see you as a failure; I wish I had accomplished half as much as you. When you were my age, you were routing the Saxons from Britain; I am a graduate student who eventually might rout some plant blights."

"But you were once a Prince like me," she said softly.

"And my Kingdom fell as did yours. In part by my own mistakes and errors. But I do not intend to change my past," he said. "But instead to look to the future."

She turned and stared into his eyes, then said, "I think, finally, I have found a Master I can respect."

"I dreamed, as a child, to one day fight by your side. Your legend inspired me before I could remember my past," Tuxedo Kamen said to her firmly. "You are my hero, Arturia." He drew Excalibur from his chest. "This came from me to you, but then it came back from you to me." He put it back. "One day, I will fall, and if I am lucky, my legend will be remembered and I will inspire others as you did. And perhaps one day, I will do what you are doing now."

"I hope not. Few things gall worse than being repeatedly summoned to fail," Tuxedo Saber said.

"You know what I mean," he said to her.

She smiled. "Yes, I do." She felt her body relax a little. "So Lancelot tried to come to my aid." She smiled a little brighter.

"He did his very best," Tuxedo Kamen said. "But you know how the Channel is."

"By the spleen of God, I know that," Tuxedo Saber said. "When I marched against Clovis' children to avenge the conquest of Ganis, our ally against the Saxons, I spent the entire trip in my cabin, trying to pretend I wasn't throwing up constantly, while Kay demonstrated he could dance and remain healthy. Then we got blown away from the fleet and ended up in Britanny and I had to kill that Giant, and then King Mark's sister tried to seduce me." She shook her head at the memory. "So, of course, in my absence, Griflet and Gawaine started arguing over who was in charge; Griflet was my Marshal, but he was only a Baron, whereas Gawaine was Duke of Lothian, the eldest son of King Lot of Lothian, and of course, his brothers all backed him up...And Kay was not there to resolve matters and Merlin...as I understand it, Merlin had tried to cross the Channel as a raven and then tried to assert he had been blown off course to some place called 'Vinland' and began rambling about how one day Vikings would find it."

She paused. "What IS a Viking?"

"Marauding sea raiders, traders, and explorers from what you would probably call Hyperborea or perhaps Daneland."

"Ahh, the frozen north beyond the Danes and Germania. Aggravaine insisted on wrestling Prince Beowulf when he visited us. He never made THAT mistake again," Tuxedo Saber said, demonstrating how to wrestle with her arms. "I didn't think a man existed who could actually lift and throw Aggravaine, who was over six feet tall and weighed about as much as one of those naked fat people who wrestle in your country." She made a face. "Aggravaine looked rather like that but he had the decency to wear clothing."

"I do not think I would survive telling a sumo what to wear," Tuxedo Kamen said, smiling a little.

"We had neither coffee nor tea," Tuxedo Saber said, "But Gaheris, he acted as if he had drunk an entire pot even when he had just gotten out of bed, so much energy, so little common sense." She shook her head.

"Tell me about him," Tuxedo Kamen said to her.

He listened, drinking it all in as she told story after story to him in the bathroom mirror, gestures and all, committing it to memory as he lived out one of his greatest dreams. The Grail War would have to wait.

Rin had to admit Shirou had a good idea, even if it had taken her twenty minutes to get him to agree to let HER talk to Umino. The man knew his gossip. He'd know everyone who was interested in Shirou.

Umino was sitting under a tree...feeding squid and soba and vegetables...to a cute redhead. A sweet looking girl with glasses like him. Skinny, but friendly looking. She had a blue beret cocked on her head to one side. It looked jaunty.

"You don't have to," the girl said shyly.

"You cooked us both a great meal," he said. "I just want to make you happy like you make me."

She smiled warmly. "Tee hee, people will hear."

"Hi, I'm sorry to bother you," Rin said. "I'm Tohsaka Rin and I need to consult with your boyfriend for a few minutes, if that's okay," she said to the girl.

"Oh wow, you came to school? Everyone thought you'd become a delinquent or something," the girl said, all wide-eyed innocent. "Like all those bad kids at Sukuran."

Rin grimaced, but made herself smile. "I had to go to a special class, so I missed a few days."

"Tohsaka-san is always in the top five percent, Julie-
chan," Umino said to her. "She's very smart." He adjusted his glasses. "How may I be of service?"

He embraced Julie-chan, who snuggled up to him and worked on her lunch.

"I think some girl here is jealous of me and any other girl who talks to Emiya Shirou and I need to find out who," Rin said. "Someone's been playing nasty pranks on me."

Umino blinked. "Really? Wow, I totally didn't know about that. I'll answer your question for free if you'll tell me who."

"Myself, Tsukino Usagi, Matou Sakura, maybe Osaka Naru too," Rin said.

"Well, I have noticed Usagi-chan and Naru-chan skipped school today with Usagi-chan's cousin Higurashi Akane. Of course, neither of them are very good students like Gurio-kun and I," Julie-chan said cheerfully. "We're good kids who never skip school or do anything naughty, he he."

Rin's gut instinct made her suspect they were doing something naughty and getting away with it. But since her giving of a damn about that couldn't even be measured in nanodamns, she dismissed the thought.

"I can only think of one person who likes Shirou who isn't on that list. Romantically, that is," Umino said. "Mitsuzuri Ayako, I put a 75% chance she is at least somewhat sweet on Shirou, though she doesn't seem the pranking type. However, I will research and call you once I find out the information you need."

"Thanks," she said. Ayako-san was a friend of Rin's; they were somewhat competitive. It was hard to imagine her sending Lancer after someone, but it IS the war and really, Lancer was pretty clearly insane and likely exceding orders. Possibly out of a crush on her Master.

That made sense, but having to...she hoped it wasn't Ayako-san.

Ideally, it would be some crazy woman she could zap with no guilt. She certainly would be killing Lancer with zero guilt.

"I've found one," Yukino reported. "Urawa Ryo, one of the top students at the magnet school. His girlfriend, Mizuno Ami, scores as high mana and has a Magic Crest, but it's inactive. Her circuits have not been opened. He has open circuits and a Crest which is subdermal, not easily observed, giving him the power to predict the future, I think," she continued. "It's linked to the Yellow Gem, so it may be quite potent."

"We avoid him for now," Michiru said. "Too much danger he would predict us coming and everything would go to hell. Keep tabs on him, though." She looked thoughtful. "So this Mizuno Ami has potential but no active power?"

"Correct," Yukino said.

"And no Lesser Miracles."

"None," Yukino said.

"Let's watch and leave them alone for now. Best we not stick our head into anything until we deal with Berserker," Michiru said.

Yukino nodded and covertly checked on Older-
Yukino and Older-Haruka, who were driving somewhere, but she quietly didn't mention that.

"I can't find it anywhere, like someone erased every possible record," Older-Yukino said on the phone to Older-
Mai. "I'm sorry."

"I feel like an idiot for forgetting," Older-Mai said. "Anyway, thanks. See you!" Her voice sounded like a cheery shell on a hollow interior.

"Something's definitely wrong," Older-Yukino said to Older-Haruka when Older-Mai hung up.

"That's what Natsuki said," Older-Haruka said. "I think it's time to rally the alumni and figure out what's going on. Though I expect Shizuru will turn this into a tea party and try to save the day with cakes and mint tea," she grumbled.

"And Reito will hit on you," Older-Yukino said, laughing.

"He likes big breads, he cannot deny," Older-Haruka said, then shook her head. "Of course my beauty overwhelms him, as well as my strength and my clearly to be vastly successful future,"she continued. "But my bread is only for you, Yukino." She smiled brightly and Older-
Yukino smiled.

"My bread's only for you, too," Older-Yukino said cheerfully.

"Yukino, you're not making sense again," Older-
Haruka said, then wondered why Older-Yukino found this so amusing.

Usagi and company had finished their tour. Usagi counted off on her fingers, frowning. "Someone murdered Father Hisau with fire, so Caster probably has the Red Gem. Yumeno Yumeni and Urawa Ryo are thankfully okay still. Reika is probably in Africa, but I guess we should go ask Motoki now that we remember he exists. Lancer probably has Rhett Butler's Violet Gem. The Hikawa Shrine doesn't exist but Rei is here, so her Grandpa has to be with her at SOME shrine around the city."

"Assuming everyone reincarnated the same way and everything," Nephrite pointed out.

"We have no reason to think it changed and lots to think it stayed the same," Usagi said, feeling proud of herself for careful thinking for once. "Oh, we need to check out Crane Machine Joe, who will probably be at an arcade."

"How do we find Motoki? He doesn't know us, so we can't just walk up to him and ask about Reika," Naru said.

"If I still had my...hmm..." Usagi said.

"We could..." Akane blushed.

"You think we could do it deliberately?" Usagi asked her.

"I'm thinking yes," Akane said. "We could try. But..."

Usagi looked embarrassed.

"Wait, you two can..." Naru said, eyes crossing.

"It is one of Usagi's special abilities, to create enchanted objects through love," Nephrite said. "However, I expect it can't be done every time and probably drains Usagi's mana reserves and we have a date with destiny later."

"We know Crane Machine Joe haunts Akbar's, where we usually go," Usagi said. "However, from the news report..." She grimaced.

"Maybe someone healed him," Naru said hopefully.

"I pray you are right," Usagi said, crossing her fingers.

The white hearse parked in front of Akbar's made Usagi VERY nervous but to her shock, Crane Machine Joe was inside, playing Dig-Dug and totally getting his ass kicked. Akbar was standing nearby cackling.

In fact, short observation showed Crane Machine Joe couldn't even get the Crane Machine to like him any more and finally he and Akbar nearly got in a fight before two delinquents actually broke it up.

"He must have been healed without the gem," Usagi said. "And lost his cheating powers."

"Which means a 'mostly naked woman' or a 'flying woman with a flamethrower' likely has it," Naru said. "The garbled newsreports showed that."

"Berserker or Caster, maybe," Akane said. "Respectively."

"Makes sense," Nephrite said. "Let me handle Motoki-san."

"Do you know where to find him?"

"Once we find him." Nephrite began a horoscope in his head to try to figure out the most beneficial approach.

"No, it was magic alcohol. I'm pretty sure just any alcohol wouldn't help. Also, I'd get drunk and then I'd get my ass kicked," Berserker said, sitting in Older-Mai's lap, looking utterly lost and drained. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, we'll find some way out of this," Older-Mai said. She was holding Brigit and Berserker at once and trying to figure out something to do, but what could they do?

Older-Shiho paced with Older-Mikoto, both of them trying to think. Older-Shiho was the real brains of this family and Older-Mikoto the most adept lateral thinker who would come up with offbeat solutions that worked. This isn't to say Mai and Yuuichi were stupid, but they'd gotten along by working hard rather than natural intelligence.

"We have to find the other Mai," Older-Shiho said. "If she can really shoot flame and shit, maybe she can save our asses."

"They might be bluffing. How could they know if we called someone or fled town?"

"They're watching the house. Probably have those micro spy cameras and so on," Older-Shiho said.

"Wouldn't they be listening to us right now?" Older-
Mikoto said hopelessly.

"We might as well just kill ourselves if that's the case," Older-Shiho said. "They haven't called us to make more threats if they are listening right now."

But this wasn't helping her think of a plan.

Pox was dumpster-diving in an ally when Sailor Mars and Shiho dropped down lightly from the roof and laid out a huge icechest of fresh food, then jumped back up.

Pox shoved his face into the box full of food and began eating in a frenzy. Then he started to get groggy as Shiho played a soothing tune on her flute, smiling a little as she did so.

Sailor Mars mustered every droplet of energy she had and slammed it all into a really powerful exorcism, unleashing her exorcism ribbons. Pox gave a huge cry and suddenly turned back into Grandpa Hino and Sailor Mars sagged.

"You did it! Good job!" Shiho said, smiling. "You're great, big-sister!"

"Looks like once we get him home, he and I will both be taking a long nap," Sailor Mars said.

"That's okay, I'll watch over you, big sister," Shiho said brightly.

Neither knew someone was watching them.

Older-Haruka banged a dough hammer on the table. "I call this meeting to order!"

"What are we ordering?" Older-Shizuru asked.

They'd assembled as much of their old gang as could get off work at short notice to Older-Haruka's apartment. This wasn't everyone, but it would have to do.

"Yes, I finally got my family across the Snake River alive!" Older-Nao said. She was short and skinny with very long red hair in twin-pony-tails, wearing a Fuyuki University t-shirt, a knee-length blue skirt, high white socks and sneakers, glasses perched just short of falling off her nose, a GameGirl in her hand, playing Oregon Trail in 3-D.

"Put the damn GanguroGurl away and pay attention!" Older-Haruka said.

"Look at this," Older-Chie said triumphantly. She passed around a picture of a teenage girl in her underwear and a younger version of Mai in their old school uniform, fighting a giant robot in the streets near B*Fair Grocery.

"Are you sure this is authentic?" Older-Akane asked dubiously. She had long brown hair down to the middle of her back and had clearly gotten a boob job since her high school days, though she was dressed modestly in a brown blouse and a black ankle-length skirt. She had a very good makeup job, but more than anyone else there. Her usual accessory, Older-Kazuya, was not there; he couldn't get out of work at his family's company, Kurauchi Electronics.

Secretaries, however, had a little more freedom.

So did college students. Older-Tokiha Takumi and his girlfriend Older-Okuzaki Akira both had skipped class to come to the meeting, since Older-Takumi was Older-Mai's brother. "Damn, looks just like she did in high school," Older-Takumi said in disbelief. He and his girlfriend were star athletes now, years after his heart surgery had finally cured his terrible case of DFNGRRAGS (Dying For No Good Reason Anime Girl Syndrome), which was much more deadly for women than men, anyway.

"Look, I called Yuuichi's job and he never showed up for work and isn't answering his cell and they're pissed and worried at once," Older-Natsuki said. "Further, Older-
Shiho seemed to think everyone had been cloned and I don't think she was joking, though I don't see how any clones of us could be that old or how they could shoot flames like in that picture."

"Ara, Ara, we have quite a mystery on our hands," Older-Shizuru said. She sipped her tea. "And didn't she act as if a clone of you was somewhere around her, Natsuki?"

"Yes, Older-Natsuki said.

"Two of Natsuki. I didn't think anything could make me happier than to have one of you around, but I was wrong," Older-Shizuru said cheerfully.

"Two of Shizuru. I'm in hell," Older-Haruka mumbled.

"Yes, but that means two Yukinos for you, you know," Older-Shizuru said cheerfully.

"Okay, that's enough of people waving their secession fantasies around in the air," Older-Haruka said, banging her hammer on the table, though now she was nosebleeding just a little. "Yukino..."

"Using the alumni database and my own memories and some other databases, I've been able to determine that Suguira-sensei seems to be simultaneously in Hokkaido teaching at Fuuka and here in Fuyuki City, teaching at Fuyuki High School. If there are duplicates of anyone else, they don't have publically accessible addresses or phone numbers. If we have somehow been cloned, most of the clones are in hiding. Also, Suguira-sensei emailed me back from Fuuka saying she is there and hasn't been here since high school," Older-Yukino said. "Also, Nao, you need to push your glasses up."

"FUCK YOU, JIM BRIDGER," Older-Nao said angrily to her GameGirl, punching buttons. She also pushed her glasses up.

"PUT THE DAMN GAYGIRO AWAY," Older-
Haruka said angrily. Older-Nao ignored her.

"Jim Bridger?" Older-Natsuki asked curiously.

"He's a fur trader guy, charges obscene prices but I have to resupply. Those damn Mormons picked off the Whatley family and I lost all their bacon, cabbage, and bread, dammit," Older-Nao said. "What the hell is a Labanite, anyway?"

"Someone who forbids lying down, duh," Older-
Haruka said, banging her hammer. "Have you heard of any other clones or anything that might hint at an origin, Chie?"

Older-Chie said, "No, but there is a lot of weird stuff going down. Check this out."

It was a blurry photo of a giant one-legged raven, cast in light and shadow as it flew over the burning Castle Einzbern; you could barely make out a black haired and a red haired girl in Shinto priestess outfits. "Now, if you blow up the picture, you can't see this girl's face, it just is a blob, but you CAN make out she has FOUR red pony-
tails." She sounded triumphant.

"Which means?" Older-Haruka asked.

"SHIHO, duh. Who else in this universe would have that ugly hairstyle?" Older-Chie had.

"She doesn't do that any more," Older-Aoi said, checking her watch. She had a nursing class soon.

"Yes, but these are younger clones and six or so years ago, she still had squid-hair," Older-Chie said.

Older-Yukino's phone rang. Anonymous. She took it anyway. "Hello?"

"Hello. We know about your little conclave and if you interfere in our business with Tokiha Mai and her family, you all will die, but first you will watch everyone you love die. We know everything you are saying and everything you are planning," a woman said with a cold but musical voice.

Older-Yukino turned white as a sheet. "Who are you?"

"You can call me Joan of Arc if you like," the woman said. "Like her, I do God's will," the woman continued cooly. "I do not wish to hurt any of you, but if you interfere, it means war, and war means you kill everyone in your way and God will know his own. Do you understand?"

"Wasn't that Simon de Montfort during the Albigensian Crusade, not Joan of Arc?" Older-Yukino said weakly.

"I thought Noah was the Ark guy," Older-Haruka said. "Is this a quiz call show or something?" She put a hand on Older-Yukino's shoulder. "What's going on?" She sounded worried.

"Would you like to give your dear Haruka the chance to ask God the answer to that?" the woman asked.

Older-Yukino cringed. "Please, don't hurt her."

Older-Natsuki frowned. "Dammit, what's going on?"

Older-Nao frowned too, hit a button and put away her GameGirl. "I bet this is connected to the group that blew up that plane. The Ainu Liberation Army."

"None of you will get hurt as long as you stay out of this. If you intervene, your loved ones will die, one by one. You can't stop us and we see everything you do," the woman said.

"Are there really clones?" Older-Yukino asked.

"It is best that, like a buddhist, you empty your mind and forget everything and simply exist until this is over. The less you know, the safer you are." Click.

Older-Yukino told them everything and they stared at each other in silence, not knowing what to do.

Michiru sat in Haruka's lap, watching TV in silence, feeling terrible. They had to do this. But threatening all these people...things were spiralling out of control. She could kill criminals and monsters and out of control magi without guilt, but she prayed they wouldn't actually have to carry out their threats.

We have to do this to save the world, she told herself. We will sin that others may live in peace.

But it didn't make the sinning feel any better.

Shirou wasn't so sure that taking two women on a date at the same time was even VAGUELY a good idea. However, it seemed the best way to draw out Lancer. If she got mad when he cavorted with women, it was time for CAVORTING.

So far, though, it hadn't worked, but maybe she was waiting for dark. He, Sakura, Rin, and Taiga-sensei had gone out to a nice restaurant and ate lots of stir fry, and now they were at the movies, watching a romance movie called Love Blooms in Winter, about a florist shop and the staff's alternate whacky hijinxs and love affairs. Taiga-
sensei was sitting three rows ahead to give him, Rin and Sakura a little privacy.

Rin nudged him and he blinked. She gave him a 'FOLLOW THE PLAN LOOK'.

He tried to remember what that was.

Then Sakura put an arm around him and he remembered, putting an arm around each of them nervously and sitting absolutely paralyzed with jumpiness for the rest of the movie as each put an arm around him and rested their head on his shoulder.

Mizuno Ami whispered to Urawa Ryo, "Is it just me or are some people following us?"

"They're just teenagers being weird on a date," he said stiffly. He knew the truth. They would try to save him from being turned into a monster and fail. He'd tried to defy destiny and failed already. He just was glad Ami wouldn't have to watch.

They'd gone to the movies; the four people following them were two rows back.

The movie was called 'Fear and Loathing in Alpha Complex'. It was billed as a dark sci-fi comedy; he and Ami were laughing a lot. This made him happy. Better their last moments together be happy, right?

He glanced back. His would-be saviours were busy making out instead of paying attention. He had to go to the bathroom and he knew what was coming next.

"I have to hit the can," he told Ami. "I'll be right back," he lied, kissing her on the forehead.

She smiled so brightly. "See you soon."

"See you," he told her, and went to face his fate.

"We can stay," Mamoru said to Motoki after dinner. Even though they had things to do.

"It's okay," he said. "I had lunch with Reika's family. We all sat around crying," Motoki said weakly. "If you stay, I'll just cry."

"That's okay," Mamoru said. "We could watch Braveheart, help you really cry."

Makoto giggled. "No, no, that one with the Mayans, that's the one that makes Motoki cry." Then she sighed and frowned at herself for laughing.

"I can't just make you and Joan watch me mope," Motoki said firmly.

"It's okay," Joan said.

"Go," Motoki said. "But please come for breakfast."

"Of course," Mamoru said, rising and taking Joan's hand to lift her up. "We'll see you in the morning."

They said their goodbyes and headed out. "It is nearly dark enough," Saber said to Mamoru. "Where to first?"

He called on his intuitive magics, then pointed. "That way."

They moved out.

Sailor Mars really wanted more rest, but she didn't have a choice. The sacred fire had shown her that Yumeno Yumeni was going to be attacked and her gem stolen by some blonde girl and a taller pale girl with a sword for an arm. The ones who would DESTROY THE WORLD.

She didn't know how she would stop them, but she had no choice.

"Are you sure we should go?" Shiho asked nervously.

"You don't have to go but I must," Sailor Mars said grimly.

"If you go, I go," Shiho said firmly. "I can face anything with you, big sister."

I'm sorry, Grandpa, Rei thought. At least I was able to save you. Even if I die, I will die knowing I was able to save you.

"Let's go, Shiho."

"I'll be back in a little bit," Juliet said to Umino as they sat together, watching Fear and Loathing in Alpha Complex. "I need to freshen up."

"Okay," he said. "That's fine with me."

He was so wrapped up in the movie, she probably could have said 'I have to kill your parents' and he would have said okay, mind you.

She kissed his cheek and headed off to deal with the boy she'd just seen heading back towards the door to the theatre who she could sense was full of power, power she wanted and needed. He was on her list that Shinji had given her.

This should go smoothly, she thought.

Berserker got ready to get out of the car. "Thank you for driving me here, Mai, I'm not old enough for a license and I need to conserve my energy."

"I'm sorry...we should have figured out something..." Older-Mai's stomach was churning like crazy. Older-Shiho and Older-Mikoto were in the backseat with Brigit, who Older-Shiho was feeding baby food out of a container, since it was food time. Brigit ate a mix of solidish food and breast milk these days.

"This is all my fault. I'm sure they won't care about you once I am dead," Berserker said. "Just wait here until they release Yuuichi and then get the hell out of here. This is going to get messy. I don't intend to go quietly."

"I could go with you," Older-Mikoto offered. She had her real sword on the floor, in its sheath. The ancient katana of her family. It really shouldn't be used, it was so old and valuable, but frankly, money mattered little to Mikoto. People mattered.

"No," Berserker said softly. "You have to protect everyone. Once I am dead, get out of this town and don't come back until it's over." She sighed. "I'm afraid, Mai."

Older-Mai was pretty close to hysterics, but held herself together mainly because no one had actually been hurt yet. The wounds on Berserker's hands had healed so fast she could hardly believe it. And no one else was hurt. But she hung by a thread likely to soon break. "Me too, Mikoto," she said softly.

Older-Mikoto stared at them, trying to resist the fit of jealousy she was having, then turned and moved to hide everything from the baby.

"Kick their fucking ass," Older-Shiho said with venom in her voice. "Bastards."

Berserker smiled a little smile. "I will. Oh yes, I will."

Urawa Ryo was vaguely relieved that his doom waited until he relieved himself to actually strike. He was worried, though, because he'd heard someone else come in. He didn't want any innocents to be hurt.

He stepped out of his stall, then a deep man's voice said "Mixtecar Shiraz Kabox Bunpo," and he felt a sudden agony and a hollow formed through his chest and a yellow gem began to float out of it. He tried to fight the transformation, but he could feel Bunpo coming forward.

At the same time, a giant spider suddenly shot threads out of the ceiling into a stall in the bathroom and a man gave a strangled cry and thrashed. A man, tall and muscular with long black hair, now laughed. "I can tell a Servant when I see one. Should have taken a crap somewhere else, whoever you are," the man said gleefully. "Who is your master?"

"I'll never tell," the man in the stall said, thrashing. Ryo couldn't see him to tell his appearance and Ryo hadn't foreseen this. He'd believed he'd be taken alone in here, and while he would be used in battle, it would be against other monsters and magi. Ryo felt terrible, but there was nothing he could do.

The Master of the Spider stepped out of a stall now, seizing the gem. "Please..." Ryo said. "Just don't hurt Ami."

"I wouldn't hurt you if I didn't need your services," the Master of the Spider said. "I have no intention of causing your girlfriend any trouble."

"Thank you," he said, and now the transformation took him and he became the giant vaguely robotic monster Bunpo. His head now crashed into the ceiling tiles.

"Help me kill this idiot in the stall," Assassin said, still disguised as a big handsome man.

Assassin, however, had a problem; only Julia's webs restrained Nephrite and if she and Bunpo attacked in these cramped quarters, they'd destroy the webbing. Getting him out of here was going to be tricky too.

"Julia, do you think you can get your stinger in there and impale his heart and kill him?"

Julia began slowly working on this while Assassin studied the gem; it felt so right to hold it, like it was MEANT for her. She touched it to her glove and it merged with it and suddenly, she knew what was going to happen.

This didn't mean she liked it, though.

In a few seconds, Akane, Usagi, and Naru would get over their social reluctance to enter a men's room because of their hearing her (as a him) inside and fearing for Nephrite and Ryo. Usagi would kick the door open and deliver a speech and wave her pretty magic stick around. Akane would moralize at her. And Naru...would go apeshit because Nephrite was in danger and use a lesser miracle to free him from the webbing at which point she'd have a servant with a strong mix of ranged and melee attacks on her case. Also, his presence was fuzzing her prescience, though she was pretty sure the gem was fuzzing him up.

Better to sacrifice Bunpo, who she could now foresee was basically a lackwit who could only say his own name and wasn't much good except for hitting to ensure her own escape. They cared about this 'Ryo' guy, so they'd stay to subdue him while she escaped. And her possession of the gem would enable her to hide from future-prediction Nephrite in the future.

She wondered, a moment, what all HE was predicting, then she decided to get out.

"Bunpo, charge through the door and if it moves, kill it!" He wouldn't get very far.

Up into the ceiling, disguise herself with her hat of disguise, Julia dematerializes, she crawls to the ladies' room, drop down, innocent Juliet goes back to her boyfriend, oh yeah.

Bunpo charged out the door, grabbed Naru, and threw her into a wall, knocking her for a loop. Usagi and Akane dodged his blows, then Akane knocked him a good long ways down the long hallway between theaters. "HARRY!" she shouted and he appeared. She mounted up and charged.

"Just weaken him and then I can heal him!" Usagi shouted.

Nephrite gradually cut his way loose from the webbing of Julia. Unfortunately, he was only middling when it came to melee and Assassin was first in grappling, so this was very slow and he couldn't even teleport out. Mind you, teleportation cost a ton of mana he didn't want to use if he didn't have to, even if it was easy for him and Naru to recharge his mana.

Bunpo, however, now chose to run towards the refreshment station down the hallway; it was closer to him than Akane was and the lone guy staffing it for the late shows (there were several more at the main station back in the lobby) had stepped out from behind the counter when he heard Akane knock Bunpo down the hallway. He shouted and dove behind the counter just in time for Bunpo to cut it in half with an arm turned into a blade. Popcorn and Pepsi began to spray EVERYWHERE.

Bunpo shouted, "BUNPO!" and began trashing everything, which led to more things flying and more movement and more trashing as Akane charged down the hallway and Usagi tried to run after her.

When the smashing noises came from the hallway, most of those watching Love Blooms in Winter assumed it was another movie with the volume up too loud. Several got out cellphones to text in a complaint without bothering anyone else. Two others just called.

A few days ago, Shirou and Taiga-sensei would have done the same; even now, though they felt their limbs itch, Shirou was utterly paralyzed and Taiga-sensei was caught in the movie, wondering if the shy kendo girl would finally attract the attention of her teammate or not. Mai, it must be confessed, was also caught up in the movie. Archer, Chariot, and Rin, however, were more professional, even if Rin cursed the timing.

Archer, scout and report, Rin commanded Archer telepathically.

Shirou, wake up, I think there is trouble, I will check, Chariot told him.

Wow, do you think they really will get together?, Taiga-sensei asked Mai.

I hope so, Mai said. I'm rooting for them.

I CAN'T MOVE, HELP ME, Shirou pled with Chariot, romantically paralyzed as Archer went to scout.

Okay, no more plans in which Shirou touches a woman EVER, Chariot thought.

Berserker didn't like the look of this battlefield. It was an abandoned factory; it had been trashed by the fire ten years ago and not rebuilt as it was full of antiquated technology. For a moment, she got a flash of this place in the early sixties, full of moving conveyor belts and machines, building radios and other electronics, full of hard-working people in a Japan which had recovered from World War II and was economically booming. The future was bright for them and they were sure their children would all go to college and have better jobs than them. For many of them, that dream came true.

But in the nineties, the bubble burst and the economy stagnated. Japan had many competitors now. But this factory had continued to run with the same old machines, doing its best to give its employees what they were promised: in return for their loyalty and willingness to forego some pay, they would have job security for life and benefits. Until the factory caught fire and it would cost too much to fix and the company crashed and new management fired half the staff and built a new, modernized factory at a new location.

They'd never even cleaned up the mess here; it all just squatted with holes in the ceiling and melted bits of metal and plastic everywhere, some machines weirdly intact and others destroyed, with damaged walkways crossing back and forth above the main shop floor.

On the side of a large machine which had once gently lowered the basic frame of television sets into place, someone had written 'MT + HR FOREVER'. To be precise, they'd apparently written it with a welding torch, burning it into the metal.

Berserker would never know what it was to fall in love romantically, but she knew love. Her heart was big and she loved many people, though on the cusp of delayed puberty, just barely crossed over, she didn't understand the weird sensations she sometimes got or why parts of her body would tingle oddly when she looked at some of those she loved. She had been given a terrible upbringing, intended to make her hyperloyal to a brother who would betray her and to get her to bond to the chosen bride of that brother, so that when they inevitably fought, it would hurt the most.

But she didn't know any of that and she didn't know if the game for which she was made had played out to the end, or if it had, how it ended.

What she knew was that it was her duty to serve her Master, Illyasviel von Einzbern, who she loved in her simple, childish way, but that it was also her duty to protect Mai's family, her friends and to DESTROY ANYONE WHO THREATENED THEM.

"SHOW YOURSELF!" she shouted angrily, summoning her sword. Her necklace pulsed softly. Its power was ready to awaken.

"Here is the deal," the cold woman's voice said from somewhere above, somewhere on all those walkways, hidden in the shadows. "If you allow us to kill you without resisting, we will set your Yuuichi free and leave your family alone from any further molestation. If you fight us, he dies."

"I'd have to be an idiot to trust you!" Berserker shouted.

"If you don't go along with us, Yuuichi dies. Is that what you want?" the woman asked.

"Show him to me!" she shouted.

"Do you think we were stupid enough to bring him here?" the woman said. "Cooperate or he dies."

They would kill him anyway, she realized. No witnesses. They couldn't just turn him loose unless they could erase his memories. Mind you, that was...ahah.

"Swear by the Grail that you will release him unharmed and that you will leave my family alone! Use a Lesser Miracle to seal it. If you do that, I will swear with you and let myself be bound to die." She didn't want to die. But if she could ensure that Mai and Yuuichi and Shiho and Brigit and everyone were okay, then she could die knowing that.

"So long as they leave us alone," the woman said. "I will not render myself defenseless."

They swore, together, the oath, invoking the power of the Grail. "Let the contract be sworn, that Berserker agrees to die and pass back to the Throne of Heroes, in return for the master Kai'ou Michiru swearing to release Tate Yuuichi back to his family and to stay away from and not molest, harm, or harass that family in any way so long as they stay away from her and her family and friends and allies. Let the Grail enforce this contract!"

Berserker erupted into a swirling vortex of light that rose into the sky, dissolving into sparkles and evaporating away and there was an invisible rush of energy across the city.

In Professor Tomoe's house, as he worked on calculations in his office, the Cloister Bell rang four times in quick succession, then once. Then it rang three times in quick succession and twice.

"An oath is sworn on the Grail and a Servant has fallen," he said. "Two down, four to go."

"No, don't blast him, he might go through the wall into a theater!," Usagi shouted at Akane, who was about to blast Bunpo again, backed up by Harry. The clerk huddled motionless on the floor, crapping himself. Ironically, this was saving his life as Bunpo was ordered to kill 'everything that moves'. Everything else, meanwhile, was moving as Bunpo tore it up.

Usagi caught up to Akane and climbed onto Harry's back, Moon Wand in hand. "We have to lure him out."

Then they felt every alarm in their head go off at the same time.

Usagi, Akane, and the tiger-thing are fighting some kind of robot monster which is leveling the snack bar, Archer reported to Rin, who whispered it to Shirou, who told Chariot.

Taiga-sensei smiled brightly when Kendo girl got kissed.

Then suddenly she felt A HUGE DISTURBANCE IN THE FORCE, LIKE SOMEONE SACRIFICING THEMSELVES FOR THEIR FRIENDS AND FAMILY and all she could do was cry.

Yuuichi appeared in the front passenger's seat of Mai's car. He was still tied up and gagged.

"YUUICHI!" three women shouted and began trying to untie him.

"What the hell is going on?" he asked. "Crazy women in leotards trashed my car and kidnapped me and then I got blindfolded and knocked out! Is this some kind of crazy prank? I could have sworn I heard Yukino at one point."

Crying, Older-Mai began to explain it all.

Illyasviel's eyes snapped open in the living room of Haruka's apartment as she felt Berserker die. 'I'm sorry, master, but I had to save Mai' echoed in her mind. Yukino was nearby, busy scrying. Or more precisely, clutching her head and moaning while Diana and a bunch of mirrors scried.

Michiru was looking into her mirror, eyes wide, but as Illyasviel began to move, she turned and pointed the mirror at Illyasviel. "Give me your Lesser Miracles or die," she told Illyasviel, who noted Michiru was down to two. No sign of the gun which had caused her bottle to go off, but they'd wisely stripped her of all alchemical gear. She gave thema tiny point of commendation for that.

Clearly this woman was the Master and the woman in the school uniform the servant but they seemed to share a fetish for scrying and mirrors. Illyasviel thought Caster must be the same woman as last time but maybe not; Caster usually had broad magical powers and strong ones; scrying would usually be among her talents.

Illyasviel still had hope to contract with another servant. Maybe even this one, given the Servant seemed incredibly shy and nervous for a heroic spirit. She didn't come off heroically at all.

But if she gave up her Lesser Miracles, the woman would probably bind her soul into a doll, just like Illyasviel planned to do to her big brother. Or some other terrible fate, like being bound into a mop, as had happened to Illyasviel's second cousin, once removed.

Then Illyasviel realized she was tied up. They hadn't been stupid enough to leave her untied, though they'd bound her in a rather comfortable way and not really done a professional job of it. None of them were Girl Scouts, clearly.

Still, she could likely break the bonds with her magic...

It beat dying.

"SHATTER!" she shouted, channeling magic through her crest into the ropes which broke.

"ROYAL TIDE ASCENDENT!" Michiru shouted and a huge ocean of water blasted Illyasviel across the room, into the wall, through the wall and into Haruka's bedroom, trashing the bed.

A few seconds later, someone began shouting something through the far bedroom wall, but you couldn't understand it.

"Illyasviel's free and trying to fight us," the woman with many mirrors said to one of them.

"SHATTER!" Illyasviel shouted, pouring more magic through her Crest. The scrying mirrors all shattered and the fragments shelled the shy woman, who fell down, bleeding and covered in bits of glass. However, though the fringe cracked a little, the mirror in the Master's hands didn't break and now the Master shouted "NEPTUNE PLANET POWER, MAKE UP!" and donned...a skimpy white leotard with short skirt and tiara and high boots and long gloves?

Illyasviel stared. What on Earth?

"ROYAL TIDE ASCENDENT!" Sailor Neptune said, charging at Illyasviel. A huge ocean of water hit her like a hammer, and she fell down and flew through the wall into another bedroom, where two panicked people in pajamas went tumbling into the far wall and passed out.

"PETRIFY!" Illyasviel invoked, trying to turn Sailor Neptune to stone, but Neptune stood and resisted it, staring at herself in her mirror and the spell washed off her, though her clothing turned stone colored where it was white. But now the bleeding servant's wounds closed up and more mirrors appeared as she gestured and then a tentacular monstrosity suddenly appeared and grappled Illyasviel.

Illyasviel struggled to break free, but her physical strength was low and though Yukino was a low-ranked servant in physical attacks...Illyasviel had the body of a nine-year old. There was no hope of that. But she had one hope...

"You win..." she groaned. "Come over here, we must touch skin for the transfer."

"Swear on the Grail to transfer two of them with me to the third one or you will die," Sailor Neptune said. "I'm not stupid enough to get close enough for you to blast me or invade my mind."

Unfortunately, with no servant, transferring or binding herself with an oath was about all Illyasviel could do. They certainly wouldn't spare her now. There was only one thing she could do. "I SWEAR BY THE GRAIL TO TRANSFER MY LESSER MIRACLES TO MY BIG BROTHER!" Then she gathered energy for one final desperate magical attack, all out.

"By the power of the Grail, FLING ILLYASVIEL INTO ORBIT!" Neptune shouted.

This left her with only one Lesser Miracle, but Illyasviel now was flung through five floors of building, tearing a hole and rocketed towards space. Her spell went out of control as she blacked out from the stress and she exploded over Fuyuki city, sending little streaks of light downwards like a meteor shower.

Many made wishes on it.

Some wishes came true.

The Cloister bell rang twice in quick succession, then rang thrice more slowly.

"Three masters down," Professor Tomoe said, smiling brightly. "And three to go."

'DAMMIT, YOU WIN AGAIN BIG BROTHER!' echoed in Shirou's mind as three Lesser Miracles appeared on his arm, giving him six. 'KILL NEPTUNE FOR ME'.

This shocked him out of his paralysis completely. He rose. It was time to stop that monster and save the day. Really, how would Lancer know if he pretended to date Sakura and Rin at the same time, anyway? She couldn't just scry people, right?

Naru had just run into the men's room; between her blasts and his stabbing, they'd managed to cut him free and they now ran to join their friends.

Akane had successfully jumped past Bunpo, took a hit and knocked him back into the hallway, then Harry blew him down the hall, through the end doors and into the parking lot. Now cars were being smashed up by high force winds tossing them about and Bunpo was running around attacking them as they moved while Akane kicked his ass.

It was starting to drizzle.

Rin, Sakura, Caster, Chariot, Archer, Shirou, and Taiga-sensei now reached the doorway out and studied this giant mess. Far, far behind them, Naru and Nephrite were running their way.

Beyond that, Assassin and Umino quietly watched their movie, enjoying themselves, while Ami looked around, trying to figure out what was taking Ryo so long. He didn't answer her text message, either.

"Archer, that is Bunpo," Rin said. "Aim for the arm joint. Everyone, that is one of the Seven Shadows! If we defeat it, we get its gem of power!"

She fired off Gand, nailing Bunpo in the knee; he stumbled into Archer's shot, which crippled his right arm.

"GAKUTENOU!" Chariot shouted, summoning him and mounting up with Shirou. Shirou now reinforced Gakutenou as Sakura got in beside them.

The rain began to come down harder now; it was cold rain, but they fought on despite the weather; the lights of the parking lot made it easy to see despite the rain.

"No, don't kill him! I can turn him back to human! And someone already stole his jewel!" Usagi said.

Caster, about to open fire, held back, and Taiga-sensei, who was still crying, didn't turn her lightsabre on.

Akane smacked him upside the head, even as Naru and Nephrite reached the door and Bunpo fell down before Usagi.

"MOON HEALING ESCALATION!" He turned back to a confused, groggy, Urawa Ryo.

Usagi gave a sigh of relief, then looked at those before her. They outnumbered her group, but didn't seem hostile.

"Are you Lancer's master?" Rin demanded of her.

Okay, some were not.

"No, she tried to kill me but Akane saved me," Usagi said. I saved Ryo! Ami will be so happy! This made her feel much better. She was rather wet, but so was everyone else and she didn't care.

A strong chill wind was starting to blow; this didn't make being cold and wet any more fun.

"I don't know who Lancer serves," Usagi said. "But I think she murdered Father Hisau and she tried to kill you and me and well, a lot of people." She saw Shirou with Sakura leaning on him. Are they...they must be a couple. But... Her heart tried to sink and she fought it. I have Akane. I can't have multiple lovers. And really, if he's a master... "Are you a Master, Shirou?" she asked weakly.

"Yes, I am," he said. "But I don't want to fight you either." His smile was warm and friendly and it made her very happy. Too happy. I HAVE AKANE, she told herself.

Akane frowned and now moved over to take Usagi's hand.

"I thought you and Kazuya..." Mai said weakly to Akane.

"There's a grown-up Kazuya dating a grown up me," Akane said weakly, staring at the ground. "But I'm with Usagi now."

"Are they...are we..." Mai asked urgently.

"I don't know," Akane said.

Alarms were going off and there were sirens blaring.

"We must leave now or our covers will be totally blown," Nephrite said urgently. "Also, why are we all standing around in the rain like idiots?"

An alert person would notice, though, that the rain seemed to skid around him without quite touching him.

Ryo sat up. "Hey...I'm not a monster."

"Destiny is not always what you think," Nephrite said to him.

"Everyone mount up! Time to evacuate!" Chariot said.

"But we can't just..." Rin began.

Archer grabbed Rin, summoned St. Vrus and took to the skies, despite the weather. "See you all later!"

Mai seized Taiga-sensei, who said, "You shouldn't be skipping school, you naughty girls!" as she was dragged off.

Dismissing anything supernatural, Naru and Usagi and Akane and Nephrite hustled Ryo inside to try to get him back to Ami before every inch of everything was covered with police.

"I felt it," Older-Shiho said to the assembled friends and family. "They promised to stay away from us if we avoid them," she continued. "I don't know how to explain this but I just know, I know somehow in my soul, they can't break that promise."

"If there is some kind of war going on, we may encounter others who aren't bound," Older-Mikoto said. "I think we need to evacuate to one of Haruka's family's villas."

"I refuse to run from technocolorists!," Older-Haruka said firmly.

They were all in Older-Shizuru and Older-Natsuki's place.

"Look, we can't fight this," Older-Nao said. "All of us are okay, but if we stay...I don't know what's going on, but this city isn't safe right now."

"I think it's best we evacuate," Older-Yuuichi said. "This is too much for us."

"I can't...she died for us. She hardly knew us but she died for us. Doesn't that mean anything?" Older-Mai asked them, the universe, Brigit, everything.

Brigit replied by playing with the shiny buttons on her mother's dress.

"The other Mai wanted us to leave," Older-Mikoto said. "I...Mai..." She began to cry. "I know, I know, but she died for us to be safe. We have to go."

"I don't like running either," Older-Natsuki said. "I suggest we get out everyone who can't fight and those of us who can are going to have to make sure this won't follow us."

"Isn't this what the police are for?" Older-Kazuya asked.

"If we get them involved, it might break the oath," Older-Yuuichi said. "Let's just get out and wait."

They continued to argue on into the night as the rain pounded on the roof above them.

Rei knew where to find Yumeno Yumeni; she was busy sketching in the park under a lamp; the painting showed a similar park, except people were ice skating on the frozen pond (which wasn't frozen in reality) and you could see the Earth in the sky.

Distantly, there was a rumble of thunder and a gust of cold wind. Lightning flashed off in the distance, off towards the entertainment district.

"Yumeno-san," Rei said. "We have to get you out of the city now." She flashed a fake badge she'd made with some tin cans and her fire powers. It wouldn't fool anyone if you looked at it for more than a second, and maybe not even then. "There are assassins coming for you," she said. "We're with the Fuyuki City Police, undercover agents disguised as teenage Miko."

Now that she said it she realized this was possibly one of the stupidest bluffs in human history and that even Usagi would do better than this.

"Oh no!,"Yumeno Yumeni said, quickly packing her sketchpad into her carrybag. "Why would anyone want to kill me?" Fortunately, Yumeni was basically gullible and trusting.

"Come with us," Shiho said quickly. She took Yumeno-san by the hand and began to hustle her along.

A shot rang out. Too late, Rei realized it was meant for her. They'd blundered into a trap!

Time seemed to slow down. On a rooftop watching the park was a pale haired woman with a sniper rifle for an arm, and next to her, a young girl with spikey blonde hair standing straight up and glowing. She held a red and white striped umbrella in one hand.

The bullet was coming. Rei started to speak, but she knew she'd never finish it before the bullet ripped through her head and killed her. But she started to say it anyway, time distorting itself to try to give her a chance. "SHIHO, ES..."

And then a rose hit the bullet, which exploded in the air.

Everyone turned and there was a strum of guitar music and Saber and Tuxedo Mask stood there, Saber with wind-
sheathed sword and him with his cane in one hand and another rose in the other. "There will be no shooting..."

The woman with the gun arm didn't wait for the rest of the speech, opening fire on him at high speed. A swarm of roses knocked every bullet out of the air and now Saber was moving at high speed on her position.

A white hearse now drove out of the pond, fish falling off it, and headed for Yumeno Yumeni, who ran with Shiho, full tilt, towards the far edge of the park.

"Tuxedo Mask?" Rei asked.

"Get them to safety! We'll deal with her!" Tuxedo Kamen shouted.

"But..."

"Leave this to us!"

Saber was busy deflecting gunfire and now leaped up onto a roof and started to close, moving roof to roof. The girl with glowing hair continued to concentrate, and Tuxedo Kamen now charged towards her. "Surrender and we will treat you honorably! I don't want to have to hurt someone as young as you, little lady!" he shouted to the young girl.

The girl gestured and two monsters appeared, two of the Seven Shadows. A winged boxer and a punkesque woman in a leotard and high boots with a partially shaved head. Tuxedo Kamen recognized both of them and now he knew for sure who blew up the plane. I hope I can heal them, he thought. They moved to defend the little girl. Who looked oddly familiar.

Rei, however, now saw the hearse closing in on Yumeno Yumeni and turned and saw a manic redhead behind the wheel, wearing a red tank top and black poufy pants, armed with a giant weirdly shaped gun that looked almost like a really huge water pistol with some weird mechanism inside its translucent tube. The woman stank with dark energy. Could this be Rider?

She blasted the engine of the car with fire and it exploded, the woman inside it diving out of it and cursing as it blew up in a big fireball. Distantly, alarms went off and the handful of people in the area now ran for it.

The wind picked up some and the thunder got louder and closer and the lightning brighter and if things had ever been quiet, you could hear heard the approaching wall of rain.

Shiho ran, pulling Yumeno Yumeni along, and then, suddenly, she had one moment of sensing hatred and she pushed Yumeno Yumeni away and then she took a set of blows to pressure points and passed out. Ninja stood over her, torn between the desire for revenge and the fact that she'd never actually killed anyone in cold blood before. Yumeno Yumeni tried to stop her and got one-punched unconscious.

The blonde girl's hair suddenly glowed blue and Saber felt her mind being invaded. Her defenses against magic were very strong, but this was actually strong enough to break through those defenses. She suddenly remembered the first time she'd bathed around men outside her family and how she'd had to fight to hide any sign of reaction. She'd done so successfully without giving anything away and over time she'd completely locked down her physical desires so she could ignore them, so she wouldn't have thoughts that could ruin her around the many knights she had to lead while passing as a man. Her iron discipline let her do this.

But now the discipline was starting to break under the influence of the light. Her master was so handsome and honorable and knew she was a woman and he respected her and in this time, she didn't have to hide who she was. He would love her if she went to him; was he not kind and compassionate to her as a lover should be?

But she knew in her core this was false. He couldn't love a cold fish like her, and further, THIS EVIL WITCH WAS TRYING TO ENSORCEL HER TO BELIEVE IT. She called forth her uttermost strength and now they battled back and forth inside her mind as she strove to resist the young girl's powers.

The gun arm became a orange sword arm, limned with flame, and the pale haired woman leaped off the roof at Tuxedo Kamen, parrying roses and slicing his cane in half. He had to draw Excalibur to block her blade, backed by the orange gem of wrath, and even then, he was losing ground. He could sense where this was going.

Meanwhile, the redhead in tanktop and poofy pants began shooting at Rei, who desperately dodged her shots, but couldn't do anything to help Shiho, who laid unconscious next to Yumeno Yumeini.

Ninja resolved her dilemna. She couldn't bring herself to cut down a child in cold blood. Not even an idiot brat like Shiho. Eliminating the child's master was another question. She called the Shadowblade to hand and threw it, pinning Rei's shadow.

Unable to move, Rei got nailed square on by the red-
haired tanktop wearer's shots and now a ray began pulling a shining red nine eight pointed star out of Rei's chest. Rei screamed in pain, hanging suspended. She started to flicker as if she was going to evaporate. Red sparkles began to rise from her.

Tuxedo Kamen flung Excalibur in a high arc to Saber, who instinctively caught it. Her mana surged and the spell attack on her shattered. As he did this, he also hurled a rose, breaking the heart crystal stealing ray; Rei sagged to the ground hurt but basically okay as her heart crystal returned to her. And the Sword of Wrath went through his chest and began to carve him up.

"No, TUXEDO KAMEN!" Saber shouted angrily.

"SABER, TAKE YUMENI, REI, AND SHIHO THROUGH THE GATE OF TIME!" he shouted, activating one of his Lesser Miracles. He knew now what had to be done. Better to sacrifice himself to save them than to let any of them die to save himself. He could not be saved with the Sword of Wrath inside him and he could not let this false-Saber obtain Excalibur or Avalon, not that he had Avalon or knew where it was. But he had an intuition. That was his strength.

Saber had no choice but to comply. Fuelled by the Lesser Miracle, she moved in a blur, seizing the three women and slicing open the sky with an Excalibur in each hand. This alone was a defiance of physics, but the Lesser Miracle paid physics to dance; it didn't let physics call the tune. "No! Don't send me away! Don't die for me!" she screamed as the air ripped open and two huge doors appeared and began to swing open.

Ninja and the tank top wearing woman stared, eyes wide.

"Mother! I will save you and your future! I will make the Crystal Millenium happen and then everyone will be safe!" the woman on the rooftop, limned in blue and gold shouted. "Miyu! STOP HER!"

At the far end of the park, lightning flashed and rain was pouring down.

"My power is not for saving myself, it is to make others into heroes and heroines," Tuxedo Kamen managed to say as he now began to dissolve away into sparkles of golden light rising upwards, the Sword of Wrath still slicing away at him. "I transfer my Lesser Miracles to Saber to be disposed of as she sees fit!" he shouted and they vanished, appearing on her wrist. "I believe in you, ARTURIA, QUEEN OF THE BRITONS! I know you will do what is right!"

Compelled by the power of the Grail, Saber hustled the three women through the gate, conscious or not, crying tears of frustration and pain. "But all my decisions have come to naught in the end! I couldn't even save you or Kay or anyone!"

"STOP THEM! THEY'LL DESTROY THE FUTURE AND HURT MOMMY AND DADDY!" the young girl on the roofttop screamed.

But Tuxedo Kamen's hands held the wrist of the Sword of Wrath and kept it inside him, preventing Miyu from moving for crucial seconds. She struggled, unwilling to abandon the arm to him because it had the Gem of Wrath in it; with it, he might somehow survive and turn the tables.

"THIS is the second chance you always wanted!" Tuxedo Kamen shouted. "I know you will not fail me! HAIL, ARTURIA! QUEEN OF THE BRITONS! THE ONCE AND FUTURE QUEEN!" And then he dissolved away into nothing but rising sparkles and the Gates of Time slammed shut and vanished.

"NO!" the girl on the roof raged and Ninja decided to GET OUT. She de-materialized the shadowblade, went insubstantial and stealth-mode and RAN.

"MOTHER, FATHER! I PROMISE I WON'T FAIL YOU!"

And the rain washed over everything and lightning flashed in the sky, showing a crying young girl on the roof and a confused synthetic Servant on the ground, staring at her sword-arm and the flashing gem mounted in the 'hilt'.

Then there was a wash of thunder that drowned out speech and then only rain and a chill, chill wind.

The Cloister bell rang twice in quick succession, then rang four times more slowly.

"Four masters eliminated, two to go," Professor Tomoe said, smiling brightly.

Then it rang twice in quick succession, and then five times more slowly.

Kaolinite smiled, laying out some tea. "And that makes five of six masters needed to fall."

The Cloister bell chimed thrice in quick succession, then rang three times more slowly.

"And three Servants," Hotaru said, starting to cry. "Papa, papa, we shouldn't be doing this."

"It is too late to back out now," he said. "The bells are ringing for me and my gal. And soon, you will finally be reunited with your mother," he said kindly, picking her up and kissing her cheek. "Kaolinite, I will put her to bed now. Keep the tea gently warm for me, please."

The Cloister bell rang thrice in quick succession, then four times more slowly. Four servants down, two to go.

"As you desire," she said. "I do hope Naru will visit so I can see her dress." She sounded very cheerful.

"You should call her. I give you permission to visit her if you like," Professor Tomoe said. "Since you've taken a personal interest."

"She has taste and potential," Kaolinite said. "Perhaps tomorrow. I don't think we're going to get any more..."

The Cloister bell rang seven times in rapid fire succession, then once.

Professor Tomoe froze up. "Wait...what does that mean?" They'd already had to purge the Grail once; somehow pieces of Angra Maiyu had gotten sucked into it, and the last thing they needed was him interfering. He'd had his chance to take over the Earth and blew it. These evil gods NEVER know their place, though.

"I will consult the scroll, while you put Hotaru to bed," Kaolinite said.

"Thank you. I don't know what I would do without you," he said. "Now, Hotaru, let's read you a bedtime story and tuck you in. How about the story of Brigit and the Six Rings of Power?"

"I thought it was nine rings for men," Hotaru said sleepily.

"I am not ripping off Tolkein at all," her father said huffily. "But I'll tell you the story anyway."

They headed out.

"We lay low," Shingo said to Akira. "History may be about to change to make us both into potatos or something, though."

"Dammit, they escaped," Akira said. "I couldn't do it." She stared at the floor.

"Whatever you decide, I have your back," Shingo said, hand on her shoulder. "Frankly, the more masters who run away, the easier we can win this without having to do anything we can't live with, right?"

"I don't think we can keep our hands clean and win," Akira said softly.

Shingo sighed, staring at the ground. "Well, I do have to ask you to do one bad thing."

"What is it?"

"Steal us some earplugs. If I have to go through what we went through last night ever again, I will go mad," Shingo said, groaning.

"You, at least, got to sleep," Akira said, patting his shoulder. "Your wish is my command." She looked around. "Once you show me where to find some."

He laughed. "Follow me."

"Well, the lure out Lancer plan failed and someone made off with the Yellow Gem of Envy and Friendship," Rin said, disgruntled. One advantage of magic was that she was perfectly dry, unlike many of the others and so was her Servant. She knew how to keep rain off without an umbrella, thank you.

"Yes, but none of us were hurt or caught by the police or got in any trouble and we didn't have to hurt anyone nice and the young boy was turned human again," Archer said. "I think God blessed us."

"You did well against Bunpo," Shirou said. He, by contrast, was utterly sodden down to his underwear. Nothing like riding in an open goat-monster-chariot in the rain at high speed to help you take a bath in your clothing! "You took him down to where Usagi could cure him," he continued. "I just stood around uselessly." He sighed.

"I had a good time with you," Sakura said softly to him.

"Oh, you were fun to be with," he said to her, smiling a quick smile but then he sighed. "I don't know what else we can do."

They turned on the TV; reporters were in one of the city parks, talking about gang hits and buildings riddled with bullets and reports of some kind of gang fight. However, all the witnesses were themselves now locked up because they had been found rioting and ripping the area apart but couldn't explain why.

"A master fight and someone has the Orange Gem of Wrath. I think we know where Lancer went," Rin said grimly.

Shirou winced in horror and Taiga-sensei still looked gloomy.

Archer frowned. "We have to find some way to set a trap for her."

"We sleep together in one room," Rin said.

"I can't...," Shirou began.

"Me on one side of you, Sakura on the other, Taiga-
sensei next to me on the other side of me, with our three servants watching over us," Rin said.

"You on the left, then Sakura, then Shirou, then me," Taiga-sensei said. "That protects our two most vulnerable in the middle."

"I can protect myself now!," Shirou protested.

"That makes sense," Rin said, though she really would have preferred Shirou right next to her as if she had to chose between losing Shirou or Sakura, Sakura would come first. Then Shirou.

Taiga-sensei sighed. "I feel like someone innocent died. I felt the Force move. But I don't...it's like someone I never met or knew died, but their death...like it's connected to me anyway somehow." She grimaced.

Mai's eyes widened. "Please, not the baby." Not Brigit.

"No, this was an adult, who chose to give her life to save people she cared about," Taiga-sensei said. "I think it happened again, too, but that time I barely felt it. But the first time..."

"Not Mikoto, please not Mikoto," Mai said, pained and worried.

"I don't...I feel...do you know a Tate Yuuichi?"

Mai felt a hand grab her heart and squeeze. "He's the one who died?" she asked, mortified.

"No...she died for him and for Mai and...Shiho and..." Taiga-sensei's face contorted and the gem under her shirt glowed brightly as the others stared. "Berserker. Berserker died so all the ones she loved would live because she loved them." She began to cry again. "It's not supposed to be like this. She let herself die, let herself be sacrificed... It shouldn't have to be like that, she was only a child..."

Rin watched unhappily, not able to feel as much pain as Taiga-sensei did over this but hurt to see her hurting and surprised that hurt so much. Shirou moved silently to embrace Taiga-sensei, who cried on his shoulder, while Sakura patted her shoulders and looked very unhappy and now Mai fell over on Taiga-sensei, crying, and Suguira-
sensei stood guard, very sad, but approving Berserker's choice. She hoped she would have that kind of strength if it came down to it. And Archer prayed for Berserker's soul.

Older-Mai sat down on the huge bed; it was super-
fancy compared to their simple one at home; they'd all fled to one of Haruka's villas, down on the sea. The winds were high here but they'd escaped the rain now hammering Fuyuki City. Older-Haruka had let them have one of the grand suites; everyone was busy unpacking while Older-
Mai fed Brigit and wondered what was going to happen.

Her phone rang. It said 'Tokiha Mai'. With her old phone number.

She stared, paralyzed, at it.

"Answer the phone," Older-Shiho snapped, then took it. "This is Mai's answering service since apparently she won't answer her own damn phone."

"Shiho, is that you?" Mai asked softly.

Older-Shiho froze, looked at Older-Mai, then said, "M...Mai?"

Everyone in the room froze, staring.

"Please tell me you're all okay."

"We...we're fine, Mai. Are you...another clone?" Older-Shiho asked weakly.

"Yes. Please tell me you left the city. I told Mikoto... the older Mikoto... to get you out of the city, but... but...," Mai said, trying not to fall apart.

"We left. But we only got out because... Mikoto... young Mikoto... gave her life for us," Older-Shiho said, agonized by it, feeling utterly guilty. "She just met us and she died for us." She started to cry again.

So did Older-Mai. Older-Yuuichi came and embraced Older-Shiho and put a hand on Older-Mai and Older-
Mikoto hugged Older-Mai, a hand on Older-Shiho. Brigit began crying because everyone else was. Older-Mai tried to embrace everyone at once, then nearly dropped Brigit. Brigit's efforts to climb inside Older-Mai's shirt saved her long enough for Older-Mai to catch her.

"No, I'm sorry, I'm sorry you got caught up in this STUPID STUPID WAR," Older-Mai said, weeping and angry at once. "And I swear I'll stay away from you, I'm just poison that destroys everything I touch. Please...keep everyone safe. I'm going to hang up now."

"No, wait, wait," Older-Shiho said. "Look, this woman named...I think her name is Kai'ou Michiru. She's the one who killed... Killed little Mikoto. Find her and rip out her FUCKING HEART for me." She demanded. "Or I will blame you for all of this! You should have come and told us all to make sure we'd go!"

"I know, I fucked up. And I will make her pay," Mai said, weary and utterly guilty.

"Let me talk to her," Older-Mai said.

"And me," Older-Mikoto said.

"Hold on, I think everyone wants to say something," Older-Shiho said.

"I certainly do," Older-Yuuichi said, sighing and helping Older-Mai hold onto Brigit.

He got the phone first. "Mai," he said softly. "You're sixteen, right?"

"I...Tate..." Mai said, agonized.

"Have I confessed to you, yet?" Older-Yuuichi said to her.

Her heart nearly stopped. "No," she whispered. "I can't...you'll evaporate...I don't even know if you exist here and now...my Tate..."

"He loves you. He's a teenage idiot and he doesn't want to hurt Shiho and he doesn't think anyone will ever love him, the real him. We all spent years being idiots before we got our acts together, but I don't think...you have years. Before you die, let him know how you feel. If you die..." His voice shook. "Don't die. I know...I know what Mikoto means to you. But she'd want you to live and be happy. I won't pretend to tell you your business in this war. It sounds crazy. I know it's real but I can't believe it. But I know he will believe in you, no matter how insanely crazy it is. And be kind to Shiho. She's more like you than you think."

"I am not," Older-Shiho said, but she smiled where no one could see.

"I will," Mai promised, shaking.

Older-Yuuichi passed the phone to Older-Mikoto. "Mai," Older-Mikoto said softly. "I'm sorry, I failed you."

"No, you could never fail me," Mai said, shaking physically. Taiga-sensei was embracing her now. "They're safe. You're safe. Protect them. You're so strong and I probably can't even feed the baby without poking her in the eye."

"You're a very good mommy," Older-Mikoto said comfortingly. "Brigit loves you very much. When you're our age..."

"I won't live that long," Mai mumbled.

"I refuse to see you die," Older-Mikoto said firmly. "She loved you and I love you and you WILL NOT DIE. You have to live so her death means something. You have to fight for all of us because we can't." She shivered and sounded very guilty. "I can't fight this. We're counting on you, Mai. Promise me you will win this war."

"I can't...I'm so...I'm a failure," Mai moaned.

"You are not. I saw you fight. You are MAGNIFICENT," Older-Mikoto said. "I know you need to cry right now. Me too." She was tearing up. "But you have to fight and win for her. She loved you. We love you. I just wish I could fight with you."

"I love you too," Mai said, her mind unclear now which Mikoto she spoke to. "I had better go. They might notice I called you and find you."

"Wait," Older-Shiho said and took the phone. "Look, Mai, another thing. I think there's an evil clone Natsuki who like magically spies on people or something. I could feel her watching us when they called and told young Mikoto she had to die. Also...look, this sounds insane, but she said King Arthur and Joan of Arc had teamed up, possibly with someone named 'Rider'. Whatever the hell that means," Older-Shiho said, sounding weary and angry at once. "You have to find them and MAKE THEM PAY, Mai. Or when I die, my ghost is going to haunt you forever."

"I will. I will," Mai said, utterly emotionally exhausted.

"Mai, I...look, when I was younger, I was a hideous brat. I admired you and I hated you at the same time," Older-Shiho said. "Be patient with my younger self. She has a good heart but she's got a temper and a lot of anger and fear. She's afraid she'll lose Yuuichi to you and be alone forever. She thinks everyone hates her and loves you."

"I never hated her, ever. No one hates her," Mai said fervently. "She's a good kid, we just...I just..."

"You have to make her know how you feel. Everything," Older-Shiho said. "Don't make our mistakes. We fucked around and nearly lost everything. Don't hide your feelings. Be honest. I...you know I'm having sex with your future self, right?"

Mai now turned beet red. "I...um...wasn't sure how it all...worked..."

Older-Mai winced. "Shiho..."

"We make love, slow and tender or ferocious like wildfires. Depending on which one of us starts it. And you still turn red if I talk about it, hehe," Older-Shiho giggled a moment, then turned serious. "Good luck, Mai. Win one for Mikoto." She kissed the phone. "Win one for all of us." She held the phone up to Brigit's head. "Say something, Brigit." Brigit made incoherent noises and could sometimes vaguely communicate, but she had yet to hit a syllable properly, let alone a word.

"MA," she said loudly now. "MA."

Tears consumed Mai, but she managed to say, "Gods bless you, Brigit," then hung up before she could cry any more.

Brigit now said 'MA' to all her adults, making them smile through their sadness and they soon lost themselves in excitedness over that, so they wouldn't have to go mad, worrying. (Yuuichi would never publicly admit he was disappointed she couldn't say 'PA'.)

Rin kneeled uncomfortably with Archer, watching everyone else trying to comfort Mai and Taiga-sensei and feeling kind of alone.

"Pray with me," Archer said softly, and Rin did so, not sure what she was praying to, so she decided to pray to her father. Hopefully he was out there, waiting to be reborn.

Papa, I love you, she thought softly. I wish you were here.

Rain poured down on the apartment complex where Umino Gurio lived with his parents, who were now fast asleep. They trusted Umino's girlfriend on sight and thus had set up a guest room for her that they would never even think to check to see if she used it. Of course she would. So she rumpled the sheets enough to fake it and went to Umino's room and they had long since gotten down to business.

The second time with Umino was somewhat better. It helped rather a lot that Nao could foresee the consequences of his every move and how best to get him to act to give her the most pleasure. He just had to learn how to do everything right. Fortunately, Umino was the sort of person who likes to learn, so it was easy to teach him.

She laid spent and reasonably happy, lost in hormonal bliss. Unfortunately, the gem kept offering her a lot of unhappy future flashes, all of which were variations of the basic theme of several Masters coming after Assassin at once, sometimes with the subtheme of using Umino as a hostage or blowing his head off or stealing his heart. None of which Nao liked AT ALL. Umino was a geeky dork, but he was a decent guy and a lot of these scenarios basically involved someone about to kill her and Umino dying IN HER PLACE because he felt it was his duty to protect his girlfriend with his life.

He would die for her, though he barely knew her. And it made her feel deeply guilty. He was stupidly noble.

Lightning flashed in the window, illuminating her naked body as she sat up next to him, the cool night air caressing her skin. She rather enjoyed that. She stroked his stomach idly as the thunder roared.

She could leave. That would protect him. Maybe. But in some of the futures, he ended up a hostage anyway. Her mana came from him, tracing it could lead to him.

It was too late for him to escape being tied to her destiny or fate.

He wasn't like all those freaks she'd always exploited, the kind of men who needed to be punished. He was a lot like she was, before her family had been destroyed and she'd seen the truth of how ugly the world was and suddenly she didn't want that innocence to be destroyed and hated herself for using him.

But if she told him the truth, it would only go bad too, at least for now and none of those futures appealed and they largely all ended with dead Nao. Or dead Umino. Or both.

Seeing the future SUCKED. No wonder Urawa didn't fight being turned into a monster; he knew I was coming and couldn't see a better path. He probably went to the bathroom so as to ensure his girlfriend couldn't get hurt by me.

But she needed this power or she was DEAD. Dead in the water.

There was another flash of lightning; if anyone had been looking, they would have seen her hand idly tracing the lines of his torso; they weren't very distinct; he was neither very stocky nor very muscular.

Further, the futures she saw seemed to indicate that everyone else was teaming up. How this worked with the one master, one servant standing thing she wasn't sure, but it was clear. Her only hope... his only hope... was to team up.

Trust did not come easily to Nao.

But it came easier than suicide.

Rain was pouring down on Fuyuki City and a chill wind had blown into town. The weathermen were stunned by this sudden, epic storm.

"I was afraid I'd lose you," Naru said, laying in bed with Nephrite, holding him close.

"I was afraid it might be the end," he said. "But I knew you would not fail me."

She smiled brightly at that. "I still think we should have awakened Ami's memories."

"If we could have," Nephrite said. "I expect, given enough time I could, but it was not my area of expertise."

"We need all the muscle we can get," Naru said. "Also, we need another boy so you don't ever have to go solo again."

Nephrite said, "We need Endymion. Whether the Princess wants to risk it or not."

"Tomorrow," Naru said, yawning. "We can deal with that...tomorrow."

She drifted off to sleep and he began working on horoscopes.

"Endymion, my love," Serenity said, kissing him softly, then turned and kissed her beloved handmaiden, Modesty. "Modesty, my dearest heart. I am so fortunate to be blessed with two such loves."

"Serenity, this is but a dream," Endymion said seriously, though he smiled a small smile. "I have to tell you something."

"What is it, Prince?" Modesty asked nervously.

"This is but a dream and I am dead again," he said seriously, his face calm. "I had to die so that Arturia and Rei would survive. So that they could gather the army we are going to need when all hell breaks loose."

She felt a knife in her heart. "What?"

"Modesty. You must protect Serenity and guard her heart. Give her all the love you can. She will need you to be her strong right hand."

"I'm not very strong, Prince Endymion," Modesty said. "But how can you be..."

"This is a dream of what could have been and now was," Prince Endymion said. "We are part of your legend now and you are part of ours. Only you and I have ever united with the Princess to craft something new."

"You can't be dead, NOT AGAIN," Serenity said desperately.

"It is the role of the true King to give his life that others might live and grow strong," Prince Endymion said. "But I will return to you when the spring comes once more. For we are the King and Queen of the New Spring. But now, winter comes upon Fuyuki City."

"But it's only September," Serenity said.

"This will be a September to remember." He kissed each of them. "Sink deep roots and hold on; the spring will come soon, my loves."

Modesty turned beet red, while Serenity said sadly, "Does it always have to be like this?"

"There is something else I must tell you," he said, staring at the ground.

Serenity's stomach curdled.

"Our future daughter who now will never exist as she does now has come back to the present to win the Grail War and change history to match her memories," Prince Endymion said uncomfortably. "Her name is Alyssa. Princess Alyssa, Small Lady of Serenity is the formal address, I think."

"Ok..."

"She must be defeated or Modesty and Nephrite will both be wiped out of existence," Prince Endymion said.

"Ok..."

"Along with all of Modesty's friends," Prince Endymion said. "Her artificial servant, Miyu, slew me."

"She slew her own father?" Serenity said in horror.

Cease to exist..., Modesty thought, staring at the floor.

"She is a desperate, angry, lonely, lost, desperate child. But if she tries to remake the world in her own image, it will be the final straw and this world will shatter and fall into the void. It will be too much and there is too much she does not know. I do not know how you can save her, if you can save her, but you must stop her. Please be gentle, my love. If anyone can save her, it is you," Prince Endymion said, kissing Serenity one more time. "Now, let us make merry, for in the morning, I must go and you must go on without me. But for now, let us remember why we go on."

Serenity remembered, but did not know if it would be enough.

Saber banged on the gates of time in a frenzy. "BY THE LIVER OF GOD, OPEN UP!"

But they did not answer to her.

"If it was that easy, I wouldn't be trapped her," a tall woman with dusky skin and lustrous green hair said as she leaned on her ornate staff. "Hello, Arturia, Rei, Shiho, Yumeni." Liver of God?, she wondered.

Yumeni stared at everything, fascinated as distant energys coruscated and they floated in endless nothingness. This would make a GREAT painting. She started sketching.

Shiho stared in utter confusion.

Rei said, "Are you one of the Sailor Senshi?" to the woman.

"I am Sailor Pluto." She tossed a transformation pen to Rei. "I have seen you don't need this so much, but it may aid you anyway."

"Pluto? Are there Senshi for the outer planets?"

Arturia continued to scream and curse the gates and hammer at them with her fists and even to hack at them with twin Excaliburs.

"Yes. If I am lucky, Uranus and Neptune have awakened to deal with the rise of Master Pharoah 90. If I am not, the world is doomed." She sighed. And Grandfather will chew me out for having to clean up my mess. Assuming he can.

"I haven't seen any evidence any senshi but me has awakened," Rei said. "I think Usagi turned back time or something after the war with Beryl."

"Yes, she did," Sailor Pluto said. "Unfortunately, that also sealed me in here, and I was unable to guide events and I think everything is going horribly wrong. Small Lady is probably dead or worse, in the hands of Tomoe."

Arturia spun. "What do you mean 'worse, in the hands of Tomoe?" She felt as if the entire universe was suddenly made of glass.

Rei stared, feeling her heart sink.

"Arbiter Tomoe? As in the Referee of the Holy Grail War?" Shiho asked.

"The what?" Sailor Pluto asked, baffled. She thought she'd managed to punch through a warning and an awakening to Uranus and Neptune, but...things must be more different than I realized. Her brain now kicked in. Why were Arturia, Queen of the Britons, Hino Rei, Munakata Shiho, and Yumeno Yumeni doing HERE together? Also, Munakata Shiho was six years too young. Unless she'd misread the year...but Rei and Yumeni were both right.

Arturia was RIGHT OUT. She wasn't native to 2010! At her current biological age, she ought to be in 510 AD, just being crowned! Except she seemed to be decades older in terms of experience and...

Arturia forced herself calm. "I am Arturia, Queen of the Britons, but I am a Heroic Spirit, not Arturia in her original flesh. I was summoned by Chiba Mamoru, also known as Prince Endymion or Tuxedo Kamen, in order to fight in the Holy Grail War. Whoever defeats the other Servants and Masters obtains the right to three wishes from the Grail. The Mages' Association chose Professor Tomoe to arbitrate the Grail War this time. He has a daughter named Hotaru and a mistress named Kaolinite, which seems an odd name to me, but she's clearly no more Japanese than I am."

Rei could see in Sailor Pluto what too often she saw in herself; a calm front over inner chaos and panic.

"I am Munakata Shiho, a Miko from Fuuka City," Shiho said. "I was a Master in the Fuuka Grail War, but I think I lost and now I am a heroic spirit. Except that no one but us remembers the Grail War we fought in, it seems like, as it was only six years ago, but they say the last one was in 2000. Rei is my Master, but I think of her like a big sister." She was eerily calm.

Yumeno Yumeni half-listened but mostly was still staring in awe at everything.

"I served Prince Endymion but now he has died to save me and for some reason, he thought you could help us," Arturia said, her voice wobbling just a tiny bit as she stood very stiffly and fought the urge to rage again. "But it would seem he died for nothing, as you seem useless." Her voice was cold and bitter.

"Endymion...was he dark haired and handsome, a little pale and tall?" Yumeni asked Arturia.

"Yes," Arturia said. "He was noble and just and generous and kind and..." She gave a single shudder. "He would have been the greatest knight of our age, even if his combat skills needed some work. I certainly would rather have had him than Galahad." Her voice was flat but somehow conveyed immense disappointment.

"Wasn't Galahad like the perfect knight who found the Grail?" Yumeni asked, pushing her glasses up her nose.

"The perfect arrogant self-righteous brat," Arturia said, then stared at the...there was no ground, but it felt like she was standing on something. "When he arrived, the Quest for the Holy Grail began and it destroyed my court. I lost half the Round Table, one way or another. Most of the best never returned, many of the acceptable died and it was the worst who most easily survived it, but now worse than before they left. And he may have found the Grail, but the land was not healed and he never returned." Arturia's voice was weary, utterly tired. "I should have listened to Kay; he told us we were insane, and he refused to go. They mocked him and I said nothing, but he did his duty while we ran about like headless chickens. And like chickens, we were harvested. I said nothing BECAUSE I WAS AN IDIOT."

"I'm sorry for asking," Yumeni mumbled, staring at the ground.

"Tell me everything about this Grail War," Pluto said. "And then we can figure out what we can do about it."

She hoped.

"This rain isn't natural," Yukino said to Natsuki as Natsuki watched late night cable; they were on guard duty while Haruka and Michiru slept.

They were in Michiru's apartment now, since Haruka's had been pretty much trashed by the fight and they'd had to run before the police got there.

"I kind of noticed that the second Berserker died, the weather started to turn ugly. Was it some kind of death curse?" Natsuki asked. She felt extremely guilty. She couldn't get out of this mess except by victory, but she didn't like that at all. It felt terrible. It was wrong.

But Mikoto would have killed them, if the situation was reversed. She knew that. She could fight Mikoto if she had to. But her dying like that...the hostages...

Yukino was silent and grim now, staring at the mirrors again. One of them was still watching Older-Haruka and Older-Yukino. Natsuki grimaced at that.

How can they sleep with this, Natsuki thought. She had a really bad feeling about this.

She couldn't see the tears on either of them's faces as they slept in the bedroom after frenzied lovemaking that had failed to erase their memories of what happened a few hours earlier.

Akbar transformed into a pig as Eudial stared in shock. Kaolinite scooped up his crystal ball. "Silly boy, you would have been consumed by this in the end." She turned to Eudial. "Hello, Professor Eudial."

"My name is..." Eudial began.

"Ruby, I know," Kaolinite said. "You have two choices. You can serve my Master as a human or as a pet cat for Hotaru. Which do you prefer?"

Eudial was new to the supervillainy business; Akbar had transformed her, given her power, and removed the inhibitions which had always held her back. But he was so petty, wishing cosmic power in order to make more money with his businesses. She'd always dreamed of glory, of being famous and powerful. She wanted more than just money.

But she also wanted to survive. "I accept your deal. Who is my Master now?"

"Come with me," Kaolinite said. "You will know power you can hardly imagine."

"I can imagine a lot," Eudial confessed.

"Good. That will help," Kaolinite said, then took her hand and they both vanished.

Movement woke up Makoto, who was sleeping on the couch again with a blanket over her. She hesitantly stuck her head into Motoki's bedroom, with a feeling she was doing something naughty. Cold air took her in the face.

He was trying to get the window open enough to climb out; wind and rain were blowing in, soaking his stomach region. Lighting flashed, silhouetting Motoki.

As the thunder hit, she reached him, pulling him back and closing the window. "Wake up! Are you sleep walking?" she demanded.

"She was here," he said. "Outside my window."

"We're on the eighth story. I'm pretty sure she doesn't fly." Unless she's an angel now, Makoto thought, then winced.

"It was her. Her hair was kind of weird and she was wearing a weird outfit and her skin was kind of oddly greenish, but it was her!" Motoki insisted, trying to break free.

She manhandled him to the bed, then got him out dry clothing. "Put this on. If you try to climb out the EIGHTH STORY WINDOW again, I will tie you to your bed," she said firmly, though she ached to see him like this. He had to be imagining things.

Unless...Reika was one of the Seven Shadows. Maybe she'd survived in monster form or...

I never did call that girl I met...with the fire powers...who I fought Gesen with. Someone...oh god, did someone kill all those people just to get Reika without anyone being able to stop them?

She couldn't leave Motoki alone, not now. He'd do something insane. But if someone's out there, if she's out there...

Once Motoki went to bed again, she sat by his window, watching, for as long as she could, until sleep took her.

"I believe that with the two Lesser Miracles, you can open the gates twice to leave this place and that with the two Excaliburs, you can cut your way to the gates if you can afford the mana. I can see you are running low. You will need to contract with a new Master," Pluto said crisply.

"Then I will open the way back to the war and I can find a new Master," Saber said.

"But if you return with just the four of you, you all will die. I can see it," Pluto said flatly.

"I cannot simply sit here until everything resolves itself without me! I will not waste the sacrifice which Endymion made!" Saber said angrily.

"No, wait, Saber," Rei said. "Look, I..."

"I know," Saber said softly. "He loved you once, and he was willing to die for you. I will protect you as best I am able. I owe him that."

"We should ally together. Couldn't I be your Master too?" Rei asked. "I know how to transfer spiritual energy and we can draw more from the Sacred Flame."

Of course, Saber thought. Even in this, he provided for me. I am gratified and shamed at once.

She knelt, finally sheathing one of her twin blades and holding the other before her, point to the ground, like a cross. "Place your hand on my blade," she said.

Rei did so.

"I, Arturia Pendragon, King of the Britons and daughter of Uther Pendragon and Duchess Igraine of Cornwall, do pledge myself to serve you as your Servant in the Holy Grail War, unto victory or death."

"I, Hino Rei, Sailor Mars, Princess of Mars, do pledge myself to serve you as your Master in the Holy Grail War, unto the victory and salvation of the world," Rei said.

"To you, I give..."

"Keep them," Rei said softly.

"But..."

"Mamoru wanted you to have them," Rei said. "And you will need them. Both of them." She gently stroked Saber's brow and her hand glowed with flame and she drew a dragon of flame upon Saber's brow and Saber felt a huge surge of energy, and then Rei sagged a moment. "But first, we must rest. Here, we are outside time and we must all be in top shape."

She turned to Yumeni. "I need you to meditate. You must reach down where you find your muse and ask her what to draw and then you must draw a scene. That is where we must go when we first open the gates."

"Just...whatever comes to mind?" Yumeni asked.

Rei tapped Yumeni's heart once and a tiny bird of flame appeared, then somehow sank down inside her. "Yes. This bird will guide your soul."

Pluto's eyes widened. Impressive. Should Rei be able to do that yet?

But history was so out of whack...

"And I, big sister?" Shiho asked. "How can I help?"

"You're from the future, right?" Rei asked softly.

"Yes...no...I don't know but I think I am but it makes no sense! If I'm anything, I'm from the past." Shiho crinkled her face and stared at the 'floor'. Distantly, purple and green lights exploded because that's what they do, explode. It's a living.

"Yumeni for the past, I for the present, you for the future. We are the three muses who must find the way which Saber will open for us. Yumeni will guide our first trip. You must guide our second. Sit and pray for Amaterasu's guidance."

"I lost her raven," Shiho said softly, hanging her head. "She can't be happy with me, big sister."

"I am happy with you. You have served me well," Rei said, kissing her forehead. "Pray, and Amaterasu will guide you."

Shiho 'sat' down and began to pray. Saber remained kneeling, praying herself.

"And you, Sailor Mars?" Sailor Pluto asked softly, leaning on her staff.

"Tell me again about Alyssa," Rei said softly.

"She is the daughter of Endymion and Queen Serenity in the future. The Snow Queen freezes the world over and everyone sleeps until it is time for you to awaken and then you defeat her and institute a new millennium of peace, magic, romance, and prosperity. Almost immediately, Queen Serenity bears a child, Alyssa, the Small Lady of Serenity, who will one day rule as Serenity II. Unfortunately, the unfreezing of the world also freed a mysterious figure known as the Wiseman. He leads an attempt to conquer the world by his cult, the Black Moon Family. They nearly succeed, but Small Lady escapes back to your time with my help. She joins forces with the Sailors, Wiseman sends agents to defeat you and you eventually return to Crystal Tokyo with Small Lady and defeat him and the Black Moon Family and Small Lady's powers as the junior Sailor Moon emerge. Serenity then fobs her off on her younger self for as long as she can get away with, and a series of crises ensue which prepare you all to eventually rule the Earth and Small Lady to one day succeed her mother, having learned true love and friendship," Sailor Pluto said wistfully. "The Messiah Crisis, the attack of the Deathbusters, should be in full swing right now but it's clear that history has gone haywire, the future I worked for has been destroyed and everything may end in apocalypse." She sounded sad, but not sad enough to Rei.

"How can you be so calm?" Rei demanded angrily.

"Oh, for my family, this is what we call 'the situation around lunch time'," Sailor Pluto said. "You get used to it."

"Um..."

Ami couldn't sleep. She could feel the rain. She'd been able to do this for about two years; she could sense water and predict the weather.

This weather was NOT natural. It was wrong and it offended her.

She'd had a fight with Ryo. He couldn't or wouldn't explain what exactly happened, other than mumbling about someone attacking him and what had he been doing with those other girls, anyway?

She hated when he got like this, hated her own tendency to panic and assume the worst. So often, when she was in trouble, he would suddenly know exactly what to say or do to fix the problem or it would turn out he anticipated it somehow and was already dealing with it. But she couldn't, even with her giant brain, do that as well as he did and it frustrated her.

I'll apologize tomorrow, she told herself. First thing in the morning. He was only two blocks away. She could get up early, show up with food...Ryo and his father loved her cooking. Ami was used to cooking for herself anyway, and somehow when she cooked for Ryo and Urawa-san, it became even better.

Their parents had a date next weekend. Ami and Ryo had been nudging them for a while; both were divorced and married to their jobs. But they needed more than that. Ami just prayed it worked out. Or ended quickly and cleanly if not. But best it work.

This weather wasn't natural and she didn't like it at all.

It was wrong and it didn't like her or her boyfriend or her parents (even if her father was far away in Tokyo, hopefully not being rained on) or Ryo's (though his mother was teaching math at Fuuka Academy in Hokkaido).

There had been something oddly familiar about the redhead and the blonde girl...not just that she'd seen them during Ryo's freakout yesterday...

Was he...

No. TRUST HIM, Ami told herself.

Then she realized something was climbing up the wall of her house. In this weather, at 2 AM.

The result was that she nearly took off Ryo's head with a chair when he came in the window. Then she felt aggravated with herself for not even thinking to LOCK THE WINDOW.

He dripped and shivered. "I had to see you," he said, sounding exhausted.

"Heavens to Kepler, you're dripping wet! Go dry off before you die!" Ami said, then dropped the chair and closed the window.

She wouldn't let him speak until he was dry, though she had to dress him up in a sheet and some towels while she put his clothing in the drier. While it dried, she said to him, "You could have come in the morning...but I'm sorry. Just...what is going on, Ryo?"

"We have to go see Usagi in the morning. It will sound insane if I try to tell you now," Ryo said. "I just...I'm sorry. It's all my fault for being an idiot and you were just...you had the right to get angry. I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too," she said. It was kind of romantic that he'd gone so far to come see her. "You can sleep here. Mother probably won't notice I'm here unless we bother her. She's at the hospital right now, anyway." Stupid long shifts. They'd convinced Ami that if she was a doctor, she couldn't do hospital work. Not and have anything resembling a real family.

They'd never had sex or slept in the same bed; both of them were shy and nervous about being caught and Ami was keenly aware of teen pregnancy issues. Ami was practical and didn't want to take any risks, though suddenly she wondered what it would be like to sleep with Ryo. No one would ever know but them.

She turned red. But she didn't actually have any condoms because they never...

He kissed her firmly and she turned more red and he said, "Thanks, Ami. Your guest rooms have really comfy beds."

He's probably too cold to even think about it, she thought.

Ryo was busy cursing his lack of boldness; the perfect chance, but since he hadn't foreseen success or her even saying yes, he was afraid to even ask.

This was also among the reasons they'd never actually done it.

Soon, they were both asleep, feeling better.

"I'm sorry," Motoki said. "I should have just..." He sighed. "Shouldn't Mamoru be here by now?"

"I'll call him again," Makoto said, getting up from breakfast, which they'd broken down and started eating without Mamoru and Joan.

He still didn't answer and now she was getting very worried and still didn't know what to do.

"The future is being clouded by the storm," Nephrite told Usagi, Naru, Akane, and Naru's mother in the morning.

"And it's only around 8 centigrade," Naru's mother said. "Dress warmly." She ate some of her rice looking worried. This was a good sixteen degrees colder than usual. This was November or December weather. Or January.

"We will, Mom," Naru said, feeling bad for her.

They all had long raincoats ready. And umbrellas.

"Let's double check your wards at your shop when you go to work, Mother, just in case," Naru said.

"Good idea," Nephrite said.

"You know, I wonder where Luna and Artemis are, anyway," Usagi said.

"GET ME FISH NOW or the curse will SMITE YOU," Artemis said to the unfortunate Kosaka Junpei, who had damaged a cat god shrine and now had to help a hundred cats or be cursed to turn into one.

Or so Junpei thought. Actually, Artemis was just fucking with him because he was lazy and bored and needed someone to leech off.

Also, it helped him practice his disguise skills.

And live the EASY life.

Luna, in human form, made a bunch of noises that sounded suspiciously sexual to her; actually, she and Yoruichi were simply relaxing in a hot spring together after dealing with some rampaging ghosts. Then she whispered, "Why are we doing this?"

Yoruichi interrupted her groaning. "My old friend Soi Fon is in the other room, trying to work up the will to peep on us."

Luna's eyes crossed. Yoruichi was mostly a good person to work with but her taste for practical jokes was not to Luna's tastes.

"AAAAAAAAAA!"

Especially when it meant setting off the high strung DEATH NINJA Soi Fon.

"LUNA DIVE!" Luna shouted, diving to the bottom as the riot started.

She'd gotten good at holding her breath.

Mai gestured and rain came down, followed by snow, followed by carrots. "Holy cow."

"The Red Gem can be used to create things from nothing, though they won't last long and you're limited to solid and liquid. However, I think that should greatly aid your arsenal, Caster," Rin said to Mai.

Mai was still feeling mopey but she was determined to do better. She had to. And fully understanding her powers was part of this.

Shirou sighed and began cleaning up the mess.

"We can go by my house. As Caster, you should be able to use grimoires to cast spells. I'm kind of surprised you qualified with just mainly fire."

"And a dragon," Archer said.

"A fire-blaster who rode a dragon would be an awesome Rider," Rin said. She looked around. "Is Taiga-
sensei still in the dojo?"

Rain pounded down on the roof; they all needed rest and wanted to wait for the cover of night to go hunting Lancer. Taiga-sensei had vanished after breakfast, though, having called everyone in sick at school.

"I'll go check on her," Shirou said. He disposed of the mess and headed out to the dojo, connected to the main house by a covered walkway, thankfully, though he still had to put a jacket on and was glad he usually wore pants. Nice, warm pants.

Taiga-sensei was doing katas with a wooden sword, over and over, her movements precise and strong, her face grim. She'd put on her full kendo regalia for this.

Shirou went and got a sword and faced off with her. She hardly even seemed to notice, but he bowed and she bowed and then they went at it.

Shirou's form and stance were good but he didn't have a lot of force behind his blows, whereas her blows were stronger than ever before.

KIYAH! Blow to his left side.

KIYAH! Blow to his right upper arm.

KIYAH! Blow to his left wrist.

Victory, Taiga-chan.

"You have to put some spirit into it," she said dully.

"Fuji-nee, what's wrong?" he asked softly.

"Our city's getting torn apart, Lancer is still out there killing people, and I feel like terrible things are happening. And when they happen, I feel them." She stared at the ground. "No wonder Yoda went and hid on Dagobah."

Shirou came over and put a hand on her shoulder. "Yes, but we have a good, strong team and we..." He sighed. "Poor Shinji. He was a good friend, but Father taught me, if you get involved in the affairs of mages, bad things can happen. I wish..."

"I wish it hadn't been him too," Taiga-sensei said. "At least we don't have to fight Sakura too."

"Well, she's not a Master, thankfully."

Haruka and Michiru quietly ate breakfast, discussing their plans. It was continuing to storm outside, and the TV announced that all the schools were closing today. If trends continued, it would be snowing by sunset. SNOWING. In September.

"What is this?" Natsuki asked, frowning.

"This is the end of the world coming," Michiru said. "The closer we get to doom, the worse the weather will get."

"It gets worse than this?"

"Much worse."

"A Master, a...I think it's a Servant, and two Gem Demons are now 100 meters from us and approaching," Yukino said. "The Master and the Servant each possess one of the Rainbow Crystals and the Demons are bound to the gems. The Servant is moving from SW, the Master and the Demons from the NE. At their current trajectory, the Master will reach the Holiday Apartments across the street from us, while the Servant will hit this building around its SW corner."

"So the master draws our fire, then the Servant launches a surprise attack," Haruka said. "Everyone bundle up, let's go ambush the Servant in the street if we can; I'd rather we not get Michiru's neighbors shot up and end up homeless."

The howling rain and winds made them all miserable but also made it easy for them to hide. However, ironically, False-Saber might well have snuck right past them without seeing them if not for Yukino, who was able to see her thanks to her powers. She fed each of them corrected vision, enabling them to see False-Saber in stealth mode.

"FIRE SILVER CARTRIDGE!" The opening shot blew False-Saber off her feet and then a blast from Haruka tore the ground open and a blast of water from Michiru knocked False-Saber into it.

False-Saber, however, was not easily hurt and now proceeded to open fire with a machinegun arm, sending them all scattering. Her shots tore up the buildings around her, which now began to collapse at those corners, and they had to dodge falling rubble, though so did she. It was only a partial collapse but Natsuki now realized False-Saber had absolutely zero concern for human life. A lot of people were at work, but she knew there had to be at minimum, some people badly hurt and likely some dead.

Natsuki was utterly sick of this. Sick of people being hurt, sick of people dying, sick of people who were FUCKING CASUAL about it.

Unfortunately, False-Saber bounced around like a jumping bean and was virtually impossible to hit. At the same time, though her shots were incredibly deadly, they also could be dodged and she hadn't found where Yukino was hiding.

Yet.

Naru answered the door; it was Urawa Ryo and Ami. "Hi, Mizuno-san, Urawa-san," she said. "Come in."

She then remembered that Nephrite was right here, drinking coffee.

Too late.

"Tsukino-san, Osaka-san, Osaka-san, Sanjouin-san, Higurashi-san, good morning," Ryo said, bowing to them all.

"Umm, hello," Ami said nervously, not sure what was going on, though they all looked oddly familiar.

"I am Urawa Ryo, but I think you all already know that," Ryo said.

Naru's mother frowned. "I've seen you in my nightmares," she said, then looked embarrassed. "I mean..."

Ryo introduced everyone to Ami, then said, "You have to restore Ami's memories. I remember everything now."

"But...she's free now," Usagi said weakly.

"If she remembered the past, she wouldn't want to be free if you're not," he said seriously.

Ami said, "Ryo, is this some kind of joke?"

"Usagi, we need her help. And the others too," Naru said urgently.

"Ami, are you happy with your life?" Usagi asked.

"I'm very happy, even if I didn't get to go to the exchange program in Germany last year," Ami said. "Due to the Hogan's Heroes Riots."

"The what?" Usagi asked in confusion.

"They tried to show some old show in Germany, there were riots and chaos and the ministry fell and the new one slashed funding to the exchange program," Ami said. "It was all very strange."

"My goodness," Naru's mother said.

"I can't take that away from her," Usagi said.

"Tsukino-san, if you don't, people will die. You need all the help you can get or Black Lady will destroy us all."

"Who?" Usagi asked.

"She's your evil daughter and she's going to destroy the world! Also, she dresses like a skank," Ryo said.

"You mean...the Small Lady of Serenity?" Akane asked nervously.

"You dreamed that too?" Usagi said to Akane, amazed.

"Well, she looked to be maybe 170 centimeters tall, with like big breasts and not a lot of clothing, all of it black and God, Ami would look hot in that outfit," Ryo said, gesturing in front of himself as if he was cupping said breasts on his own body.

There was a deep and terrible silence.

Ryo tried to put his head in the oven and turn it on at the same time. "AAAAAAA!"

If it's for someone with big breasts, I'm out of luck, Ami thought. She was unlikely to get any bustier and she'd stopped at a b-cup. But he wants to see me like that anyway. She smiled and turned beet red and ran and put her head in the fridge.

"You two have weird parents, don't you," Naru's mother said, dragging them out of the appliances.

"She's my daughter, but her breasts are bigger than mine?" Usagi said. She had stopped at c-cup like her mother, but now Naru was bigger than her...in fact, said woman was probably built about how Naru was now.

Which she wasn't jealous of at all.

"Yes," Ryo said, then blushed more. "I mean, she's this crazy blonde woman who is pretty clearly rather horny, skanky, and evil." And so totally hot and I wish Ami was built like that, in which case I would follow her anywhere even if she was evil, I may have to kill myself now.

After a few more rounds of this, Nephrite and Naru's mother sat down together, blocking all access to the refrigerator and the oven.

Haruka decided it was best to cut their losses and run. They could spy on these two and plan their own better ambush later. Soon, the Master would arrive and things would get ugly. "Natsuki! Evacuate!"

Dhuran and Diana took to the air, carrying them all away; they could see the Master as they fled; she was a girl, around thirteen years old, just starting to show the signs of womanhood, a beautiful blonde with very long spikey hair. Her clothing didn't fit her well, clearly designed for someone rather younger.

"You'd think a master could get clothing for her own size," Michiru said.

"She looked like a kid in the visions, but that's her, the one who will destroy the world," Haruka said, frowning.

"Why are we running, then?" Natsuki asked.

"We will fight on a ground of our choosing," Haruka said. "Also, we were being tied by JUST the Servant. Fuck, she's strong and fast and tough. I couldn't get a good hit on her."

"She has a gem, so likely it cancelled the benefits of yours," Yukino said. "I will keep tabs on them."

"Where to now?" Natsuki asked, hoping she could get dry there.

"Time to find something abandoned but dry so we don't lose any innocents if they find us," Haruka said, sighing. "Hobo time."

"Hello, Umino-san," Naru said to him. "Shouldn't you be at school?"

"It's cancelled," he said. "And my new girlfriend said we had to come talk to you all." He seemed rather curious.

Juliet bowed to everyone. "Hello, I'm Juliet Zhang, or as you would say here, Zhang Juliet."

She looked like a nice girl to Naru, who was surprised but pleased to see her old school friend had found himself a nice girlfriend.

"I hate to be rude, but..." Naru began.

"This is about the Grail War," Juliet Zhang said.

"Hello, Assassin," Ryo said.

This was NOT how Juliet had foreseen it. URRGH.

Nephrite suddenly had a sword, Usagi a wand, Naru's mother a frying pan, Akane her tonfas, and Naru a chair. Ami said, "Ryo...I think this is enough joking for one day."

"What?" Umino said.

Juliet held her hands up in the air. "I'm not here to attack you. I'm here to apologize for attacking Urawa-san and to join you!"

"The world is going to fu...going to end in fire and death and all that bad stuff and I kind of like the Earth," Juliet said quickly. "I'm like totally sorry, but I was desperate to not get killed. My mother is in the hospital and I'm the only family she has left to take care of her," she said piteously. "And now I'm stuck in this war and I was told it was kill or be killed but now I can see that if I do that, we'll all end up dead, so please forgive me and let us join your team." She bowed deeply.

She prayed that however Ryo's presence was fucking up her predictions...or whatever was...that this speech would work.

Usagi dismissed her wand, came over and took her hands compassionately. "That's terrible, Juliet. I hope she's okay in this storm."

"She's in the future and I can't go back until the war is over," Juliet said desperately. Good, she is an easy touch.

She could see Naru looking at her with open distrust. She's the smart one, I see, Juliet thought. Nephrite didn't trust her either.

"She cannot be trusted," Nephrite said.

She didn't need the gem to have seen that coming.

"Don't worry, we'll make sure you're okay," Usagi said.

"Usagi, are you sure this is a good idea? She tried to kill Nephrite!" Naru said angrily.

"I don't understand at all," Umino said.

Juliet crooked a finger at him and then hugged him even as Usagi held one of her hands. "I'm a magical girl and your love makes me strong, Gurio-kun. Literally."

Naru grimaced. Great, she's totally using Umino to get mana. Bitch.

He turned beet red.

"What is going on here?" Ami demanded.

"Okay, let me explain," Usagi said.

She had to go over it all twice, plus answer Umino's MANY questions.

"The police say we can't file a missing person report until he's gone for 24 hours," Makoto said, sinking down next to Motoki on the couch, frustrated.

"I think we'll take the day off," Motoki said. "I don't want to work and it's too miserable to even leave this apartment."

Makoto leaned on him and they put a comforting arm around each other. She didn't mind this, even though...but he needed her. And she didn't know where Usagi was, anyway.

"They're following us," Yukino reported to Haruka as they flew through the rain.

"Shit," Haruka said. "How?"

"I have no idea," Yukino confessed. "Maybe they can sense your gem? It can't be satellites and I think I'd detect any magical sensors in our area."

"Why not satellites?" Natsuki asked.

Yukino pointed at the clouds as the storm howled.

"Head for Tomoe's. We should speak to him anyway," Haruka said. "They launched a very blatant attack on us during the day in a crowded area. Assuming the rules to this are actually enforced, that may bring down some wrath on them. And if not, at least they can't attack us in his headquarters."

Natsuki nodded and changed course.

Shingo wiggled his fingers and finished chanting. A floating creature which suspiciously resembled a beagle with wings and a slightly more human build now floated in the air before them, translucently. "Sniff out the nearest master and report back!"

"WOOF!" It vanished.

"Can it actually TELL us where it found said master?" Akira asked.

"Well...the book seems to say so...it showed up, right?" Shingo said nervously.

While Akira would make a vastly better scout, Akira had to get pretty close to sense masters and the city was too big for her to search inch by inch.

"Now we hang out and play video games and wait," Shingo said.

Akira could go for that.

Yumeno Yumeni finished her sketch; it showed an extremely beautiful woman with long black hair, atop which sat a very long blue hat with a trailing blue veil. She wore an extremely elaborate multi-layer dress which seemed ill-suited for the job of commanding earth and water elementals to...put a large rock with an anvil on it into the water of a river. The anvil had a sword thrust into it, with an ivory hilt and latin writing on the blade in red, too small to be seen even on the large sketchpad.

"Dame Brisen, one of the Ladies of the Lake and sister to King Pellam of Carbonek," Arturia said. "I didn't know she..." Arturia frowned very deeply. "Is this..."

"Yumeno Yumeni has the power to see past events and people, though sometimes her art is symbolic rather than real," Rei said.

"I do?" Yumeni said.

Rei and Pluto both looked at her.

"We told you that before," Rei said. "It's why they were after you, to steal the Gem of Power inside you from which you get the power."

"Right," Yumeni mumbled. "I just thought I was creative."

"You are, you're a wonderful artist," Shiho said, trying to be comforting.

Rei smiled a little at that.

"Pluto, do you know aught of this?" Arturia demanded angrily.

"This specific event, no. This is what I do know. Sir Balin, brother of Sir Balan, a poor knight of the North, once carried two swords, one white bladed and one black. The black blade came to him from his mother; he obtained the white blade when a maiden showed up at court and challenged everyone, saying only the best of knights could draw it; Sir Balin asked the first draw and drew it, but then refused to give it back when the maiden asked for it," Pluto said.

"I know that, I was there," Arturia said impatiently.

"Yes, but they were not," Pluto said gently, gesturing to Rei, Yumeni, and Shiho.

"Continue."

"The maiden asked for it back and he refused, saying he would only yield it up by force," Pluto continued.

"Wait, he was the best of knights and yet he refused to give it back when she hadn't said he could keep it?" Shiho asked, confused.

"I incline to suspect that, in fact, she wanted him to have it without her being actually blamed for anything he did with it," Pluto said. "By telling him to give it back, she was absolved of blame for anything he did with it."

Arturia blinked.

"Oooh, sneaky," Shiho said approvingly.

Yumeni frowned and Rei looked thoughtful.

"Vivianne, Lady of the Lake, arrived and demanded the head of Balin or else of the maiden who had given Balin the sword, saying Balin slew her brother and that the maiden had been the bane of many young knights. I owed her a boon, but I refused, because it was too much to ask. I intended to rule with justice, not the cutting off of heads to repay favors," Arturia said. "So he stabbed Vivianne, accusing her of killing his mother. This was a violation of hospitality. So I exiled him and Vivianne left, enraged. She eventually died from the wound he struck her with the black blade." Arturia sighed. "It was only the second year of my reign and already things began to go ill."

"So this damsel, who made the white blade, you never saw her again?" Rei asked, frowning.

"I don't even remember her name," Arturia confessed, feeling embarrassed.

"Sir Lanceor took off after Balin to avenge the insult offered to Vivianne by Balin. Lanceor was a pagan knight from Ireland, the son of a King, and he could not tolerate such an illness done to one of the Ladies of the Lake, the priestesses of the old gods of Britain. He tried to slay Balin but Balin slew him and his lover." Arturia frowned. "So I put a price on his head, but no one ever collected."

"I believe she actually killed herself with her lover's blade from grief in the accounts I have seen," Pluto said. "Sir Balin later encountered an unfortunate maiden whose lover had been slain by an invisible knight and he pledged to find that knight and slay him to avenge her loss. He had many adventures and came to Castle Carbonek, where he found the invisible Knight, Sir Pelleas, brother of Pellam. Balin violated the hospitality of the castle and ended up slaying Sir Pelleas and when King Pellam violated hospitality himself by trying to murder Balin, Balin struck the Dolorous Stroke which cursed the Kingdom of Carbonek and transformed it into the Wasteland, caught between the dream and waking, life and death. Balin later ended up killing his own brother, Balan, with the white blade and then succumbed a little later of the wounds done to him by his brother. They were buried together and Merlin stuck the white blade in an anvil because...I don't know," Pluto confessed. "Maybe he saw the Grail Quest coming?"

"That's how Merlin rolls," Shiho said. "He saw an anvil and he just had to put a sword in it."

Everyone stared at her.

"I was just trying to lighten the mood," she mumbled.

"And this is that sword?" Arturia said, frowning.

"It looks like it to me," Pluto said.

"On the day of Pentecost, 554 AD, this sword floated down to Camelot, stuck in this anvil and rock, with the inscription 'only the most worthy knight in the world may draw this sword'," Arturia said. "Lancelot would not try, but several others did, including Gawaine and Percival. Everyone who tried and failed was later injured by that blade on the Grail Quest. Galahad easily drew it and then returned to Camelot with us, where he sat down in the Siege Perilous, which now changed its inscription from 'In the year five hundred and fifty-four of our Lord Jesus Christ, this siege will be fulfilled by the greatest knight in the world,' to 'This is the seat of Sir Galahad, the greatest knight in the world, chosen by God'," Arturia said. "Though it didn't say the year of its fulfillment until the first day of 554, when Sir Kay noticed it had changed. Galahad went on to find the Grail and never returned to Camelot, taken up into heaven, Bors claimed." She frowned. "I did not recognize the blade...it had been over thirty years. But this is the blade which that maiden brought to my court which led to Vivianne's death and so many deaths, and yet it is the blade for the greatest of all knights." She grimaced.

"Or it was used to scam you into accepting Galahad into your court so that you all would then self-destruct in the Grail Quest, leaving your kingdom crippled and weak and the Round Table broken, while he healed his injured grandfather and then just took off," Rei said, frowning. She'd never thought of it this way before but suddenly it seemed rather suspicious.

"Percival, youngest son of King Pellinore de Galis, healed his uncle Pellam, for Pellam was his father's brother," Arturia said. "Bors said that he, Galahad, and Percival took the Grail to Africa and preached to the natives for a time, then Galahad ascended into heaven with the Grail, Percival returned to Carbonek, and Bors returned to us," Arturia said wearily. "But when you say it that way..." She frowned.

"And wasn't Galahad pretty much born as the result of Pellam's daughter Elaine and Brisen tricking Lancelot into sleeping with Elaine in order to get a son from him?" Pluto asked.

"Yes," Arturia said, frowning.

"It does rather come off as a giant scam to me," Pluto said. "In which you all were basically suckered into chasing the Grail, probably in order to drain enough mana from the whole giant ritual hunt to empower it to heal Pellam," she continued. "And each knight who died was probably consumed to feed the Grail, just as happens with the Servants and Masters in your modern war."

Arturia felt extremely stupid for not figuring this all out. She also felt extremely angry. "This cannot go on! I will not let it happen!"

She pointed at the gates, floating in the air. "By the power of the Grail, I command these gates to open! Take us to Dame Brisen!"

The gates opened and Arturia charged out with Rei, Shiho, and Yumeni running after her.

They found themselves by the banks of a river; high ridges rose on either side of the river, which flowed through a forested valley; it was a good hundred feet wide and swift moving. A half dozen pillars of water with tentacular limbs were towing the large rock, a good twenty feet across, into the middle of the river, assisted by a half dozen vaguely humanoid creatures of dirt and rock; the flowing water was not being kind to them as they lost bits of themselves. The anvil stood in the middle with the sword thrust into it.

Dame Brisen, a woman of great beauty with noble roman features and long dark hair and dark eyes had runes drawn in silver and blue upon her hands and was gesturing and giving orders, but when she saw the gates open and Arturia, Rei, Shiho, and Yumeni emerge, she frowned deeply.

They could, however, now see something which had not been part of the picture. Namely, a small camp with a half-dozen knights flying the Red Tower of Carbonek and their squires and three dozen footmen. Dame Brisen had not come alone or even just with elementals. The knights wore beautifully painted and decorated suits of plate armor, with every plate itself a picture and their shields each held a magnificent heraldic animal—a lion, a unicorn, a griffon, a manticore, a bear, and a panther.

Yumeni's eyes got giant hearts in them. "WOW."

The knights blinked at her, but one of them, the panther knight, stepped forward and bowed to her. "Good morning, fair lady, thank you for the compliment." His voice was warm and gracious. "You are most passing fair yourself."

Yumeni turned red.

Shiho wished desperately that her raven was ALIVE because she felt this was going to get ugly and, well, she wasn't sure if she could do much to human knights.

Rei frowned. Too many monsters and knights and...

"Good sir knight," Dame Brisen said. "And good ladies. Welcome to the Isle of the Brothers, where Sir Balin and Sir Balan lie buried." She pointed to a cairn which could be glimpsed up river where the valley was more like a canyon and a bridge which resembled a sword crossed it, miles away. "This is the western branch of the river which eventually flows down to Camelot." She pointed downstream. "I see you have travelled by some strange means of fae-kind. I am Dame Brisen, Lady of the Lake and advisor to King Pellam, the King of Carbonek, on the fringe of which you stand, in the last untainted portion of the Kingdom."

"I am the Knight of Two Swords," Arturia said, pointing to her twin swords. "And I have come for the truth. Brisen, do you plan to sacrifice King Arthur's court in order to heal King Pellam of the Dolorous Stroke?" Her voice was cold and angry.

Rei turned her gaze on Brisen; her spiritual senses sometimes let her tell if someone was lying...if her own power exceeded theirs and depending on how skilled they were. She could feel the malice or kindness in words. Which was part of how Usagi always got to her.

"Please let me draw you!" Yumeni said to the Panther Knight.

"You flatter me; if you so desire, so shall it be," the Panther Knight said to Yumeni, then struck a pose for her, while the other knights watched Arturia, moving up close to Brisen.

Unguided, the elementals milled about, spinning and bumping the anvil-rock around.

"That is quite an accusation," Brisen said. "I act according to the will of the gods. Of course I act for the good of Carbonek, but what good would it do me to destroy Camelot? That would not heal my lord." Her words were soothing and if Arturia had been an ordinary person, the magic in them would have begun to wipe away Arturia's doubts and fears and sent her away, content.

Unfortunately for Brisen, Arturia was now Saber, and Saber was quite resistant to magic. And could feel it.

"You would ensorcel me! I arrest you, Brisen! Come peacefully to Camelot and be judged!" Arturia said, pointing at her.

"I cannot allow that," Brisen said. "I have spent years on this, and I will not allow some knight I have never even heard of to..." She paused and her eyes widened. "You are a woman."

"I am Arturia, the daughter of King Arthur, the Knight with Two Swords and these swords prove my heritage and my words!" She drew the twin Excaliburs.

The collected knights stared, mouths open wide.

The squires fainted.

The elementals cringed back, lurking beyond the island.

"But Arthur is impotent!," Brisen said. "He has been married to the most beautiful woman in the world for over thirty years with no children! Either he only lies with men or he must be impotent! Surely he and Lancelot are..."

"You know NOTHING," Arturia said angrily. "Now, surrender or I will be forced to use force. And I am indeed a woman! I am the first woman knight! But I will not be the last!"

Brisen stared, then grimaced. "Then you must die. Knights, SLAY! Elementals, DEVOUR THEM!"

Five of the Knights rushed forward. The Panther Knight stared at Yumeni, clearly unable to bring himself to attack her.

"How about if we just finish this while they do their business?" she said to him.

The two of them sidled off to one side as chaos began.

The elementals surged towards Rei and Shiho. Shiho began playing her flute and the water elementals began to ripple and wobble as the sonics disrupted them. The earth elementals burned and melted as Rei dumped fire on them, but three of them made it to the shore and punched her in unison, sending her crashing into a tree, the wind knocked out of her.

Saber moved in a blur and the five knights found themselves disarmed, holding shattered bits of metal. The flats of the blade came around and battered Dame Brisen as she tried to chant, disrupting her spells.

"BIG SISTER!" Shiho turned and aimed a sonic wave at the earth elementals, knocking them away from Rei but now she got pounded on by the water elementals. However, she now realized what she ought to do. She produced prayer strips and hurled them at the elementals, who popped and collapsed on impact. Rei did likewise, looking a little embarrassed.

Brisen fell unconscious and now the footmen levelled their crossbows. Rei limned herself with fire and when they fired, she burned every bolt out of the air with a wall of flame.

They ran, not being idiots and so did the other knights.

The Knight of the Panther fell to his knees and thrust his sword into the ground. "I yield to the Knight of Two Swords. Please let them live, they only sought to obey their King."

"I accept your surrender. Swear to serve my father, King Arthur, as his vassal and I will not punish you," Arturia said.

He said, "I would pledge myself to this lady's service, if I may."

Yumeni stared, then said, "Please?" She was blushing all over.

Rei stared. Damn, they move fast in this time.

"I accept your request. Pledge yourself to guard and protect Lady Yumeni the Far-Seeing."

He swore to her and she patted his head, taking off his helmet; he had short black hair and soft brown eyes and a happy smile and they both smiled nervously at each other. She took a handkerchief out of her bag and tucked it into his neckpiece like a bib. "Is this how the lady gives a favor?" she asked nervously.

Arturia took it and tied it around the ring pommel of his sword. "Like this. Or on his lance."

Yumeni's eyes widened. "His...oh, right, you mean lance."

Arturia blinked. "What?"

Shiho's eyes crossed and Rei scratched her head.

Yumeni kissed him quickly and pulled him to his feet. "Now what?"

"We take Brisen to Camelot. And I think I know the best way to do so," Arturia said, looking at the rock.

Now this will be an adventure to remember, the Knight of the Panther thought. With a lady fair by my side! Magnificent!

Oh dear, Yumeni thought. Ladies fair never vomit in the old tales, so I hope they leave me losing my dinner out of the saga. She knew what was coming.

I wish I'd brought my ginger pills, Rei thought.

Good thing I don't get seasick, Shiho thought.

Arturia hadn't felt this good in a long, long time.

"So Shinji got your family's magic crest," Rin said to Sakura.

Sakura said, "Yes, he was the heir." She frowned.

Rin wasn't surprised she was displeased. "Well, it doesn't mean you can't use magic. One of the masters in the last war was a champion of the importance of study and learning spells yourself instead of relying so much on the crest."

"It's easy for you to say when you got one," Sakura said softly, definitely unhappy.

"Yes, but..." Rin wasn't sure what she was getting at, but then it hit her. "You can protect Shirou better if you have spells to cast." HE NEEDS IT, she thought.

They were all working on fixing up the house; the damage was letting rain in. Fortunately, Archer had brought some of Rin's magic books, which Rin was trying to persuade Sakura to use.

Magic could help, but sadly, you couldn't just conjure new walls; they would fade away in a few hours. What you could do was things like what Rin was doing right now where several hammers were flying around working under their own power. Shirou was very adept at this, which seemed to extremely please him. And Rin found herself pleased he was doing such a good job with the grimoire of...well, basically home maintenance spells.

Sakura's breath caught, then she said, slowly, "Show me the book."

She soon had more hammers and material than Shirou flying around. More than Rin too, which made Rin frown with a stab of jealousy.

Taiga-sensei was on guard duty with Suguira-sensei, and they were patrolling the perimeter, which meant getting miserably wet. Archer was hidden insubstantial and Caster was using two spells she'd picked up quickly from the grimoire to help. Caster seemed really excited at the idea of spells to do mundane things. What an odd Servant, Rin thought.

"You look happy, Mai," Shirou said as they manuevered boards into place together.

"I like the idea of having powers that don't kill people," Caster said. "I feel like...like I fix the damage I cause."

I just wish I knew what Lancer was doing, Rin thought. Unfortunately, scrying was not her strong point or that of any of her allies; she didn't even have much in the way of good grimoires for it, which she now deeply regretted. Caster could probably scry potently if she only had the right spell.

Unfortunately, though the spell for finding bargains at the hardware store had made Caster and Shirou smile in unison like siblings, it was unlikely to find Lancer.

"Are you sure this will work with newspaper?" Umino asked, studying the living room floor; they'd covered it with newspaper and Nephrite had guided them to mark out a huge circle with a bunch of runes with black magic marker.

"Forms guide the will; you cannot ruin a spell just by slight error of runes, though it may make it harder," Nephrite said.

"No one is painting anything on my nice floor," Naru's mother said flatly. "You can't even imagine how much I payed for this hardwood. It's so shiny and nice." She got hearts in her eyes.

Soon, Usagi, Naru, Naru's mother, Ryo, and a nervous Umino sat around the circle, indian-style, holding two candles each. Ami stood in the middle feeling ridiculous. Nephrite, Akane, and Juliet sat down next to their masters.

With Nephrite's guidance, they joined their powers, then began pushing magic into the circle and the sigil of Virgo under Ami's feet. She began to tingle all over, feeling strange. The sigil now lit up her eyes widened and then light erupted upwards, nearly blinding them all.

Ami felt her mind suddenly unfold and she remembered everything with a crystal clarity. The air shimmered and she seized her transformation pen. "MERCURY STAR POWER, MAKE UP!" she shouted, and the light turned into ice and the ice flowed through her, and then it shattered and Sailor Star Mercury emerged, her uniform a darker blue than in times past with stars dotted across it. The sign of Virgo was interlaced with the sign of Mercury on her tiara and her brow. And the back of her short skirt had a huge bow of dark blue with golden stars and galaxies overlaid.

The masters and magi all flopped over, rather drained; their servants, on the other hand, felt recharged.

"Thank you, everyone," Sailor Star Mercury said. "We need to awaken the others."

"Mercury, I..." Usagi begin.

"I would do it again! Don't decide what we want for us!" Mercury snapped at her, and Usagi looked mortified. But then Mercury softened and helped her up, then embraced her. "We did it because we love you and we'd do it again and I know you'd do it for us, but it is our job to lay down our lives for you, not the other way around."

"I couldn't stand to see you die again," Usagi mumbled.

"Well, I don't intend to die," Mercury said. She then went over and kissed Ryo. "If you keep any more secrets, I won't be happy."

"No more secrets," he said.

"Good," Mercury said. "Now, let's get cracking."

"You can stay up to 24 hours," Tomoe said to Haruka. "If you stay longer, you are disqualified from the war, do you understand?"

"Yes. We just had to get them off our tail," Haruka said.

"Remember, this is neutral ground. So you may not stay here and scry for them, then leave. It is for refuge, not a base of operations," Tomoe said. "Still, I hope you enjoy your stay. Kaolinite will arrange rooms and you may rest and eat lunch with us when the time comes."

"So what is this thing, anyway? Yukino thinks it is synthetic, not a true Servant," Michiru asked.

Tomoe frowned. "Hmm, this may put a different light on things. Tell me more."

They sat in the living room, eating some rather spicy potato chips and sipping tea and told him everything they knew.

"They are not authorized to be part of this war," Professor Tomoe said. "And their sloppy behavior..." He grimaced. "Could wreck everything. I will alert everyone to their existence and that there is a 3 miracle reward for eliminating them."

"Thank you," Haruka said.

"But I still must enforce the rules. Good luck and thank you."

"You're welcome. We'll likely head out tonight, once darkness falls."

"Of course."

"Holy shit, three miracles," Shingo said, staring at the e-mail.

"WOOF," the spirit said, returning.

"Well, that's informative," Akira said. She rolled her eyes. "We are likely best off finding another master and then using the fight between them to pick off the winner," she said. "Though if we could score on them it would be good. They are slaughtering innocents."

Shingo grimaced. "Exactly."

"Woof!" the spirit began licking Shingo, who smiled.

"Follow it and find out what it found," Shingo said.

"I will," Akira said and took off.

"That's one for each of us," Shirou said to the others.

"An artificial-saber class," Rin said, frowning. "We may well burn that many miracles, but yes, it needs dealing with." She licked her lips nervously.

"If we can't stop it with three masters, three servants, and Sakura, then we're dead anyway," Suguira-sensei said.

"I'm not sure if..." Shirou began.

"I go with you," she said firmly to Shirou.

"But you could get hurt," he said. "I'd feel terrible if a girl got hurt because of me."

Her eyes flashed and he stepped back in shock. Then she ran off, crying.

"Shirou, you idiot," Rin said. "You're not even as strong in magic as she is and hardly more experienced. And, well, this whole team is made of women but you, you know."

"I know," he mumbled.

"Go apologize," Taiga-sensei said to Shirou.

"But I..."

Ten pairs of eyes stared him down and he went.

He found her in Taiga-sensei's room, curled up and crying.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he said. "I just don't want you to get hurt. I want...But I guess I showed I can't protect you, huh." He sighed and kneeled down by her, hand on her back. "I'm sorry."

"Do you like me?" she asked softly.

"Of course I like you," he said, confused. "You're very dear to me. And a much better person than I am." He sighed. "I'm sorry, I want to protect you but I'm too weak. Even with better magic now. If you were a machine, I'd probably be more useful to you than I am like this."

Even Shirou realized that came out wrong. "BUT I LIKE YOU BETTER AS A GIRL."

Sakura made a strangled noise like someone trying to cry and laugh at once. "You like me as a girl?" she asked softly.

"I would never want you to be a boy. You're such a perfect girl. Pretty, smart, good cook, very feminine, and I guess you'll be a great mage too. Even without a Crest." He studied the scars on his left arm. "But I'm making my own and you can too. We can do it together." He held out a hand to her.

She peeked at his hand, then slowly turned and uncurled and took it. "Really?"

"Yeah, but I suggest you don't do yours by hurting yourself cooking," he said, sighing.

She pulled him closer and kneeled, taking his hands. She tried to say something but she couldn't and she grimaced in frustration.

She tried again and nothing came out and she looked agitated.

He squeezed her hands. "It's okay. Here, sit by me."

She did so, sitting to his left; he took her right hand with his left hand. Then he got a pillowcase and curled it around into a sort of weak whip. "Now, watch." REINFORCE.

He did it again and again, guiding her, letting their energies intertwine, until the crude whip club became very strong and firm, until she could feel his Crest and the power stored in it.

She was breathing fast now and he felt excited too; he could almost feel her breathe as if he was breathing with her lungs and vice versa. They leaned closer and closer and then their lips met and they kissed, mana flowing in a circuit between them and it felt so good it scared both of them into sitting back on their knees, still holding hands with one hand each and they smiled shyly at each other.

"I want to be with you always," Sakura said softly. "Don't ever leave me behind."

"I won't," Shirou said nervously.

Dematerialized, Lancer watched them and smiled, then slipped away; she had other work to do.

Makoto's phone rang. "Kino Makoto."

"Hi, Makoto," Usagi said softly. "I mean...you don't remember me but I remember you. I mean..."

"I remember now," Makoto said softly. "Usagi, what happened?"

"I think I kind of changed the world to un-dead everyone and it kind of caused amnesia or history changed or something, I don't know but I need you," Usagi said. "There is a war going on."

"I know." She grimaced. "Mamoru is missing with his girlfriend, Joan."

"Oh god, I dreamed about him because he's dead," Usagi said, and then she began to cry and cry and cry. "I thought it was just a dream, but..."

"Is something wrong?" Motoki asked Makoto. He'd been watching TV because he couldn't focus on anything else. Watching some show where people built robots to fight other robots made him feel a little better.

"Are you sure?" Makoto asked, feeling her stomach curdle. This would just...it would break Motoki. He couldn't know. Not right now.

"He came to me in a dream and..." Usagi began to bawl.

Ami now took over. "We're at Naru's. But we're about to go try to get to Minako, though we don't have much of a plan."

"Hold on," Makoto said. "I think...I hate to leave you here, but I need to go help some friends of mine. A friend of mine lost someone and..." She grimaced.

"It's okay," Motoki said. "I promise I won't do anything crazy like opening the window. You have more to your life than just taking care of me."

"You're wonderful," Makoto said and kissed his forehead, then turned to the phone. "Tell me where to go, I'm coming."

They now began laying plans.

"Usagi and Naru are masters?" Shingo said in disbelief.

"Also, apparently so is Umino and some other guy," Akira said.

"Well...DAMMIT," Shingo said. "I can't just whack my sister and her best friend and...well, Umino could use a beating or three; he's an idiot and a gossip. But...ugh."

"I don't know what to tell you," Akira said, staring at the floor. "I know the importance of family."

"Let's find some other masters," Shingo said. "I'll summon another angel and then we can scout during the day and move out tonight. But first, we need to go get some food for lunch. There's nothing to eat without cooking and I don't feel like cooking."

"There is an all-you-can-eat place. A new one."

"Sounds fine to me."

Arturia had not anticipated one small problem with her plan. Namely, that they would end up stuck on a floating rock in the middle of the Avon river, right next to Camelot. The river was placid but very wide and apparently the rock was not inclined to head for the shore as she remembered it doing, perhaps because they'd slaughtered the elementals.

Also, two of her three Ladies of the Lake were looking rather green. Shiho, however, sat with her feet dangling in the water, playing her flute and looking happy.

Knights were streaming out of Camelot, down to the river. She could see Lancelot with Galahad and she frowned. He'd already been knighted, then.

"Shiho, can you use your powers as Miko to control this rock?" Arturia asked.

"PLEASE," Rei groaned.

Yumeni and the Knight of the Panther were both fast asleep but she looked rather greenish. They now sat up and Yumeni groaned.

Shiho rose and began to play her flute. The water swirled up into elementals who pushed the rock towards the shore where the knights were gathering. She also threw prayerstrips onto Rei and Yumeni, blessing them and banishing their illness; it was a cheap but flashy use of mana.

"Thank you, Shiho," Rei said, ruffling her hair and she smiled brightly. Shiho loved her big sister. And her big sister loved her.

"Are you okay?" she whispered. She knew Rei had loved Mamoru, but he'd left her for Usagi...and yet, he had died for her. To save her. So probably Usagi was an EVIL WITCH who had ensorceled him. But she would deal with Usagi later.

"I'm fine," Rei said, then realized what she meant. She sagged a moment, but forced herself to stand straight and tall. She transformed to Sailor Mars, which caused many gasps.

Arturia prayed that her other self and Guenevere would play along, but there was no time for her to concern herself with such affairs.

Thank you, Alexander, Arturia thought. Without you, I could not do what I am about to do. You are an inspiration to me, both for what to do and what not. But one lesson I only finally have learned now from you. And I am about to use it, as you did so many years ago. If she remembered Merlin's lessons right, it had happened nearly 900 years ago in Asia Minor.

Now it would happen again.

She could see them all. All one hundred and forty-
nine knights of the Round Table. But most importantly, she saw herself and Guenevere and Kay.

King Arthur was not a tall man but he was imposing with a brown beard and moustache and piercing blue eyes. He was, in theory, sixty-four, but he looked to be in his mid-thirties at most. But he was an illusion, and under the illusion was her. Her younger self. And by his side, Guenevere. She was a blonde of such amazing beauty that even Arturia could not help but admit that she was the most beautiful woman in the world. She was sixty-three but she looked in her forties and she was so lovely you hardly noticed her age. And by them was Sir Kay; he was not so youthful, being in his late sixties, but he did look to be in his late fifties. He had kept in good shape; he would never be handsome, but he had a pleasant smile.

But now he got a good look at Arturia and he dropped the flagon he was holding on himself and stared and so did Arthur and Guenevere. Lancelot and Galahad were approaching the trio but they froze and stared.

"Can you augment my voice?" Arturia asked Miko.

Grinning, Miko did so, playing her flute and bending the wind to let all hear Arturia, who now stood on the anvil, beside the blade.

"LET IT BE KNOWN TO ALL THAT I AM THE KNIGHT OF TWO SWORDS! THESE ARE MY ADVISORS, THE HOLY TRIO, THE DAUGHTERS OF THE NORNS THEMSELVES," Arturia proclaimed.

"I am?" Yumeni asked. Wait, had they made a plan without her? Or did I forget?

"If someone asks you if you are a Norn, say YES," Rei hissed out of the side of her mouth.

"To Yumeni is given the power to see all things past, to Rei the power to see the future, and to Shiho, mastery over the present!" Arturia proclaimed.

Shiho shifted tunes and now the water elementals rose and danced.

A ripple of amazement passed through the crowd.

"I know it is the custom of this court to see a marvel or hear some tale of adventure or the summon to such before any may dine upon this feast of Pentecost. I bring to you a marvel and I bring to you a tale of adventure and I bring to you a summons to adventure and I bring an accusation of crime!" Arturia shouted.

She had everyone's rapt attention now; she felt her excitement growing. This was it, her chance to change it all. To make it right. She could do it. She would do it. This was why Prince Endymion had died for her. And she would NOT fail him.

"Who among you remembers the tragic tale of Sir Balin, whom King Arthur was forced to exile, who slew the Lady of the Lake, Vivianne, who gave Excalibur to King Arthur?" Arturia shouted.

Dozens of hands went up but many remained down or wavered; it had been over forty years, after all.

She pointed to the sword in the anvil. "This is Sir Balin's cursed blade which led him to that foul deed and many other mistakes beside, before he broke the laws of hospitality of Castle Carbonek and slew Sir Gorlon, the Invisible Knight, the brother of King Pellinore de Galis and King Pellam, the Grail King, of the line of Joseph of Arimathea, who dwells in the Castle Adventurous! And yet this cursed evil blade sits here in this anvil with the inscription that no knight but the best in the world shall draw it from this anvil! In mockery of how King Arthur drew forth Caliburn and claimed the throne of Britain, this sword was placed here so as to cause this court to place its trust in a knight whose very conception was based on ENSORCELING ONE OF THE VERY KNIGHTS OF THIS COURT TO LIE WITH THE DAUGHTER OF PELLAM!"

Galahad's face darkened and Lancelot looked utterly stricken.

"Now, Rei," Arturia said, and Rei ripped aside the tent they'd basically draped over Dame Brisen as she laid tied up on the ground. "This woman, Dame Brisen, engineered all of this to induce King Arthur and his knights to induct the child of that illicit union into the Round Table, to lure the Round Table into a quest to 'find the Holy Grail', a quest intended to slaughter the Knights of the Table Round to empower the Grail to heal King Pellam of the blow he suffered at the hands of Sir Balin, the Dolorous Stroke!"

Everyone looked around uncomfortably. Lancelot looked ready to die. Galahad began to look panicked.

"The master of this blade, the best knight in the world? Sir Kay, Seneschal of Arthur and Camelot! What did the maiden say who first lured Sir Balin into drawing this blade and murdering her enemy, Vivianne, who raised Lancelot beneath the magical lake which surrounds the Island of Glastonbury when King Clovis conquered his father's kingdom of Ganis! Vivianne, who gave Excalibur to Arthur! What did that damsel say, Sir Kay? For I know you forget nothing!" Arturia cried out, then turned to him.

"She said that only the best knight in the land could draw the blade which hung at her hip! Sir Balin begged leave to try, though he was a poor knight, and my brother, Arthur, gave him leave, to show that a knight's honor and bravery are more important than his birth!" Sir Kay said proudly, then sighed. "But great tragedy came of it." He sounded guilty, for he had advised Arthur to do so.

"And what inscription is there upon the Siege Perilous?" Arturia demanded.

"That in this year, the year five hundred and fifty-four of our Lord Jesus Christ, this siege will be fulfilled," Sir Kay said. "By the greatest knight in the world."

"What was the fate of Sir Calleas when he sought to sit himself upon that seat?" Arturia demanded.

"His heart seized up and he died, though he was but one score and five years of age," Sir Kay said, sighing. "I told him not to do it!"

"Do not blame yourself, Kay," King Arthur said. "He did not listen to me or Gawaine, either." His voice was firm, but kind. King Arthur put his hand on Kay's shoulder but he turned back to stare fixedly at Arturia.

"You know much of this court for a knight we have never seen within these walls," Sir Dinadan now said cheerfully. He was in his sixties as well, but skinny and spry as ever, like the others, his body did not match his age. He wore expensive court clothing in green and red, though he carried a sword at his waist. He was a Knight of the Round Table, but neither so famous nor so respected as many, for he tended to avoid battle unless there was no other choice. "And yet all the knights of renown are gathered here, save only the mysterious knight who will defeat the Siege Perilous. Have you come to assay that? And how does Dame Brisen figure into this? Are you into tying up your ladies?"

Many laughed at that, including Kay. Many men then got elbowed by the ladies. King Arthur, on the other hand, did not laugh.

"All shall be revealed!" Arturia now laid out Brisen's plans and how she planned to set up the son of Elaine, daughter of Pellam, as the last of the Round Table Knights.

"LIAR!" Galahad shouted. "What proof do you have but accusations? I will not stand still while this taint is cast over my family and my beloved Aunt who helped to raise me! I am a good and just knight and I serve God, not the evil machinations of which you accuse me! I was born by God's will!"

Lancelot said weakly, "Princess Elaine is overly forward with men, but..."

He could feel Guenevere boring a hole in his head with her eyes, and he wished desperately that a black knight would show up and challenge them all or a dwarf summon them to rescue the emperor of the faeries or well, really ANYTHING ELSE AT ALL.

"Who am I? I am the Knight of Two Swords, but I have another name!" Arturia shouted.

Arthur, Kay, and Guenevere froze and stared again.

"Her name is Arturia Pendragon, the daughter and heir of King Arthur and Queen Guenevere! She was entrusted to us on her conception and we bore her through the Gates of Time to be raised in another time and place where none of Arthur's enemies could find her!" Rei said, limning herself with fire.

"I am from the future!" Yumeni announced.

"I am a Princess of the Moon Kingdom!," Rei announced. "Which stood before the Great Flood!"

"And I am from Japan, on the far side of the world!" Shiho announced.

"As a sign of my heritage, I have travelled through time and collected my father's sword from the past and the future!" Arturia drew her twin Excaliburs.

Lancelot nearly fainted and everyone stared in utter shock.

"Sir Bedevere the Wise! Cupbearer to Arthur! I know you have studied the arts of history! Tell us of the Gordian Knot!" Arturia said, a proud smile on her face.

Her voice could not be denied. "King Gordius tied his chariot to a post with a knot no man could untie," Sir Bedevere said. He was in his sixties, but looked to be in his forties, never the greatest of knights, but a wise man and a skilled manager, under whom his lands prospered. He put his life on the line every day, for it was his job to ensure King Arthur was not poisoned by testing the food and watching over Arthur's meals, cleaning, etc. His brother Sir Lucan was Arthur's Butler and his elder brother Derfel was the Duke of Lindsey. He had only one hand, having lost the other in an adventure in the Forest Sauvage; the fae were said to greatly respect him for it. "He prophesied that whoever untied that knot would become the master of all Asia. Alexander the Great did so and became master of all Asia."

"And how did Alexander the Great do it?" Arturia asked.

"He drew his sword, hacked the knot in half and proclaimed it was now undone and drove off in the chariot."

Arturia had to fight that chariot. She knew this story well. She'd destroyed it, in fact, in the previous Grail War. Lancer, Alexander the Great, had possessed it. He had fought from it with a great and potent spear.

"And thus do I draw this sword from this stone!" Twin Excaliburs blurred at high speed, cutting the anvil into shards. As the sword fell, Arturia kicked it into the air and shattered it to bits with a series of blows from Excalibur.

Galahad gave a strangled cry.

"This blade doomed many a fair knight to an unjust death! But now, with the swords of justice, I have destroyed it! Father! I have come to hand over Dame Brisen for trial in your courts, and to claim my rightful place by your side and as a Knight of the Round Table and as the Mistress of the Siege Perilous, for I intend to attempt that adventure! I beg your leave to do so!"

All eyes turned to Arthur.

Galahad shouted, "She lies! I demand the right to trial by battle! I shall stand as Dame Brisen's champion against the lies of this imposter!"

Lancelot looked approving but also very nervous. "It is the duty of all good knights ever to fight in the defense of ladies." He turned to Arturia. "How can you claim to be both a woman and a knight?"

"I have come from the future, where a woman can be both a woman AND a knight!" Arturia said. "I am the first female knight, but I can tell you that I will not be the last!"

Arthur looked utterly lost and confused like a man who saw an oncoming train...and didn't know what a train was. But his best guesses were not too comforting. Arturia did her best to look reassuring. Guenevere looked at her, confused, almost desperate, and Arturia smiled at her, in a way she had never been able to do so as Arthur. Guenevere began breathing faster and touched her heart. Kay looked at her, and did a double take, and then, slowly, he smiled. He whispered to King Arthur.

"Then let it be decided on the field of battle," King Arthur said. "Let these two young knights do battle before God, and God will judge between them!" His voice was the firm voice of command; his decision apparently was made.

Something seemed to suddenly hit Lancelot. "My sire..."

"Sir Galahad claims he was born of God's will. If this is true, God will give him the victory, however he may be armed," King Arthur said, his voice carefully neutral.

"Then let us go to the field of battle," Arturia said. "And because I wish all to know this battle was decided by God and not the artifices of men, Galahad, you may wield one of my blades if you so desire, so that all will know this battle is fair!"

The gathered knights cheered like madmen and Lancelot gave a huge sigh of relief. This didn't seem to make King Arthur any happier, however.

Yukino, since Tomoe wouldn't let her scry here, was sitting and playing with a GameGirl while waiting to do something.

Now she noticed Hotaru peeking at her.

"Come in," she said kindly. "Would you like to try?"

"I have one two, we could...play together," Hotaru said hesitantly.

"I would love to," Yukino said, smiling brightly.

Soon, she and Hotaru were busy playing Mario Rockstar together, bouncy j-pop echoing out of the speakers of their handhelds as their nimble fingers hit keys and faked playing instruments.

"You're good," Hotaru said, smiling.

"You too," Yukino said. "So you live with your Father?"

"Mother died in the previous Grail War. You should run away before you die too," Hotaru said sadly.

"I can't. I'm a Servant," Yukino said, and sighed. "I was summoned, so I have to fight. But I don't like fighting."

"Me neither. All my videogames are music and racing and sports and..." Hotaru sighed. "I'm not good at sports."

"Me neither," Yukino confessed. "That was Haruka's job."

"Is she your best friend?" Hotaru asked.

"Yes," Yukino said. "She is the kindest, strongest, best woman in the world."

"She looks kind of rough to me," Hotaru said.

"Different woman, same name," Yukino said, then began telling Hotaru about Haruka.

"There's a Mr. Sanjouin here to see you," one of Aino Minako's handlers said. "He has no appointment."

"Is he hot?" Aino Minako asked as she was being made up for her concert tonight, assuming it HAPPENED, which was doubtful given the HIDEOUS rain and wind. I shouldn't have come here, she thought, but some instinct had made her schedule a concert here. Apparently in time for WINTER APOCALYPSE IN SEPTEMBER.

Bleah.

"Yes."

"BRING HIM IN."

Sanjouin Masato was just as hot as Minako was hoping and he kneeled before her and kissed her hand. "You are even more lovely than I imagined."

He was at least a decade older than her, but Minako didn't care. She wanted a man who was grownup, mature, handsome, and rich, and he clearly had all four.

"Take me AWAY," Minako said.

"But the concert..."

"Would have been ruined by the rain anyway. Let's go!"

She laughed for joy as he took her away from all this STRESS.

The good thing about Belly Burger was that it had GREAT burgers. And it offered private cubicles for paranoid ninjas to park their Masters in so as to reduce their visibility.

The bad thing was that with the Gem of Wrath, Miyu could fire a burst of bullets through the front window, through several cubicles and right through Shingo without them losing their damaging power. Shingo fell to the ground, fatally wounded and began to dissolve into sparkles of light.

"NO!" Akira shouted in a rage, switching to her ninja garb. She prepared to grab Shingo and run, but he was dissolving, just like Takumi. Not again. NOT AGAIN.

"Don't die," Shingo said. "You have to live and get the Grail." He coughed up sparkles. "SAVE MOTHER AND FATHER, then do what you think is right," he said.

The Grail command both forced her to leave and empowered her to move so fast and stealthfully that she easily evaded Miyu and Alyssa, streaking off to carry out Shingo's final command.

"Grail...give the last miracle to Usagi...Oh god, the parents are going to be pissed," Shingo mumbled and then he dissolved and the Grail took him.

The Cloister Bell rang twice in quick succession, then chimed six times and Hotaru shivered.

"What's wrong?" Yukino asked softly.

"Another Master is dead," Hotaru said, sounding guilty like she'd personally murdered them. "It's not worth it."

"I agree," Yukino said. "But I am a Servant, bound to fight."

"I wish you didn't have to," Hotaru said, staring at the floor. "Even...you wouldn't want to come back from the dead on a pile of other people having to die for you to return, would you?" she asked softly.

"No," Yukino said. But she wasn't so sure what she might do...okay, she'd think about doing horrible things to save Haruka, but she'd already learned she just didn't have the strength.

"I wish everyone was like you, big sister," Hotaru said, sighing.

"We'd get confused who we were talking to, if everyone was me," Yukino teased her gently, and Hotaru laughed.

"Please don't die," Hotaru said softly. "I've had too much death in my life already."

Yukino held out a pinky and Hotaru put hers around it. "Let's both promise not to die, okay?"

"It might be better if I did," Hotaru said, sighing.

"Never," Yukino said firmly. "I promise Tomoe Hotaru I won't die."

Hotaru licked her lips, then said, "I promise Kikukawa Yukino I won't die either."

"There you go," Yukino said. "An unbreakable promise."

"I wish I was young enough to believe that," Hotaru said, sighing.

Yukino patted her shoulder and Hotaru hugged her, so she hugged back, holding Hotaru while Hotaru silently cried on her shoulder.

Poor child, she must be so lonely, Yukino thought. But I'm sure she'll be fine. Her father loves her very much.

Hotaru knew that was the problem, not the solution.

Camelot was a city of marvels. At every intersection, there was a lamp which never went out, driven by a system of pipes and strange black-rock eating machines which had been designed by Merlin and completed by Nimue, Arthur's arcane advisor. She had not come to Camelot after her trip to Avalon for the Solstice and many worried. But there was plenty of black-rock (thrice a year, a group of dwarves came down the great Avon and sold black rock to Kay in return for copper, tin, fine woods, fine foods, wheat, and alcohol in many flavors) and the machines kept up their work and the winds as always blew to hurl the smoke out over the channel and scatter it into the great western ocean. Likewise the castle itself had hot and cold running water, the same system of magical lights, and many other strange things, such as the rooms which could move themselves up and down within the towers and between floors. (The King of Garloth, Nenfel, had discovered black rock deposits on his land and made good money shipping it down the eastern coast of Britain, especially to Londinium and Eburacum, where it was used to warm castles and homes in winter, and to power the single wonder-engine of the King of Malahaut, said to have been made for him by Byzantine craftsmen. While Eburacum paled before the glory of Camelot, none could deny that King Bernard de Apres was the second greatest King in all of the Isles of Britain. SECOND, that is.)

Arthur's jousting grounds were lined with viewing stands of Merlin's design; they could be folded down and covered with tarps when not in use and unfolded to hold thousands of viewers. They were laid out in a great U shape with a permanent stables at the open end of the U; King Arthur himself had an elevated box at the bottom of the U and several other boxes could be added if any of the other great Kings of Britain who pledged fealty to him attended, such as the King of Malahaut (who was seen at Camelot no more than was necessary to ensure Sir Griflet didn't invade his kingdom with fire and sword to make sure he wasn't sick or something), the Kingdom of Lothian (shared by the five Orkney brothers of whom Gawaine was the eldest), and the Kingdom of Norgales (ruled by King Aglovale, son of Pellinore, though technically he was 'regent', since his father was legally 'missing', even if everyone was quite sure the Questing Beast finally ate him or some enemy murdered him. It remained unclear how exactly Sir Palomedes, a Knight from the mighty empire of Persia, had inherited the job of chasing the Questing Beast, but he had cleared himself of accusations of having killed Pellinore long ago.).

Lancelot had a traditional seat in King Arthur's box, being the Queen's Champion. He sat nervously with King Arthur, Queen Guenevere, Sir Bedevere (Cupbearer), Sir Lucan (Butler), Sir Griflet (Marshal of Logres), Sir Kay (Seneschal), Sir Gawaine (King's Champion), Sir Constantine (Chief Justice of the Royal Courts and Arthur's nephew), Chaplain Alaric (Visigoth by birth, Catholic churchman by choice), Lady Annette (head of Guenevere's Ladies-in-waiting), and other court functionaries. In earlier times, Prester John, King Arthur's pet lion who he had tamed in his quest for Excalibur, would have sat at Arthur's feet, but he was growing old and never left the Great Hall except to come and sleep on the floor of Arthur's room in front of the door, guarding it.

Nimue's chair, once the seat of Merlin, was conspicuously empty. Duke Hervis de Revel, Duke of Caercolon (who would punch you in the face if you called it 'East Anglia' as his conquered Saxon subjects did) and Marshal of Britain, was also conspicuously absent. (Griflet commanded Arthur's personal armies, Duke Hervis commanded the assembled armies of all of Britain for Arthur.) Add in the various ladies-in-waiting, wives, kids, etc, too numerous to mention, and it got rather crowded. Especially since Dame Brisen sat here, not chained up, but clearly in no position to cause trouble but every position to make everyone nervous, as angry sorceresses were not to be trifled with. Her face was studiously blank.

Everyone could tell that Arthur either was starting to fall asleep or else was being rigid in the kind of way they had all come to learn meant he was very tense and hiding it. Not that they would ever rub it in the King's face. That is what gossip is for. Many suspected he was worried whether his daughter could live up to her claims. Understandably so, given she was a woman, only a little over five feet tall, about to square off with a man who was six feet tall, the son of Lancelot. The average knight would rather leap in his armor into the English Channel during a storm than even fight in the vicinity of Lancelot, if he valued his life.

And yet, it was clear she was born to command. And the swords...how was it possible? What other blade could they be? But to bring a sword through time to twin itself? Indeed, to triple, given Arthur had Excalibur at his hip...what a marvel that alone would have been. But all this?

Truly, Camelot was a city of wonders that would NEVER be forgotten.

A ring of fire surrounded the duelling ground, and beyond that, water elementals danced at the flutings of Shiho, yet another marvel to behold. The water creatures would prevent any risk of the fire spreading. The third sorceress seemed to be busy drawing something; many were eager to see what marvel she would present for their entertainment.

The two knights stood within the ground, one short and petite in a strange armored dress, the other wearing the finest new armor available, known as 'Gothic Plate', created by Gaiseric the Visigoth, one of Arthur's finest blacksmiths, but now increasingly adopted by the Round Table. If it followed the usual pattern, within a few years every major noble would have it and within a decade, everyone would have it and some new form of armor would emerge, even better. It had to be admitted, though, that the woman knight's armor seemed quite...well, womanly. Beautiful, modest and protective. It did not seem well adapted for riding, however.

The duel, however, would be on foot, each knight armed with Excalibur. No one was sure if this would make it very fast or very slow.

They bowed and Sir Gawaine, as King's Champion, spoke. "Sir Galahad, son of Lancelot and Princess Elaine of Carbonek, has challenged the accusations made by Sir Arturia, the Knight of Two Swords, who claims to be the daughter of King Arthur and Queen Guenevere, against Dame Brisen, Lady of the Lake and Seer to King Pellam of Carbonek, the Grail King. She has requested the trial of Dame Brisen by the Royal Courts, for crimes against the High King of Britain, Arthur Pendragon, but Sir Galahad has insisted on the Right of Battle, that the God of Battles settle this dispute between him, who proclaims the innocence of Dame Brisen, and Arturia, who accuses her of treason most foul." Gawaine paused to take a breath. His wife, Ragnell, patted his shoulder fondly, and Gawaine looked slightly embarrassed. She was not so beautiful as Guenevere, but all agreed she was certainly one of the top three most beautiful ladies of the court; whether you preferred her or Dame Lynette, wife of Sir Gareth of Orkney, was a matter of whether you preferred red hair or chestnut brown. It was the strength of her mind, however, that most distinguished her. Certainly stronger than her husband's.

Gawaine now continued. "Should Galahad win, he has the right to deal any doom upon Arturia that he sees fit. Should Galahad lose, Arturia may dispose of him as she sees fit, and further, Dame Brisen will be hung for treason before the sun has set, for by issuing this challenge, he forfeits all right to a formal trial and all possibility of appeal. Dame Brisen, do you accept Sir Galahad as your champion? He has every right to challenge Arturia, but he cannot bind your destiny without your consent, by the laws of Britain and Logres and Carbonek alike. If he wins, you will have the freedom of the court, but if you lose, you will be hung at the plaza of reckoning until dead and your body fed to the ravens and the vultures," Gawaine said. "It is not a meet fate for a lady of renown and gentility such as yourself."

"I would rather a clean hanging than a slow, lingering death or to spend months in a long legal dance which will be designed to send me to the gibbet in the end," Dame Brisen said. "I am the daughter, mother, and aunt of knights, and I would rather be put forward to be judged by the God of Battles and defended by the greatest knight in the world than to bandy words with men who are knights in name only, whose battles were fought in libraries and courtrooms and kitchens and counting houses, who twist the truth into knots and hide falsehood behind pretty words. Not to name any names."

Sir Constantine looked extremely offended, but said nothing, probably because his wife whispered something to him. Bedevere and Lucan didn't look very happy. But Sir Kay and his wife Sukrenia, a Byzantine noblewoman, looked absolutely livid.

"Let it be known! This battle shall decide who is the greatest knight in the world! This false pretender, half-man and half-woman, or Galahad, descended of Joseph of Arimathea and of Sir Lancelot, the greatest knight in the world of his generation!," Dame Brisen said proudly.

Everyone looked at Lancelot, who now said, "You flatter me, Dame Brisen." Humility had always been his greatest virtue. The long habit of this humility enabled him to restrain the urge to howl and run naked off into the wilderness from the way everyone was looking at him. Also, the last time he'd succumbed to that temptation in the face of the urge to panic, he'd ended up in the hands of Elaine and produced a child he was now determined to be a good father to, even if he had been decieved into producing him. His own father had died, and in his darker moments, Lancelot felt his father had abandoned him, though he knew that unfair. He could not abandon Galahad. And yet, he had the deep sinking sensation that Arturia was right. That Galahad was mixed up in a conspiracy against Arthur, and he could not see how he could possibly get his boy out of this without tragedy. He certainly neither trusted nor liked Dame Brisen, who committed all the sins of which she accused good knights like Bedevere, Lucan, and Constantine of committing. He had more mixed feelings about Sir Kay, but he knew that there was no knight in the land more dear to Arthur than Kay, and that there was a little pit of envy inside himself that Kay would always be Arthur's favorite, no matter what Kay did or he. But Sir Lancelot was reknowned for his justice and determined not to let his past master him or his jealousies. "Yet you levy accusations of skullduggery and behavior unbefitting a knight without naming names, casting a miasma of ill-will over many good knights. Do you intend to name those you accuse of deception, lies, and abuse of the King's laws and government? For if you will not name names that they might defend themselves, then I must insist that you withdraw these accusations!"

She stared at him in shock and a huge tide of whispering spread about. Galahad, stared up at Lancelot, eyes wide.

"I will make no accusations at this time," Dame Brisen said, "for I do not wish to delay this battle before God any further, for I wish to see my innocence proved. I beg leave for us to settle this after the duel."

Gawaine made his throat-noise, the one which indicated he was trying to take control of a situation. His wife, who had looked frustrated, now smiled briefly and patted his shoulder. "So you accept Galahad as your champion and the judgement of the Lord, the God of Battles?" he said hesitantly.

"I do," Dame Brisen said.

"Then let this battle between two knights settle all disputes between them! Dame Brisen accepts the judgement of the God of Battles! And so do I, as the King's Champion! By the power vested in me by King Arthur, I do declare that this duel shall commence!"

Kay rose. "Wait."

Everyone suddenly tensed. NOW WHAT? Was this duel ever going to start?

"Dame Brisen, since Galahad is your champion, you should give him a favor," Kay said.

She blinked, then produced a scarf, which she quickly folded into a bird, which then flew down to Galahad and alighted upon his arm like a falcon, then folded itself into a snake, which twisted down to Excalibur's hilt, around which it tied itself into a bow dangling from the ring pommel.

The crowd stared and many applauded loudly.

Dame Brisen smiled broadly.

Guenevere looked around and frowned. "Kay, that is hardly fair, when she is just arrived. And further, what lady would give her favor to another woman?"

"You'd be surprised," Rei mumbled, but no one heard her.

Kay grinned the shit-eating smile which meant 'I WIN AGAIN MOTHERFUCKERS'. That smile was not seen so often now as it was in his younger days, but it made his wife smile, though her smile was somewhat more vicious (but not towards him). "Tell them who gave you the rose over your ear, Arturia!"

She touched it instinctively; she'd nearly forgotten she had it, but now she said, "This rose was given to me by Prince Endymion of the Moon Kingdom, who taught me the true meaning of knighthood when I had forgotten it! He is the one who inspires me in battle and his name and reputation I am pledged to protect, though his kingdom fell in the ancient days before the Great Flood!," Arturia proclaimed. "Were he alive to enter this court, gladly I would call him the greatest knight living in this day and age. But his time has long passed and will not come again until the distant future." She touched the rose again. "I need no other favor but this!"

But how did Kay know, she wondered.

"Then let this fight begin!," Sir Kay said, and sat down, making the odd gesture he'd picked up from Sir Sagremore, which Sir Dinadan often described as 'resembling an effort to kidney-punch himself with his elbow while clenching his fist.'

Guenevere sat back and took Arthur's hand, and they both watched, very quiet and calm. Like Arthur, she was usually at her most turmoil inside when calmest appearing outside.

Yumeni, down on the floor of the arena with Rei and Shiho, continued to sketch, with the Knight of the Panther standing by her side, studying her art, the only man present not watching the duel with eagerness.

Arturia raised her sword and Galahad did likewise and they saluted each other. Galahad lumbered forward, his armor echoing through the stadium, the ground shaking beneath his mass. He towered over Arturia like a father over his child.

His blow was vastly more potent than Arturia expected, forcing her back. She would have been injured if her blade had been any less potent, her own sword driven back into her torso. He moved slowly, though fast for a man in armor, and hit like a hammer. To her shock, he was stronger than her.

But then, Dame Brisen had likely enchanted him or his armor. Or both. And now she'd given him Excalibur. This likely was not going to be so much a walkover as she thought.

She attempted a counter-attack and scored a hit on him, giving him a cut on his side, but now he sent her tumbling with a massive counter-blow. As she rolled across the arena, she felt certain he'd actually hurt her more than she'd just hurt him. However, she also thought she was quicker than he was, so she would have to whittle him down with quick, low-risk, low-yield attacks while trying to parry and dodge his blows.

She turned, and fought like a fencer, to reduce her profile to him, giving him less to connect with, not parrying directly but striking wrist and fingers or the hilt of his Excalibur along its blade catch to turn the blade aside, sliding left or right as necessary and always giving ground, letting him drive her around the arena.

"Coward! Fight me like a man!" he bellowed.

"You heard your aunt, I am half-man, half-woman, though I would say I have the best of both worlds," Arturia said. "I have tried being all-man and no woman at all, but it did not suit me." Her voice was pitched so that only he would hear, though some of it was caught by Rei, Shiho, and Yumeni, and bits of it could be heard in snatches in the frontmost seats in the stands.

"Your impurity will bring you low," Galahad said angrily and now he tried to smash her wrist with a blow, forcing her to dart way back to avoid it. He pressed her harder, relentlessly. He clearly could tell she was faster, but space was not infinite here and he also clearly hoped he could outlast her. She was not sure if he was right. "A person can only rightly be one thing or another, not both. Impurity of intention, action, soul, or body will damn you in the eyes of God."

"No one can be perfectly anything," Arturia said sadly. "I have tried, and even perfection can fail. Not that I succeeded at being perfect." She turned aside his blade again and skipped back several steps. "But no one can succeed at that."

He charged, thrusting at her, pushing himself to his highest speed and she vaulted over him, using her status as a Servant to do the near-impossible, then spun and slapped his back with her free hand, the spin strengthening the force of her blow which added to his forwards momentum. He fell and now she kicked Excalibur away from him. It spun across the arena.

"Now, you must..."

To her surprise, he rolled across the arena, making the most hideous clanking noise. She and most of the onlookers clutched their ears and he reached his sword and took it and rose. "For a woman to think she can overcome a man by main strength and deception is foolish, doubly so with a knight," Galahad said loudly. "Now, I will put an end to this! No more will you pretend to be a knight! I will put a dress on you and you can serve my mother as a lady-in-waiting as a woman should! For I would not slay a woman. It is unknightly."

"You would prefer I stuck to deception and sorcery for snaring men like your mother?" Arturia said loudly. She was tired of his assaults on her knighthood. "Perhaps if you win, she will ensorcel Sir Gawaine or Sir Percival for me, that I might bear handsome, strong children who will grow up to be used as pawns in the games of the House of Carbonek! They could lure the Emperor of Byzantium to his death! Or the Great Khan of the Avars or the Emperor of Persia!"

"Still got it," Sir Gawaine said, grinning, but then his wife whispered to him and his eyes crossed.

Sir Tor elbowed his half-brother, Sir Percival, a serious, dark haired young knight, the youngest of Pellinore's children, born to him by Pellinore's last wife before he vanished, and raised by her in the forest in hopes of sparing him the fate of his father and that of all knights, death in battle or treachery. Percival was handsome if you liked your men serious and sober, yet a little out of touch with reality. "Someone fancies you, Percival," Sir Tor said, grinning. "You never knew Countess Ygraine, but she has much of Ygraine's beauty, though I can't imagine Ygraine picking up a sword."

"Blanchefleur wouldn't be very happy with me," Percival said. "So I don't know what she means."

Sir Tor rubbed his forehead. Percival was a good boy, but his understanding of the world was...not exactly good. I thought he'd adjusted more by now.

Lady Blanchefleur patted Percival's hand. "You have that exactly, my dear Percival." She was a short, slender, dark haired woman from Gales, not very beautiful but quite clever and adept at medicine, hawking, and cooking. She and Percival had a chaste romance which had been going on a rather long time, which struck many as odd, since neither was married nor did they seem to seek marriage with each other or anyone else.

Galahad gave a cry like an enraged bear and rushed at Arturia like a howling madman, Excalibur blazing a path of humongous destruction. The line of King Ban of Benwick had one great flaw-placed under sufficient stress, they sometimes snapped. In Lancelot, this took the form of ripping off his clothing and running naked and howling into the wilderness, usually resulting in some woman finding him naked, nursing him back to health and usually ending up in his bed.

Some people accused him of doing it deliberately.

But for most of them, this meant tremendous bursts of violence. The death of his brother King Bors at the hands of one of Clovis' sons had sent Ban into a berserkergang which had killed most of Clovis' sons (enabling his son Claudus to take the throne virtually unchallenged). But it had ended with Clovis himself driving a spear through Ban's eyesocket into his brain. (Some whispered said spear was the very Spear of Destiny itself which had pierced Christ's side, though most believed the Castle Adventurous still held that spear and that Balin had used it to wound King Pellam, the Grail King.)

And then Arturia remembered. She had fought Lancelot during the fourth Holy Grail War. He had lost himself to his family's flaw in the final years of disaster and she and he had become Berserker in the fourth Grail war. She could see that in Galahad, that he risked sinking into madness from his family curse as his father ultimately had.

And Brisen would use him to the end. He was just a pawn to her, as Berserker had been to his master in the war, Matou Kariya. He would be used up and discarded once Pellam was healed, of no more use to his master. He would 'ascend to Heaven'. Right. She knew better than that. And Bors, gullible, trusting, kind, honest, Bors would be sent back to spread the lie to everyone, not knowing he was a pawn.

She rolled to one side, dodging his blow, then danced about, trying to wear him out. He had to be burning energy like crazy. But if she messed up even once, he would gut her like a trout. At least he didn't have his father's talent. Lancelot-Berserker could use absolutely ANYTHING as a Noble Phantasm to strike with enhanced force. In his hands, everything had been a deadly weapon.

Mind you, with Excalibur in his hands, he hardly NEEDED that.

She had to beat him without killing him. It would break Lancelot's heart and avoiding this kind of knight killing knight was why she'd established formal courts of law in the first place.

And she knew what it was like to be a pawn. She'd let herself become Merlin's pawn, blindly obeyed him and she knew where that had gotten her. Much of his advice had been very good, but she'd never learned to think for herself. When Merlin was gone, she'd drifted on inertia, holding on out of duty, not joy or even having real goals of her own.

That was why she'd succumbed to the lure of the Grail Quest, allowing, encouraging her knights to seek it. Surely Merlin would have wanted them to find it, right?

But being Saber had forced her to think for herself; her first master had largely turned her loose on her own and used her to distract his enemies; her second master had taught her the true nature of kingship, the true nature of the perfect knight; her third master was more partner and friend than boss. She had finally come into her own.

She would give Galahad a second chance no matter how much the claptrap that filled his head drove her insane.

Much as she must have driven King Lot mad with her prattling about chivalry and knighthood those many years ago.

She smiled a rueful smile and then she moved, leaping over him and spinning this time to smash him fullbore in the back with the flat of Excalibur's blade. It slammed him to the ground and tore twin cuts down the back of his armor. "If I wished to slay you, that would have cut you in twain! YIELD!" she said, foot on his back.

He rose, howling and sent her tumbling, then charged again. She dodged, striking at the helmet join. She did this several times, until his helmet flew off. And yet he came on, frothing with madness and now she was worried, because unless she could shock some sense into him, he would never surrender and there might be no way to stop him short of death.

Unless she could disarm him, which wouldn't be easy. Thanks to Dame Brisen's enchantments, he was likely stronger than her. And while Excalibur could break enchantments, impaling him with it would likely kill him in the process.

Shiho watched nervously, afraid that Saber had finally met her match; she didn't want to see her die. But there was nothing she could do.

Yumeni ignored the fight, still drawing.

Rei watched, faking calm, but very nervous. Usually her team would have handled this sort of thing by wearing him down, then Usagi would heal him, but Arturia had no healing powers. Not without Avalon. Not to heal others, anyway.

Which she knew Arthur lost at some point, but when? Not yet, or he would have started aging. SHE. It was hard to remember Arturia and King Arthur were the same person, especially now.

And I can't try...I don't know if I even could, but it would definitely constitute interference in the duel.

Arturia launched a series of darting attacks, stripping Galahad of his armor piece by piece. It was good, but its enchantment could not stand up to Excalibur in her hands. She took several cuts in the process; even her skills could not manage to avoid some injury by Galahad in this process.

Everyone stared, having never seen a duel like this.

And now the really dangerous part. She let him strike her right leg, in order to bring up Excalibur pommel first, basically using its hilt as a punch dagger, to take him in the chin.

He toppled backwards, losing Excalibur, and this time she grabbed it. Limping with her right leg quite badly hurt, she stood over him, an Excalibur in each hand. "Yield, Sir Galahad, son of Lancelot, for I would not slay you while your father must sit and watch. You have only sought to do what you thought right, and you fought well. You have been a pawn, but you did what a person who you trusted told you to do, as my father trusted Merlin. And is it not the nature of every child to trust their parents and their aunts and uncles?" Her voice was kind, full of compassion and empathy.

Galahad's madness was dwindled now, but it seemed likely to turn to his father's fits of deep melancholy now. "If I yield, Dame Brisen will die. She is my aunt," he said pleadingly.

"If you yield, I will ask only that Dame Brisen be tried in the King's courts as I originally requested. All I ever wanted was that the King's justice, my father's justice be done," Arturia said. "I do not come for vengeance, but for justice."

"I am a failure," Galahad whispered despairingly.

"There is no shame in failure, only in failure to fight with all your strength. There is none who can say you did not fight me with all your strength, Sir Galahad," Arturia said, and offered him a hand up.

He took it and rose. "I, Sir Galahad, son of Princess Elaine of Carbonek and Sir Lancelot, son of King Ban of Benwick, do hereby yield to the Knight of Two Swords and abandon my claim that a woman may not also be a knight." He looked at the rose tucked above her ear. "Does he carry your favor?" he asked her softly, where no one could hear.

"Yes," Saber said softly. If things had been different... But she had no desire for regrets. Not now. She had a future to make.

"Then he must be a man most magnificent," Sir Galahad said softly. He turned to face his father. "Father, I know you are pledged to the defense of Queen Guenevere. But I ask that you aid Dame Brisen in her defense in the courts as best you can. She is my aunt and whatever she may be accused of, I love her."

"Of course, my son," Lancelot said, close to tears, joy and sorrow mingled in him, but with each moment, his joy rose. She had spared his son. He still didn't understand at all what was going on, but it seemed that this adventure would end well. Only five in the court knew the truth of King Arthur. The King 'himself', Lancelot, Nimue, Guenevere, and Kay, though Sir Ector (Arthur's foster father, not Sir Ector du Maris, illegitimate half-brother of Lancelot) had known while he lived.

So who was this? She looked just like Arturia, but unless Nimue was impersonating Arthur...which actually was possible...that must be it. Arthur had gone off on an adventure through time and space while Nimue pretended to be him. It all made sense to Lancelot now.

He'd gotten some hint of the...conspiracy...and gone to investigate himself, for only Excalibur would be proof against sorcery. Conspiracy.

Lancelot didn't want to believe Elaine would use him like that, even if she had...

He grimaced. The courts would find the truth. Arthur's justice.

"Father! I ask your permission to attempt the adventure of the Siege Perilous now!" Arturia proclaimed. "Also, Uncle Sir Kay, Sir Galahad will need rainments suitable for a knight of his standing, a Prince of doubly royal blood."

Everyone seemed to now suddenly realize Sir Galahad was mostly naked, including Sir Galahad who cried out something about virginity and ran for the stables.

Not bad looking at all, Shiho thought. Good muscles. She liked them tall and strong. But he was too old for her, sadly. She liked her men older but not that much older.

"I give you permission to attempt the Siege Perilous, Arturia, Knight of the Two Swords!" King Arthur proclaimed and the crowd went wild.

Yumeni was still drawing, carried by her knight, when everyone now headed for the Great Hall.

Sailor Star Venus pumped her fist in the air. "YES! Power UP!"

She stood in the middle of another circle of power; the masters were all lying around very exhausted.

"When do I get mine?" Makoto teased.

"Later, I need food so badly," Usagi moaned.

"How about I go out and get some and bring it back and feed you?" Akane asked her.

"You are the BEST OF ALL WOMEN," Usagi said urgently, and Juliet laughed.

"I will go with you," Juliet said. "So as to ensure you are not picked off."

"I will..." Umino began.

"Stay here, my love," Juliet said, kissing him on the lips. "Picking up food is good for those of us who are not geniuses, but it would be a waste of your talents, my dear Gurio-kun."

He smiled, gently stroking her hair. "I just was worried it would be dangerous."

"Will this be a dangerous food run, Nephrite?" Juliet asked.

He frowned at her. "No."

"There you go," she said. "Also, you may need to help ensure Usagi does not chew on the furniture," Juliet said.

"I WAS FIVE!"

They stepped up to the door, umbrellas in hand, when to their surprise, Kaolinite was standing in the doorway.

"My goodness, that is good service," Kaolinite said. "Is Osaka Naru here?"

"I am," Naru said, then realized who it was and smiled brightly. "Kaolinite!"

Akane and Juliet headed out and Kaolinite swept in, over to Naru's mother. "You must be Naru's mother, Osaka Meiko. You should ask your daughter to make you a dress like the one I see she made. I can provide more cloth, and I think you would look lovely in it." Her voice was quite warm and friendly and Osaka Meiko couldn't help but smile.

"I have no one to show off my cleavage for, though," Osaka Meiko said.

"I am sure you would have many applicants," Kaolinite said to her, then turned to Naru. "You look wonderful. I just wanted to come see how it went."

Naru smiled. "It made a new woman of me," she said and began chatting with Kaolinite, while Nephrite studied her. That woman made him nervous and she looked enough like Beryl to make him worry.

Not that she could be Beryl. He would know if he met Beryl again.

Possibly by pissing his pants, but he would know.

Akira deposited her aunt and uncle at a very confused hotel in Tokyo; they had reservations for a week, thanks to the lesser miracle and all their luggage had been desposited. "Uncle, Aunt, you will be safe here."

Ikuko and Kenji were utterly confused. "But...I was at the office a moment ago," Kenji said.

"I do not think Fuyuki City is going to survive this. Call in sick," Akira said. "I must avenge Shingo."

"Avenge Shingo?" Ikuko asked in confusion.

"Stay in your room, order food, do not leave and do not take visitors or call anyone. I will return when it is safe," Akira said urgently. "Do not worry, Shingo will be avenged."

"What happened to my boy?" Kenji asked desperately.

Akira stared at the floor, then ran.

"What do you think?" Ikuko said.

"Given all the trouble in Fuyuki City, this is probably a good time to burn some sick leave, but what about Usagi?" Kenji said.

"Well, we should call her," Ikuko said.

"But Akira said not to and...she's from the future. She can't tell us, but I think she already knows what will happen. We'd better do what she said," Kenji said, then frowned. "But Shingo..."

"We can't do anything for him here. I'm sure Akira will protect him. He always does," Ikuko said reassuringly.

Akira had already mounted up on Gennai and was flying back to Fuyuki City, or that would have broken her completely.

"Look, Akane," Juliet said as they headed through the rain to get food.

"Does Umino know your real name, Nao?" Akane asked softly.

Nao cringed. "No. And he's not going to. It would only break his heart."

"Nao, were you one of the Hime at Fuuka?" Akane asked.

"I guess you were too," Nao said, then sighed. "Look, Akane, I hate to ask you this, but the person I'd most trust to do this isn't around...aargh."

Akane grimaced. "Thanks, Nao."

"Look, I should have...I mean...dammit. You died, okay? You died and everything went to hell and I came close to damning myself forever, and there was only one person who gave a flying fuck about me. I was down and helpless and Natsuki had EVERY reason to hate me and let Shizuru kill me and she fought Shizuru to protect me. ME. I took her captive, I was going to..." Nao shivered. "We all tried to kill each other, just like this," she said. "I don't know how it ended; I can't remember anything after that. Some guys were coming for me and I was down to one eye and then...I got summoned and handed over to that sick fuck Shinji like a piece of fucking meat." Nao's voice was full of disgust. "I had to obey someone who was everything I most hate in the universe. Shizuru cut off his arm and killed him. There's irony for you." The words spilled out at high speed. "So I found Umino, and I figured he'd be an easy mark."

Akane grimaced in disgust.

"Don't you judge me! I know you're fucking Usagi to stay alive! Weren't you 'totally in love' with Kazuya before you ended up here?"

Akane looked mortified. "He's got...He's with the older me."

"Older you?" Nao asked, confused.

"There's doubles of all of us, grown up and happy!" Akane said, starting to cry. "He's...I mean, I can't really complain because he and I stayed together, but the me he's with isn't me! And Usagi, she loves me so much. Her heart is so big..." Tears poured down her face. "And it feels so wonderful..."

Nao's anger blew out like a candle. "I know. It's just...he hardly knows what he's doing, but it feels so incredible. I know it's just the mana, but also..." She stared at the ground. "He's in love with me. Crazy in love."

"You act like that's a terrible thing!" Akane said angrily.

"He's willing to DIE FOR ME and he JUST MET ME!" Nao protested. "How am I supposed to know what to do about that? I just wanted...If he gets himself killed trying to protect me, it's going to break my heart and I didn't even think I had a heart to be broken any more!" she yelled.

People stared and she gave them the finger with both hands.

"Nao..." Akane said.

"I wish Natsuki was here, though maybe she is. But if she is, I'm not on her team," Nao said. "Look, you have to stop him. If I die, he's going to do something crazy. And if I'm...if someone tries to kill me, he will do some insane thing like throwing himself in the way and he will die and I will lose what little sanity I have. Promise me you will try to keep him alive and not stupidly, pointlessly dead if I die," Nao said pleadingly. "Please."

"I will do my best," Akane said, her face still tear-
streaked, but now she was serious and sober. "He loves you that much?"

"He's crazy. Anyone who would love me that much has to be batshit insane," Nao said. "I thought that kind of thing only happened in manga."

"Our life is weirder than any manga," Akane said.

"Fuck yeah." Nao hesitated. "What's the other me like?"

"I don't know," Akane confessed. "I've just met Mai and Suguira-sensei and Fujino-san." She sighed. "Fujino-
san is pretty much a crazed killer. I would never have expected it."

"She's like 3 billion percent gay for Natsuki and went on an apeshit murdering spree when Natsuki wouldn't fuck her. Or maybe because Natsuki fucked her. I don't know. Natsuki can fuck whoever she pleases, in my opinion. She's earned it," Nao said. "They'd better not all go on murder sprees, though. She's got Kiyohime as her Child."

Akane said, "Like in the legend?"

"More like the Lernaean Hydra or the Orochi," Nao said. "Giant eight headed metal snake-dragon-dinosaur. Makes Julia look like an action figure." She spread her arms ride. "Shizuru rides around on its head, just killing everything."

"She...seemed so mellow."

"It's the quiet ones who snap," Nao said. "So you don't know anything about the other me."

"You could look her up in an online directory and call her," Akane said hesitantly.

Curiosity consumed Nao. She had to know.

"Okay, wait, you need me to do what?" Older-Mai asked. Brigit was sleeping in a portable crib on the table as she leaned on it with a GameGirl in hand. She, Older-
Takumi, Older-Akira, and Older-Nao had synched their machines for a collective game of War of Olympus, which basically was an RPG of Greek Mythology. Older-Mai was Athena's daughter (Amazon), Older-Takumi was the son of Theseus (Hoplite), Older-Akira was Mercury's daughter (Winged Scout), and Older-Nao was Medea's daughter (Sorceress).

"Look, best strategy for this mix is that I buff everyone, then Takumi charges head on and sucks up attacks, then you use your javelins to harrass their leader, while Akira flies over the enemy and takes Takumi's foes in the rear for backstab damage. You can keep the leader too busy to cast, until we can all mob him."

"But Takumi keeps losing hit points so fast," Older-
Mai said fretfully.

"It's okay, sis," Older-Takumi said. "That's my job. You're faster than me with light armor and you have a ranged attack and I don't, so I go melee."

The game kept Older-Mai from exploding from stress, so she wasn't curled up in a ball any more. Which is why Older-Nao had suggested it.

Older-Nao's phone rang. "Hello?"

"Hey there, you likely know who this is," Nao said.

"Hey, you sound like me," Older-Nao said. "Are you a younger me?"

Everyone else froze and looked at her.

"I...how is Mother?" Nao asked softly.

"Mom and Dad are fine," Older-Nao said. "They're in Hokkaido, safely far away from whatever is trashing Fuyuki City and freezing it over."

"I think it's starting to snow on Akane and I," Nao said. "Something is totally fu...wrong with the weather. So, Mom, Dad, our siblings are okay?" she said very softly.

"Yeah, they're always okay. Closest any of us ever came to getting hurt was when we nearly walked into a gang fight. The cops never did figure out what killed that gang, but we all hid in a dumpster when we heard the gun fire. Our car had broken down and we were trying to get to somewhere with a phone to call a wrecker and it was late and Dad stupidly wanted a shortcut. Mom never let him take a shortcut again."

"The Dead Boys?" Nao asked softly.

"Yeah, did that happen to you too?" Older-Nao asked curiously.

"Yes, of course it did," Nao said, though Older Nao heard her voice wobble and smelled a lie. But she didn't press her other self.

"You'd still be in middle school, right?" Older-Nao asked.

Everyone was lurking around her, trying to listen and pretending not to.

"Yeah. Did you room with Aoi-chan?" Nao asked.

"She was a great roommate, set me up with my first boyfriend too," Older-Nao said nostalgicly. "But you know how middle school romance is. We went out for three weeks and then I caught him hitting on Aoi and it all went to hell." She shook her head, smiling a little. "Anyway, I don't have a steady right now, but I've had a half-dozen or so steadies and some dates the last six years, so don't worry, things will look up for you. College boys are a definite improvement. But I'm not half as good at seducing them as Aoi, even though I try."

There was an odd noise.

"I'm...seeing a boy named Umino Gurio," Nao said softly. "He's really devoted to me and he's a high school student."

"Oooh, I did that," Older-Nao said. "Makes you feel more mature, right?"

"Yes," Nao said softly, her voice wobbling a little. "You're not a virgin, right?"

"I was a...second year? Yes, second year when I lost my virginity, though I probably would have as a freshman, except for Chie deciding it would be funny to take a picture of us and he panicked and ran and never came back," Older-Nao said a little bitterly. "And she had sex with him later. But we eventually made up."

"I thought she was totally gay," Nao said, surprised.

"Don't get drunk with her and NEVER ask me why," Older-Nao said, hand to her face.

Older-Akira and Takumi began laughing, while Older-
Mai said, "Don't tell her about that!" frantically.

"Sister, is there something we don't know?" Older-
Takumi asked.

"There is nothing to know," Older-Mai said desperately.

"Are you in this war or did someone just clone us all and turn us loose?" Older-Nao asked.

"Yes and yes," Nao said. "None of us remember anything past the summer of 2004," she continued. "But no one bothered to clone Kazuya or send him through time with us or whatever the hell happened, so Akane's not too happy about that."

"Don't tell her about that!" Older-Nao heard Akane say.

"Akane has a girlfriend now," Nao said musically.

"Holy shit," Older-Nao said. "Younger-Akane HAS A GIRLFRIEND," she said to those around her.

"You're shitting us," Older-Takumi said, boggled.

"That's perfectly normal and natural," Older-Mai said a little defensively.

"Is she part of Mai's harem?" Older-Nao asked.

Older-Mai grabbed the phone. "I do not have a harem!"

She and Older-Nao began to wrestle and Older-Akira evacuated Brigit from the table.

Older-Takumi took the phone. "My sister is totally the most horny bi person on earth and is shacked up with Mikoto, Shiho, and Yuuichi, though she at least married Yuuichi. I guess if Reito wasn't Mikoto's brother, they'd probably be doing him too. You know about Brigit?"

"Who is Brigit?" Nao asked.

"My little niece. Mai and Yuuichi's baby."

"GIVE ME MY PHONE, AAARGH!" Older-Nao shouted as she and Older-Mai rolled around.

"A baby," Nao said softly. "Do you all live in Fuyuki City?"

"We evacuated to Castle Haruka, or whatever this place is," Older-Takumi said. "We had some trouble with some of the other people in your War. What the hell is going on?" he asked urgently.

For a moment, Nao was silent. "If you ever have sex with Akira without a condom again, I am going to castrate you."

"I don't care if you think it chafes or isn't as fun, you could get her pregnant, you idiot! Put your sister on," Nao said.

"But..."

"PUT YOUR SISTER ON."

Older-Takumi pulled Older-Mai off Older-Nao and passed her the phone.

"What is it?" Older-Mai asked nervously.

"Look, you have to make sure your idiot brother uses a condom, no matter how much birth control meds Akira is on. And if she isn't, GET HER ON IT," Nao said.

"Of course she's on birth control," Older-Mai said. "Wait, Takumi isn't using a condom?" She sounded mad now.

Older-Nao began laughing and Older-Akira stared at the baby. Older-Takumi cringed.

"I just had to tell you that," Nao said. "For his own good."

"I...how long is this war going to last?" Older-Mai asked Nao nervously, hoping this wasn't a breach of the deal young Mikoto had made.

"I don't know. Look, Mai. There is a crazy homocidal maniac version of Shizuru running around cutting people's limbs off with a naginata. Tell your Shizuru to stick to Western clothing and if you see a Shizuru in a kimono, run for the hills. I don't know how many of us are in this war, but I saw her cut a man's arm off and then basically..." Nao grimaced. "Just run if she shows up but I don't know if she knows any of you exist."

Older-Mai grimaced. "We're far out of the city and that hideous storm you're in."

"Mai, do you believe in some kind of afterlife?" Nao asked softly.

"Yes, though I can't say I'm a theologian," Older-Mai said.

"Pray for us," Nao said. "I can't...I've seen too much to believe in any gods, but I can believe in people. I didn't believe in anything for a while, but I can believe in people. Some people. A few. It's something, right?"

"The Nao I know is a little shy with strangers and kind of geeky, but she's kind and loving and smart. Probably smarter than me," Older-Mai said softly. "So if you're a younger version of her, then I believe in you. I remember how you were back then. And I know you'll do the right thing."

Was the younger Nao crying? Or was that just the rain?

"I have a boyfriend, Umino Gurio. He'd tell me that," Nao said softly. "Look, if we win, we'll call you. If we lose...pray we win. Also, your baby just crapped herself."

Older-Akira made a noise of disgust.

"Put Older-me back on," Nao said, her voice really shaking now.

Older-Mai passed the phone and went to take the baby.

"Hey," Older-Nao said softly. "I see Mai decided to gush all over you."

"We're nearly at the barbeque place," Nao said. "Look, you have my number, but don't call me unless it's an emergency. You're safer that way. But I think..." She sighed. "I don't know what a Labanite is, either."

"So Mai has a harem?"

"Totally."

"Damn, I have to give her more respect now," Nao said. "Anyway, I have to go. Just...you should call the folks, tell them you love them. Just in case."

"Is something going to happen to them?" Older-Nao asked nervously.

"Not if I can help it, but you never know when tragedy can strike and you can lose everything," Nao said softly. "Good luck, older-me."

"Good luck, younger-me."

Click.

Time to call the parents, let them know I'm alive, Older-Nao thought. Given the weather, I'm surprised they haven't called already.

She made the call.

There was a four car pileup outside one of the rooms in Shirou's house as Archer, Rin, Taiga-sensei, and Mai all tried to spy through a slit open doorway on Shirou and Sakura at once. Suguira-sensei had just gone immaterial and walked through the wall to peek.

Sakura had her shirt off and so did Shirou and his face was buried in her cleavage. Until Sakura noticed the people peeking and made a strangled cry.

Shirou said, "What did I do wrong?" in a panic.

"No, wonderful, nice, THEY WATCH US!" Sakura managed to say.

Shirou froze in place.

"We're not watching at all!" Rin said, feeling a surge of jealousy. "We wouldn't want to see Shirou with his shirt off at all!"

Archer decided it best to just drag Rin away now before she could speak again.

Taiga-sensei walked in, while Mai lurked in the doorway. "You're too young for sex."

"Please, I want to know how it feels with someone who actually likes me," Sakura said softly.

Taiga-sensei's brain now caught up everything and she froze in place. "I..."

"I mean..." Sakura continued.

Taiga-sensei softened. "Alright. Just this once. Mai, come in here."

"What?" Mai said from the hallway.

"We have to show them how to do this right, if they only get to do it once," Taiga-sensei.

"But neither of you is a boy," Sakura mumbled.

Shirou was simply frozen in place.

Mai ran.

"Come back here..." Taiga-sensei ran after her.

"I'm starting to see why all the doors in America have locks on them," Shirou finally mumbled and then Sakura pulled him back down.

The Siege Perilous had been made by Merlin, they said. It had nice red satin over a nice padded back and bottom and it looked very comfortable. As people streamed into the Round Table chamber, a slumbering lion, old and clearly not long for this world, rushed across the room and tried feebly to pounce on Arturia. She caught the lion, holding him up on his hind legs and embracing him. "Prester John, you're such a good boy," Arturia said, ruffling his mane as he purred and looked at her through his one good eye.

She walked over to the Siege; someone had covered the inscription with a green velvet cloth. Of course, for the revelation. She smiled a little smile and waited for everyone to stream in and the Round Table to take their places.

"Here's where we see if you sit on the floor, Arturia," Shiho said.

"Be nice," Yumeni said, still busy drawing.

She pulled off the cloth and the inscription now read, "This chair hight the Siege Perilous, and the mistress of this seat is Arturia Pendragon, the greatest knight in the world. Thrice may she call upon the power of this seat, so may she choose wisely. For this seat has another name and that name is the Throne of Heroes."

For a moment, Arturia stared. She had hoped, but this...was more than she expected. It couldn't be the literal throne, but if it was connected to it.

A tide of whispers went around the room, and Sir Gawaine asked, "The Throne of Heroes?"

"This can be but a shadow of the true thing, for the Throne of Heroes is the place in Heaven where the great heroes of mankind wait until they are needed again," Arturia said. "As the Round Table stands to this age, the Throne of Heroes stands to every age. When this world most needs defenders, they will return from the Throne of Heroes to fight once more. I have seen the future, and this seven score and ten fellowship is remembered nearly two thousand years later, across the world, and I pray that the legend of each and everyone of you noble knights will never die. Thus, my father is known as the Once and Future King, and now we know why."

Arturia sat down on the Siege Perilous, the Throne of Heroes. "The Knights of the Round Table are now complete! LET THE FEAST OF PENTECOST BEGIN!"

The servers went to work and also seated the other guests at other tables. Rei looked over at Yumeni's sketch, which seemed to show some woman being thrown down a well at some old man. "What is this?" she asked.

"I'm still figuring that out," Yumeni said. "Very important, can't talk, drawing."

Well, at least this part of the plan went well, Rei thought. Let's hope the rest does too.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but Tomoe-sensei needs Hotaru," Kaolinite said, smiling.

"What's going on?" Hotaru asked. She and Yukino were playing a golfing game together.

Kaolinite said, "He needs your help with an experiment."

"I can help too," Yukino said.

"I'm afraid we can't allow anyone in the War to participate," Kaolinite said. "But you are kind to offer."

"Oh no," Hotaru said, eyes widened. "Yukino! Get your masters and run! RUN WHILE YOU STILL CAN!" She began trying to shove Yukino.

"What's wrong?" Yukino asked.

"Don't be a pain," Kaolinite said, scooping up Hotaru. "Come help your father."

"You have to run! I don't want to hurt you!" Hotaru shouted. "RUN!"

"She does this whenever she isn't allowed to just run riot, being lazy," Kaolinite said, hauling her out of the room. "Be a good girl."

"What's going to happen, Hotaru?"

Hotaru tried to speak but no words came out and then she was gone.

I'd better go see what Michiru thinks, she thought.

Akira finally had to take the jewelry box into the backyard, summon Gennai, and have him smash it open with his mace and chain. It took four shots; she was amazed. But now it revealed...

A tiara of black metal with a large Beryl set into it; it evoked wings in its form. I guess you wear it, Akira thought and put it on.

Her clothing altered into a long, regal, purple dress that left her arms and shoulders bare; it wasn't clear how the dress stayed up, as it was clearly designed for someone who wasn't very skinny like Akira. Also possibly for someone perhaps about 30 or more centimeters taller than her too, as the train dragged on the ground. However, the dress now shimmied and reshaped itself, tightening at the top to hold itself in place and shortening. She had a gold bracelet on her right upper arm now, inlaid with slabs of beryl. And a ring with a beryl in it appeared on her left ring finger.

She could feel tremendous mana flowing through the whole collection of items, even the dress, though she felt quite strange in the dress. With a gesture, she blew up the table in the backyard, then realized she'd just blown up the table in the backyard. I am so dead, she thought.

Now, drawing energy, she shunted the rain off herself and rose into the air, flying. So much power. And within the jewel in the tiara...a reality marble. A pocket universe with an army awaiting her command.

The Einzbern were idiots to save this for a last resort, though it did seem to burn mana quickly. But you could drain mana with the regalia as well. Which was fortunate for her, given she had several very powerful people to kill.

They would pay for what they had done. They would pay in droves. They would learn the bearer of the Magnificent Beryl was NOT to be trifled with.

"Ami, any luck scanning for Rei?" Usagi asked Ami.

Sailor Star Mercury shook her head. "I'm afraid not. She's not in Fuyuki City. And we visited the temple; no sign of violence."

Snow was coming down in sheets outside and blowing around. Everything was closing down and people were panicking. The weathermen on TV looked close to just crying in confusion. CNN International, Al Jazeera, BBC International, and many other news agencies were flooding into town. The Weather Channel had the highest ratings of its existence. Temperatures were down to about -5 Centigrade. The airport had closed and the memorial service for the flight that terrorists blew up had to be reduced to a televised speech by the head of the prefecture and a brief message of condolence from the Prime Minister.

But the howling storm went out to about 10 miles past the city limits and stopped; beyond it was a zone of thirty miles of rain and high winds, but the temperatures were around 11 to 14 Centigrade. Cold, but not unseasonably so.

"But there are rumors of a giant raven attacking and destroying Castle Einzbern with fire," Sailor Star Mercury said. "Sounds to me like it could be Rei at work. She may assume the rest of us are asleep and is trying to fight all the evil herself so we can have normal lives."

Usagi cringed, then Akane put an arm around her. "We will find her," Akane said firmly.

"Yeah, we have lots of new team members now," Sailor Star Venus said. "We'll find Rei and suit her up if we need to. How's the search for other masters going, Ami?"

She showed them a map of the city. "Four masters and servants here," she said. "Three masters and servants here," she said pointing to a second location. "And all of us here, three Senshi, three Masters, three Servants." She pointed to a fourth location, near the second. "And here are two...I'm not sure what they are, but they're very powerful nexi of magical energy. Maybe this is Alyssa and her guardian from your dream?"

"That first place is Shirou's house," Usagi said. But they only had three masters, right?

"The second is Tomoe's house, the Arbiter of the War," Akane said.

"The last place is also an all-you-can-eat place," Usagi said.

Everyone laughed and she grumbled, but then smiled just a touch.

"I guess Sakura must be a master, but I wonder why we didn't meet her servant," Naru said thoughtfully.

"I wonder if this means Lancer is dead; she's not out on her own, anyway," Nephrite said.

They began discussing who was where and whether to approach Shirou's group.

Reinforce had applications Shirou had never thought of before, but which enabled him to make Sakura very happy. And vice versa once she picked it up.

The amount of noise they made was less of a happy-
maker for everyone else, though.

Taiga-sensei's eyes crossed. "I know she...but I...aaaaaa."

"I know, they're loud," Mai said. They were in the dojo; she was experimenting with her gem and Taiga-sensei was practicing sword forms.

"I'm a Jedi. The disturbance in the Force is making me..." Taiga-sensei's eyes crossed. "Do not let me go offer to help them."

Mai winced. She was glad she couldn't pick up their souls or whatever was happening. "Okay."

"I sense...oh dear."

"What's wrong?" Mai asked, worried.

"Follow me."

They found Rin in the living room, trying to head towards the sounds of love-making, while Archer was trying to drag her back. "Young ladies should be chaste!" Archer pleaded.

"I have to either join them, kill them, or GO CRAZY," Rin said. "I can't take any more of this."

"Did you have a sister when you were little? Who had to leave your house?" Taiga-sensei asked.

"Yes, but Father died before he could tell me where she went. He wouldn't talk about it," Rin said. "Wait...what?" She paused. "Please don't tell me Shirou used to be my sister."

"..." Mai stared mindlessly. Archer face-faulted.

"SAKURA," Taiga-sensei said. "I sense she is your sister."

"But not Shirou," Rin said carefully.

"Well, he is an orphan of unknown parentage, so it's not impossible," Taiga-sensei said.

"Hmm, the odds that Shirou and Sakura are siblings are extremely low, Sakura is my sister, odds all three of us are siblings are stupidly low," Rin said. "So as long as I don't do it with Sakura, just Shirou, I am still good!"

"You'll regret this when you calm down," Taiga-sensei said.

"I will GO MAD before then," Rin said.

"And Shirou will get inflated expectations about always having two women."

Rin grimaced. "Fine, but what else can I do?"

Taiga-sensei was about to volunteer herself, then realized. "Dammit, you're under age. Mai, you're going to have to sex up Rin."

"I refuse to do something that only happens in porn games!" Mai said. "I don't want to make love to anyone unless I'm in love with them." Also, she'd never done it and didn't know how. Rin was kind of cute, but she was NOT going to lose her virginity just because Rin was getting horny, even if listening to them was making Mai a little crazy.

"Come and sword practice with me," Taiga-sensei said. "Mai can sound-proof the dojo and we can distract ourselves."

"Fine," Rin said. "I JUST HAVE TO DO SOMETHING."

Taiga-sensei understood that impulse well.

The Mercury computer indicated that the two anomalies were headed for Shirou's house, so the Senshi and allies plummeted into the snow, leaving Naru's mother and Ryo to hold down the house without them. They rode on Julia, Harry, and a flying, shimmering horoscope summoned by Nephrite. Snow was pouring down and the winds blowing like crazy. The senshi and the servants were little bothered by it, but Naru and Umino were shivering despite being all bundled up as much as possible. Umino had insisted on going, though Juliet had tried to talk him into staying behind. Ryo was going to help Naru's mother weave defensive magics over their apartment and shop.

Mostly by serving as a battery for her. He had a large well of energy but without the gem, lacked the skills to use it.

Umino rode behind Juliet, arms around her waist, head on her shoulder. "Wow, this is exciting," he said.

"Battle is very exciting, until you lose," she said. "You have to stick close to me and do everything I say. You understand that, Gurio-kun?"

"Don't worry," he said. "I will."

She wished she could believe that.

Usagi was riding behind Akane, arms around her waist and loving it. "I'm kind of jealous you all get magic pets that are cool. I got a cranky cat who used to always tell me I wasn't enough of a princess." She sighed. "I hope wherever Luna is, she's happy."

"Now, you must bring five DEBONED trout and..." Artemis said from inside the cat-god statue.

Then Luna landed in front of him, clawing the statue, which shattered, revealing Artemis to the dark-haired boy he'd been conning.

"Hello, MISSION CONTROL," Luna said sarcastically. "We're needed in Fuyuki City."

"We are?"

"HAVE YOU SEEN THE NEWS?"

Kosaka Junpei loomed over Artemis. "You're a MIGHTY SMALL cat god."

"LET'S GO TO FUYUKI CITY!" Artemis shouted and took off at high speed with Luna following him.

"Please, Daddy, no. We can be okay with just us," Hotaru pleaded.

"It's too late to turn back now. And soon, we'll have your mother back," Professor Tomoe said. "You will be the Master of the Grail, and its power will be yours."

Hotaru was pretty sure that this sort of thing always ended badly and usually in fire. But she couldn't fight her Daddy and that evil Kaolinite. And she did want Mommy, but this was wrong. So wrong.

Though maybe, at least, this meant her new friend would be okay. They wouldn't be trying this unless they had enough power to make the Grail work, right?

She didn't like the dress, though; it was one of her mother's old dresses and while it looked fine on her mother, Hotaru was just starting puberty, hadn't had her final growth spurt, and was basically too short and too skinny. However, it was covered with runes and things and more had been added. And Professor Tomoe and Kaolinite and Hotaru all lacked the skills to adjust it or make a new one of suitable material.

She stood in the center of the huge clock at the heart of Tomoe's dwelling. The movements of this clock and its two hands rang the cloister bell. A casual observer would have thought it was four thirty by the clock, the small hand pointing at 4, the large at six, but that was actually the casualty count of servants and masters. With six masters down, the Grail could be summoned. Professor Tomoe had long prepared for this day and now, Hotaru would summon the Grail and the miracles would be THEIRS.

He had not been sure they could pull it off, but they could. He'd cheated, rigged things successfully to enable extra servants, new classes of them in fact, to be summoned. To ensure that every rule but one could be twisted. And now his daughter Hotaru, who was a Master and a Servant at once thanks to his skill at enchantment and sorcery, would summon the Grail and they would be able to get the miracles for themselves.

Eudial perched on a stool nearby, guarding the door and wondering if this would actually work. After all, what if he'd extended the requirements for summoning the Grail? It might not show until all the bajillion Masters and other oddities went down.

Hotaru raised her arms and began to sing; she felt her body tingle with power as it linked to the grail and now Tomoe and Kaolinite sang as well. She knew Kaolinite's real name. Circe. A wicked sorceress. In theory, she was her father's Familiar, a Heroic Spirit called up outside the Grail War and bound to her father, but Hotaru didn't trust her at all.

And now the power of the Grail flowed into her as it appeared, a great shining cup of wine, a plate heaped with food, a cauldron of stew, a cornucopia of vegetables, and many others, flickering through different forms as it grew solid. But there were worms under the surface; the Grail had grown tainted from absorbing too much hate and death. It had helped to devastate the city in the last war, she realized now. It hungered for souls and power and beyond it was something else...

She tried to let go but it was too late. The power of the Grail filled her, a mixture of light and darkness; the left side of her body glowed white and the other side was shrouded in darkness. Ribbons of energy, white and black, exploded out of her, over the room and in the chaos, the Grail danced, serene and wild, peaceful and violent, offering hope and death at once.

Haruka and Michiru kicked down the door and Rider rushed in. Yukino lurked just outside the door, scrying with Diana and linked to the others by some of Diana's spores, used for communication.

"What have you done to Hotaru?" Michiru demanded angrily.

"This is how the Fifth Grail War ends! With the triumph of the House of Tomoe! But do not worry, you need fight no more, for six masters have fallen and now the Grail is ours! Hotaru-chan, bring back Keiko!" Tomoe-san yelled.

"Grail!," Hotaru said in an echoing voice. "Bring back Mama and Osaka-san's Daddy!" Hotaru knew what it was like to miss a loved one and she felt sympathetic.

Kaolinite, to the surprise of everyone, smiled. "Naru has great potential and it will be even greater with her father to guide her. That was very kind of you, Hotaru."

Hotaru was surprised by Kaolinite saying that.

Michiru was still very suspicious, but at the same time, she couldn't bring herself to say 'leave your mother dead' to Hotaru. But this couldn't be the end. Her stomach wouldn't be churning.

White energies corruscated out of the grail, one bolt depositing itself down before Tomoe-san. The energies spiralled away, depositing a naked woman, with a long tattoo of a serpent swallowing its own tail on her back, in front of Tomoe, who immediately took off his lab coat and threw it over her. She was his wife, Tomoe Keiko, who was substantially taller than her daughter and full-figured. She looked extremely confused.

The second bolt punched through the city and across it, out of sight.

"My dearest Kaolinite," Professor Tomoe said. "The second wish belongs to you."

"I don't want to give her a wish! She's mean and bad and wants to have you for herself!" Hotaru yelled. She looked older now, her hair grown down to just below her shoulders, straight and purple-black like her mother. Her face was still clearly not an adult, but she looked to be on the slope to adulthood. She still didn't fit the dress entirely, but she'd grown a remarkable amount and she had noticable breasts, though they were basically average for an adult woman.

Haruka didn't know jack about magical theory, but this looked bad to her. "Are you an idiot? Look what's happening to her!"

"The positive energies have diminished, but not the negative; if anything, they've grown stronger," Yukino said to her allies. "I don't like the look of this, though I'm not sure what it means."

"Please, Hotaru. Kaolinite has helped me for a decade to work towards this goal," Tomoe begged.

"Hotaru, I wish to be real. No longer dependent on Mana not to dissolve. I am only a copy of the real Circe, and I am no longer her. I am my own woman, and all I ask is that I become a real person. Otherwise, I will evaporate if I run out of mana and my soul will be destroyed." Kaolinite sounded almost piteous.

"Please," Tomoe begged his daughter.

Haruka hesitated. The Servants deserved better than to evaporate, but... This would mean, though, that everything they'd done...and what about the Messiah? Was Hotaru the Messiah? Surely not. AAARGH, she didn't know what to do.

Hotaru could not deny them. "Grail! I want you to make Kaolinite and my friend Yukino no longer dependent on mana in order to keep living!"

"Hey, I could use that too!" Natsuki shouted.

"And her too!" Hotaru said.

White energies corruscated into Natsuki, Kaolinite, and Yukino. They looked the same to a casual glance, but all three of them suddenly felt hungry. Real hunger. They no longer needed mana supplied them just to live...but now they needed food and drink or they would starve.

Kaolinite grabbed Tomoe-san and kissed him passionately. Keiko now recovered enough to say, "HEY!" Then Kaolinite kissed her too and she forgot how to speak.

Natsuki said, "Umm...any chance you could throw that in for the other servants?"

Hotaru had vanished inside swirling darkness and a voice spoke. "THREE WISHES GRANTED TO THE LIGHT. BUT NOW I WILL HAVE MY SAY."

Hotaru began to scream and everyone else stared.

"TOMOE, YOU FOOL!" Michiru shouted. "What have you unleashed?"

"I AM MASTER PHAROAH NINETY AND THIS WORLD WILL NOW BELONG TO ME THROUGH MY DARK MESSIAH."

Hotaru floated out of the energies; she looked much like her mother, if her mother had galaxies and space in her eye sockets, anyway. She looked fairly stylish; the runes on her clothing had vanished and now she looked ready for an elegant night on the town. She wore a necklace with a black metal raven with diamond eyes, dangling down her chest. The number 9 was inscribed in blue jade on the raven's body. "I am Mistress Nine," she announced. "The voice of Master Pharoah Ninety, who has claimed this world. I am the Dark Messiah, and all of you who have pledged yourself to the Grail belong to me by right and now I will take you."

Eudial immediately ran out the door at high speed, summoning her hearse.

Dark energies now washed over everything in sight. Michiru and Haruka shouted, "ATTACK!" But now their Lesser Miracles activated and they dissolved away, taken by the power of the Grail. Kaolinite and Tomoe dissolved away as well, leaving Keiko to confront Mistress Nine.

"What are you doing? That was your father!" Keiko said urgently.

"She tried to steal Daddy from you," Mistress Nine said with an elegant voice but a slightly petulant posture. There must still be some of Hotaru in there, Yukino thought.

"Fight her, you can do it, Hotaru!" Yukino shouted to her.

"YOUR FATHER."

"He will become immortal and so shall you, Mother," Mistress Nine said, floating down and landing before her, galaxies in her eyes. "We will remake this world, this terrible world that always mistreated us." Then she embraced Keiko.

"My daughter..." Keiko said, then began to cry.

"But first this world must be purged of its corruption; the rubble must be cleared. But I am the Mistress of Endings; this is my destiny. Don't worry, Mother, you will be like me, a goddess." Her voice was gentle.

"I can't let you destroy the Earth," Natsuki said, leveling her guns. "It can be a mean shithole sometimes, but there are billions of innocents who never did you any harm."

"You can't understand what it was like to grow up as I did, friendless and alone. Everyone thought I was creepy and shunned me. Daddy couldn't send me to schools because everyone hated me on sight," Mistress Nine said, an arm still around her weeping mother. "Daddy was obsessed with bringing back Mother and Kaolinite hated me. She wanted Daddy for herself. There was only one person who was kind to me."

She turned now to Yukino and held out her hand. "Please, join me, Yukino. With the power of the Grail, we can bring back your Haruka from the Throne of Heroes and you will never be parted from her. Isn't that what you want?" Mistress Nine asked softly.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Keiko repeated to her daughter's shoulder as she cried on it. "I never should have gone after the Grail and left you, I'm so sorry."

Yukino felt tempted. It felt good to know Haruka had been worthy to join the rest of them in the Throne of Heroes, even if she wasn't sure how ANY of them had ended up in it. I'm certainly no hero, she thought.

And she understood what it meant to be an outcast. She'd been a shy and lonely child, made fun of for her glasses and hated by many for being smarter than them. There had been no Haruka for Hotaru. Yukino was weak and hurt enough that the thought of what she'd be without Haruka made her ache inside. "Hotaru," she said, holding out her hand. "Let go of the power. I know you can free yourself. You don't have to hurt anyone. I want to be your friend, but I can't go with you into the dark. I can't build my happiness on other's sorrow. You don't want to, do you?"

Natsuki waited very tensely. If Yukino did this...if she could talk Mistress Nine down... Well, she'd owe Yukino a LOT.

The galaxies faded, turning into eyes, and Mistress Nine hesitated, looking at her mother, then at Yukino.

Natsuki could feel her blood racing, hammering at her brain. She could feel the swirling dark energies and they made her extremely nervous.

"Yukino," Mistress Nine said softly, wistfully. She took a step towards Yukino.

"YOU MUST KILL HER," the booming voice said form the cloud. "THIS SUMMONING WAS FLAWED. ONE OF THE MASTERS DID NOT DIE, SHE VANISHED AND THE GRAIL MALFUNCTIONED. BUT SHE IS HUMAN NOW, AS IS HER COMPANION. THEIR SOULS COMBINED SHOULD BE ENOUGH."

"But she's my friend," Mistress Nine said.

"I AM THE MASTER AND YOU THE SERVANT! YOU WILL OBEY! SLAY THEM!"

The energies surged and white energies tried to rise up out of Hotaru but the white was weak and the darkness strong and now Mistress Nine's eyes blazed with the night once more. "I'm sorry," she whispered, then boldly proclaimed, "Now you will feed my MASTER!"

"No, Hotaru!" Yukino said desperately.

"Yukino, if you can, GET THE HELL OUT. Find Mai and tell her what happened! She's probably the only person with a chance of stopping this thing," Natsuki ordered. "You have a head start."

"What about you?"

"Well, my last big win involved mutual suicide. At least this time I'm only taking me with me," Natsuki said. "MEGA-DHURAN!"

The room smashed open as Mega-Dhuran appeared and Natsuki leaped onto his head.

Diana seized Yukino, they went insubstantial, and they fled at high speed.

"You cannot hope to defeat me! I control your Master, and you cannot easily refresh your mana, while I have nigh-infinite energy," Mistress Nine said. "My master cannot be stopped! He is beyond good and evil!"

"To quote, 'Good, Bad, I'm the one with the gun,'," Natsuki said. "MEGA-DHURAN! BURNING ALUMINIUM FURY ROUND!"

There was fire and there was light, and Diana and Yukino left the exploding burning and spiralling, howling energies behind, fleeing into the intensifying storm. I'm sorry, Natsuki, she thought. But I will do as you told me. And Hotaru...I will find a way to free you.

She felt a determination settling in. She didn't know how to free Hotaru, but she knew there had to be some way to do it. Mai could come back from the dead...surely she could figure something out.

Ryo waved his hands, chanting nonsense syllables. Or so they seemed to him. But they caused the ladle to rise out of the spinner rack and fly across the room to his hands. "Wow, this is easy." He was reading from Naru's mother's e-book reader. She'd converted her grimoires to PDFs for easy access outside her house while the real grimoires were sealed in the strongest magical vault she could make.

"You're good," Naru's mother said. "You have a great amount of talent, just no training." She was rather surprised, in fact.

"Now, trying it from memory..." He bungled four syllables and took a measuring cup to the face. "OWW."

The first hard part of sorcery was getting initiated. But the second hard part was the huge study it took to memorize spells so you didn't have to haul fragile, hard to replace grimoires with you everywhere. Or spend time reading as someone tried to kill you. This is why families built up magic crests over generations which contained dozens or even hundreds of spells. Pass the crest to the heir, instant archmagus.

Ryo, however, seemed able to pick up some spells abnormally fast. She was a little jealous.

Then there was a corruscating whirl of light and her husband fell naked to the floor.

"H...Hayao?" she asked, stunned.

He made gurgly noises and then asked, weakly, "Are the kids okay?"

"Honey, we only have one child," Naru's mother said, then hugged him and began to cry.

Ryo went quietly to get him some clothing.

"No, no, there were a bunch of kids, they were going to burn to death and Archer and Lancer were both coming for me and I knew Emiya's flunky was looking for you and Naru-chan. So I told Rider to save the kids. I had to order her with one of my command seals. She wouldn't leave me. She was a good woman, a real heroine," he said softly. "I sent Emiya a final message, begging him to leave you and Naru alone and then I got killed. I'm not even sure if it was Lancer or Archer who killed me. Only, I seem to not be dead."

"Naru must have gotten the grail," Osaka Meiko said, kissing her husband. "Hopefully, that means no more storm, either."

He stared out the window. "This is...this is not good at all."

"I know. But Naru saved you." She paused. "Wait...you sent Rider away?"

"We were both going to die. Better she survive and save the kids and you be safe. I wasn't cut out for the Grail War," he said, sighing. "I was a fool. But I saved some children. That makes me happier. And I protected you as I see you're both still alive and now we're back together and I swear I will never do anything that foolish again."

"I guess Naru will be home soon; we'd better get you some clothing," Naru's mother said. And then we can call Naru, see how soon she'll be home.

She was the happiest woman on Earth.

King Arthur had taken his daughter for a private family meeting. Himself, Lancelot, Guenevere, Kay, Arturia, Rei, Yumeni, and Shiho. The Panther Knight stood guard in the hallway with the rest of tonight's Honor Guard (Constantine, Aggravaine, Safer (brother of Palomedes), Lionel, and the Knight of the Blue Helmet, who everyone knew was actually Tristam but didn't have the heart to tell him that not everyone was so easily fooled by disguises as he was).

"Sire, I have urgent news for you," Yumeni said to King Arthur, right as he was about to speak.

They were seated around a small round table in one of the parlors with a nice fire in the fireplace and hot tea and biscuits with butter and jam set out on the table. Shiho was forcing herself not to devour them in a frenzy. SO GOOD.

"Go on...Lady Yumeni?"

"That is my name, thank you, sire," Yumeni said, hoping this followed protocol. She laid out her sketch. "I am not sure who this woman is or the man, but I feel this is important."

"I don't recognize the boot kicking her, but that is Nimue falling head first from above towards Merlin as he desperately tries to shield his face from the imminent impact," Kay said.

"You have it exactly, brother," King Arthur said. "I fear this means Nimue is lost to us as Merlin was. Possibly at the hands of Brisen," he said, grimacing.

"Wait...I thought you were Nimue," Lancelot said, looking at Arturia, then at King Arthur. "While that is you," he said, pointing to Arturia. "The real you. I mean, you're even using your real name."

"Known only to us and Nimue," Arturia said. "I am, indeed, Arturia Pendragon, Once and Future Queen of the Britons. And that is also me." She said, pointing to Arthur. "In the future, I time travelled much further into the future and fought in two future wars, one of which is still going on."

"But...it's in the future, so how can it still be going on?" Lancelot asked. This was clearly going to be one of those adventures that would be a good tale years later, but a huge pain RIGHT NOW.

"Once things are settled here, I must return to the future," Arturia said. "I swore to avenge the death of Lady Reika, I must avenge the death of Prince Endymion, and the world must be saved from the threat of destruction which Princess Rei has foreseen. I do not know if I will ever be able to return to Britain. But I don't mind not knowing. Even with my advisors, the future is largely a mystery to me and I must admit I'm enjoying that. I'm enjoying being free." Her voice was joyous. "I feared I would have to kill Galahad, but now he is free, free of his doom and free of being a pawn. Father...sister...Arturia," she said. "I want you to be free."

"I cannot be free. My course is set," King Arthur said mournfully.

"It is not. I thought that. I thought chains I could never escape trapped me. And so I let the chains rule me and I grew miserable and tired, but I hid it, for I thought my duty was my life," Arturia said to Arthur. "I thought I must be all knight and no woman. No human. But no one can live like that. And you don't have to. You have a brother who loves you and a wife who loves you and a best friend who loves you too."

"I..." Arthur said.

"It is true," Guenevere said. "We love you. You have sacrificed everything for us, for our kingdom and never asked anything in return. Do you know how guilty that makes me feel? Makes us feel?" she asked softly. "I can't stand seeing you so unhappy. Every year it gets worse and I was starting to worry it might be too late to help you at all." She took one of his hands.

"Your...Arturia, what should we call you?"

"I am proud to call myself daughter of King Arthur," Arturia said. "I am King Arthur, but I have had many more years and I am changing. But I want you...I want you to be happy. As I am happy," Arturia said urgently.

"And I wish you to be happy," Lancelot said. THIS he could understand. "We would do anything for you. Anything. Just tell us how to help you." He took Arturia's other hand.

"I love you, sister," Kay said, rising, circling, and putting his hands on Arturia's shoulders. "I always have and I always will."

"Isn't this going to change history?" Arthur asked softly. "What happens to you if you are the future me?"

"I don't know," Arturia said. "But I am willing to take that chance."

"I think the Norns are going to come and gutpunch us," Shiho said.

"We'll have to ask Pluto," Rei said.

"The Roman death god?" Kay asked in confusion.

"Long story."

"Father, I will need your consent to present a request to the knights tomorrow," Arturia said. "I cannot win this war without an army. I will need the aid of the Round Table, and you are the King and its leader and I am but your daughter."

"We're going to the future?" Lancelot asked.

"The Siege Perilous now answers to me," Arturia said. "All those who sit within it will dwell within it when they die, and I, as the master of the Siege, will be able to call forth your souls thrice to do battle. But I ask only that those willing to make this committment do so. It is a heavy request but I believe it necessary," Arturia said.

"I will do it," Lancelot said. "It is only the beginning of the debt I owe you, but I want, I need...what true knight of valor could pass up the chance to fight to save all the world in the future?"

"I grant your request and I will sit in it myself," King Arthur said. "If the world needs me, I must do my duty."

"If Arthur and Lancelot are going, then I am going too," Gunevere said to Arturia. "And do not dare to tell me no. If my husband is to bind himself to this, then I will go with him."

"Guenevere," King Arthur began.

"I will not let you go throw yourself on another blade for us without us, Arthur. We are going with you. We love you and we will bind our fates to yours, until the end of this world." Her voice was hot with passion and now King Arthur's eyes widened.

"Guenevere," he said, voice trembling.

"And I. You wouldn't remember to clean your clothing or buy fresh food without me, and I don't think the world will be well serviced by a stinking, badly dressed, starving Once and Future King," Kay said, clapping Arthur's shoulder.

"I do not care what you look like under that illusion. I know the real you and I love you," Guenevere said. "We are taking you tonight and that is that."

"W..." King Arthur now looked a bit overwhelmed and Lancelot smiled.

"Well, sister," Kay said to Arturia. "Niece. I must call you that in public. I think it is time for us to adjourn with your ladies and let them settle things."

"I could go for one of your really good apple and jam and butter sandwiches which Father wouldn't ever let us make," Arturia said to Kay. "When he was looking." She laughed softly and Kay laughed too.

"I will be spending the night with my knight, tee hee," Yumeni said. "Get it?"

"I want to try your special sandwich too," Shiho said.

"See you in the morning, Lady Yumeni," Kay said. "Let's go find Sukrenia, and then we can all have our own late-night feast!"

Taiga-sensei and Rin were lying on the floor of the dojo, wiped out from long sword fighting. The sounds of mad lovemaking had thankfully faded, though now the sound of the storm was loud enough to nearly drown it out. Temperatures were down to -10, there was three feet of snow outside, and it was getting pretty cold in the house, but especially in the dojo. Suguira-sensei now dragged Taiga-sensei and Rin into the living room, while Mai went outside and melted enough snow for them to get to and use Taiga-sensei's car if necessary. Then she began gently warming the living room as a living fireplace; with the Gem's help this took only a tiny trickle of energy.

"We'd best let them nap so they'll be ready to go out tonight," Archer said.

Suguira-sensei nodded. "Agreed."

They watched TV with closed captioning and the sound off until they had a visitor.

A mass of snow appeared, then stirred and became a snow-laden Yukino and Diana. The snow turned to water swiftly, drenching them and Yukino said, "Mai, we're in big trouble."

"Yukino!" Mai said, and ran over to her. Rin and Taiga-sensei stirred. "What?" Rin mumbled.

Yukino began to cry. "We failed and now the world is going to end and I don't know what to do."

Taiga-sensei suddenly sat up and announced, "I feel a vast disturbance in the Force." Her gem was pulsing under her shirt. "Something terrible is loose."

"His name is Master Pharoah 90," Yukino said. "The Dark Messiah has come to do his will and I think it's the end of the world."

"As we know it?" Suguira-sensei asked impishly.

"What?" Yukino asked in confusion.

"Yukino, tell us everything," Mai said. "Sister Yukariko, go get Sakura and Shirou."

"The Grail ate Haruka and Michiru, our masters," Yukino said. "Something called Master Pharoah 90 controls it now and he turned Hotaru into his Servant, Dark Messiah. Natsuki sacrificed herself so I could escape and rally everyone, but I fear she's dead."

The air rippled and Lancer appeared. "Natsuki is dead?" she said urgently.

Everyone else jumped and Yukino now hid behind Mai. "It's not my fault!" Yukino said desperately.

"Natsuki sacrificed herself so I could escape to warn everyone," Yukino said miserably. "Please don't hurt me."

"I'm not going to hurt you," Lancer said to Yukino. "But this Dark Messiah, I am going to RIP OUT HER HEART." Her voice was cold and her eyes somehow became even more crimson than before.

"Also, I think if you have any Lesser Miracles, the Grail will eat your soul," Yukino said. "That's how it consumed Haruka and Michiru."

"SHINY MAGIC ROCK, PURGE US OF ANY LINKS THE GRAIL HAS TO US!" Taiga-sensei said in a frenzy. White light erupted over everything and then Taiga-sensei passed out.

Rin blinked; her lesser miracle marks had turned into tigers rampant and holding a bokken. Ditto for Taiga-
sensei.

"Taiga-sensei!" Mai said. She'd used a lot of power for that, and now Mai actually put her hand on the rock and fed Taiga-sensei a little of her own mana to make sure she wouldn't start dying.

Taiga-sensei continued, however, to slumber.

Shirou and Sakura, each clad in a sheet, now stumbled out. They both looked rather embarrassed, but Sakura was smiling broadly. Lancer kneeled before Sakura. "Mistress, the Grail War is over and we lost. We must avenge Natsuki. I have watched over you this long and protected the one you love; now I ask your help to avenge the one I love." Her voice was full of cold anger.

"Of course," Sakura said. "We will annihilate them," she said, her voice harsh. Her eyes blazed with purple fire. "Those who get in the way of love will pay in fire and blood."

Everyone stared at her, and Shirou said, "Isn't that overdoing it, Sakura?" His voice wobbled with shock.

"If anyone killed you, I would rip out their heart," Sakura said cheerfully.

Shirou sweatdropped.

Okay, good thing they restrained me, Rin thought, sweatdropping.

"I would have to rip it out for you, master," Lancer said to Sakura. "I fear you're not strong enough."

"Why did you murder that priest! He wasn't a threat to Sakura!" Archer said angrily.

"Priest? What priest?" Lancer said, blinking. "I have not killed any priests, Sister."

"Sakura, why didn't you tell us Lancer is your Servant?" Shirou asked urgently.

Sakura tried to speak but couldn't and then began to twitch and shake and you could see worms moving under her skin and everyone stared.

"She summoned me in her sleep," Lancer said. "And I used my own judgement of what she needed. I also saved you and her from the Matou mansion, Shirou. She loves you and I promise I will never hurt you and always protect you so long as you are good to her. However, I think someone needs to do something because I lack the power to deal with whatever is going on so someone had better DO SOMETHING," she said with ever growing urgency that seemed even stranger than her moments of anger.

Rin stared. "The rumors are true, Zouken did invent magical worms and infected his descendents with them."

Shirou grabbed Sakura and began reinforcing her body desperately. "Sakura, tell us what to do, I don't know how to help you!"

This did, in fact, help her, as his efforts stymied the effort of the worms to stage their takeover. The badside was that it prolonged her agony.

"This is a job for...me, the only COMPETENT MAGE ON THIS WHOLE TEAM," Rin said, a little proudly. "Lancer, what does your gem do?"

"It conveys vigor or sloth," Lancer said.

"Pour all the vigor you can into Shirou so he can continue to keep the worms from taking Sakura over completely," Rin said. "Archer, summon St. Vrus. Mai, prop up Taiga-sensei and use her Shiny Magic Rock. Suguira-sensei, stand by to KICK ASS. We're going to combine our powers and form a Reality Marble where we can confront what is inside Sakura and kill it. This is going to be very dangerous and it may well trap us all in a bubble universe or something."

"What about me?" Yukino asked.

"There are more masters, right?"

"Yes, I think so," Yukino said.

"You have to find them. We all are going to have to join forces under MY leadership," Rin said. "Defeat Master Pharoah 90, save the world and show I am the BEST mage of my generation."

"Why don't we recarve Mount Fuji to resemble you while we're at it?" Suguira-sensei suggested, grinning a little.

Lancer was now reinforced Shirou as he reinforced Sakura.

"What about me?" Shirou asked.

"Keep keeping her alive!" Rin said. "What you are ALREADY DOING." Something wrong with that boy. But she liked him anyway. Unfortunately, unless they were wrong about the sister thing, a threesome was not an option...and getting in with Sakura might be kind of dangerous anyway...

Shirou nodded.

Rin did her best to link everyone as Yukino took off in search of the other masters.

Then Saint Vrus activated his illusionary world and Rin bent her strength and that of the Shiny Magic Rock to reshape it and...

And then suddenly, ANOTHER reality blossomed out from inside Shirou, a THIRD ONE exploded out of Mai, a FOURTH ONE erupted out of Sakura, the four collided, and that's when the trouble started.

Yumeni had sort of expected a rather carnal evening, not that she had any experience of such things beyond the time they'd learned in art school not to try and draw a male and female nude model at the same time.

Instead, he had taken her out to the ramparts and then climbed down and serenaded her and read her hastily written love poetry, then they had spent FOREVER trying to help him climb back up once she'd given it her approval. By the time they finished that he was exhausted, so when they went back to her room, he'd sung to her and gradually drifted off to sleep, his head in her lap and she'd fallen asleep sitting up.

At least there was no danger of pregnancy, though.

Kenji and Ikukko sat in their hotel room, trying to pretend they knew what was going on or why their kids were not answering their phones or whether they would ever see them again.

Worse, the news indicated that the storm was coming on at high speed. The storm over Fuyuki City was expanding outwards in a circle at high speed, roughly 34 miles a minute. It had already rushed over Tokyo, which suddenly plunged in temperature; the city was in chaos. All over Japan, frantic efforts to prepare for the sudden winter onslaught were in progress.

Current estimates were that if it continued at this rate, in six hours, the entire Earth would be covered in the storm. It defied the laws of physics and made no sense whatsoever, but a million insane theories were already circulating.

All they knew was that their son and daughter were trapped in Fuyuki City while they sat in comfort in a nice warm room with TV and there was nothing they could do.

For parents, that was far worse than any storm.

Akira moved through the city; she'd figured out how to draw power from the storm. This would make her vengeance much easier as she was now feeding power to the armies within the Magnificent Beryl. They would be ready when she finally found her foes.

Unfortunately for all the vast power of the Magnificent Beryl...it couldn't actually scry for things so the search was going...slowly. Soon, though, she'd have an army ready to search for her.

The cold and snow trapped most inside, so they couldn't see the streaks of red in her long hair or that the dress now fit her pretty well or her lovely violet eyes.

"And Ywain the Bastard," Kay read off the scroll. He sat down on the Siege Perilous, then put his feet up on the Round Table, to the laughter of all and the frustration of Kay, who resented anything likely to put dings in that stupidly expensive table. "And that is all one hundred and fifty of the Knights," he said.

To Arturia's surprise, but pleasure, every single knight had volunteered to sit, to become part of the legend irrevocably. Perhaps I should have expected this, she thought. No knight could allow his fellows to go without them, not when so many other brave knights were doing so.

And now Arthur strode up with Guenevere and they sat down together, though she had to sit on his lap, which caused some whispers but also some applause.

Then Prester John tried to climb into Guenevere's lap and the Siege Perilous nearly fell on Kay and Arthur began to laugh and laugh and laugh and got up and kneeled and hugged his brave old lion and stroked his mane and whispered to him as Prester John licked his face.

Even Mordred had sat...Mordred.

The Grail Quest...Mordred had never been happy, but something had finished breaking inside him during it. Arturia had never known what. But she couldn't let that happen again.

He was talking quietly to his brothers. Gawaine, now growing rather stout but still strong and reliable and a bit of a hot head, though not as much as in times past. Aggravaine, a mountain of a man who never seemed happy about anything. Gaheris, erratic and tempermental, a brilliant harpist, breeder of horses, and rider of horses, but bad with people. Gareth the gentle, a knight who did not win every fight, but never did the wrong thing and never acted in wrath.

And Mordred, handsome, charming, witty, but also bitter, cynical, and a critic of everything. Yet, up to now, Arturia knew, Mordred had upheld the King's law, not rocked the boat of Camelot on anything important, and did not challenge Arthur's designation of Constantine as heir. Few knew of Mordred's origins; everyone believed him the son of Lot, but he was actually a homoniculous made by Morgan and planted in her sister Morgan's womb.

Did he know the truth? She didn't know. Maybe that was what broke him. She herself had not known until he proclaimed himself the son of King Arthur and Morgan had taunted her with the truth. But was it truth? She'd never actually seen proof. He had the right look, but he could have gotten that naturally through Morgause.

She touched her rose, still fresh even now, and felt a little reassurance.

There was a way to test but no way to test it in this century. Blood. DNA. She didn't know much about it, but she remembered Emiya-san talking about it and how he could use a hair from someone to determine their ancestry, potency as a mage and many other things.

She conceived and gave birth to a plan.

"Uncles, it is good to finally meet you," Arturia said.

"You handled yourself well in the challenge. How is your leg?" Gawain said. "You look quite well."

Arturia suddenly remembered exactly how abnormally fast she could heal with her powers and that if she was to keep this up, she had to be careful about that. She had grown used to the Grail War where such things would not be questioned. "It feels quite well, thanks to Lady Rei's ministrations. Her arts are quite potent and I am young and still flexible."

Aggravaine groaned. "Don't remind me. My aches have pains and I think I begin to get gout."

"It seems strange to me that our bodies peak when they are so young and then we spend decades slowly falling apart," Gaheris said. "Not that I wish to give up those decades."

"Brothers, we should count ourselves blessed. We are all in good health and do not look or feel our true ages, by the magic of Camelot and the tender ministrations of our wives," Gareth said. "In our father's time, many a man Gawain's age felt his body fail him before he even reached Gawain's age."

Mordred was only 42, but looked more like 32. He was the shortest of the five, with a strong body but not so strong as those knights most dedicated to battle. He could fight, but unlike his brothers, he had an extensive education in such things as Greek and Latin literature, astronomy, math, logic, and philosophy. Indeed, his mother had intended him to enter the Church, but he'd wiggled out of it. She'd died a decade ago; someone had murdered her but no one knew who or why, but Gaheris had fled into the wilderness for several years, driven by despair, and returned more melancholy than before. Her lover, sir Lamorak, had left court as well, and only showed up at tournaments. A year ago, his grave had been found by a knight on a quest, but the means of his death was unknown. He'd shown up at the Surluse Tournament two years ago in disguise, jousted well, then left before the end and was never seen again.

"I'm not old enough for my gout to have gout yet," Mordred said. "You have most certainly caused quite a buzz in this court, Arturia," he now said to her. "I must admit I was happy to see that prat Galahad get his comeuppance. He's an arrogant little snot."

"Whereas you are the very soul of humility, brother?" Gawaine asked, amused.

"I am proud to say I am the most humble man on Earth and none will ever surpass my magnificent humility," Mordred said, and all his brothers laughed.

"I have a request of you all," Arturia said.

"Shall I empty the ocean with a spoon? Or perhaps command the waves to come and go according to a schedule?" Mordred asked.

"Actually, the waves do come and go according to a schedule, Mordred," Aggravaine said. "Barring storms, the tide can be predicted and harbormasters keep books of such things. Didn't you learn such things in all your books?" Aggravaine had no higher education and was proud of it and rather disdainful of those who pursued it.

"As you know, I am not fond of ships," Mordred said, frowning.

Exactly what had caused many young boys born in 512 to be kidnapped and set adrift at sea was unclear to most folk. Most blamed Morgan le Fay, though some asserted Merlin was to blame. Whatever the cause, Mordred had been among that number. However, some kindly fate had ensured the children landed in Frisia and rescued and eventually returned to Britain.

Mordred had not touched a ship since that day. He had been too young to fight in the great wars on the continent and even tended to avoid sea ports. He wouldn't even go on a river in a rowboat.

Which was why Arturia had left him as regent in her absence when she'd had to go to France to fight Lancelot after Lancelot and Guenevere's affair was exposed, leading him to rescue Guenevere. Many good knights had died, including Gaheris and Gareth. That had made reconcilliation impossible.

Left behind, Mordred had proclaimed the King was dead and tried to take over. Arturia had fought him and it all ended badly at Camlann.

Looking at him here and now, Arturia felt her gut churn; she had to know the truth. "In the future, it is a custom to take hairs from your kin and braid them into a bracelet you wear in battle," she said. "I would ask a lock from each of you, that I might do this. You are my closest family, along with Constantine."

"And Aunt Morgan," Gaheris said, then sighed.

"Of course," Gawaine said.

"Be careful, brothers, it may be she intends to marry us all, not just Gawaine," Mordred said and they all laughed, while Gawaine looked proud of himself, which made them laugh more.

She soon had all the hairs and got some from Constantine as well, to keep up her cover. She then tracked down Rei. Rei cut a lock from Arturia's hair and they adjourned to a parlor, where Rei threw a few hairs from Mordred into the fire with Arturia's. The fires blazed up and Rei and Shiho drew upon their powers.

"He is your son but his other parent is very closely related to you," Shiho said. "A sibling or aunt or uncle or even parent."

"Morgan," Arturia said softly.

"Or Morgause," Rei pointed out. "Are you sure he's an actual homoniculous? Or maybe he's just basically magic-assisted in-vitro fertilization."

"What?" Arturia asked and Rei explained.

"I expect he finds the truth of his heritage and it breaks him," Shiho said, sighing.

"Do you know? I mean...does Arthur know?" Rei asked.

"No, not yet. So who put him in the boat?" Shiho asked.

"Merlin did it, then told me after it was too late to stop him and I stupidly accepted it as 'necessary'. But I at least did penance for that," Arturia said. "I wore a hairshirt for five years." She grimaced at the memory. "Though I have to wonder why he did such a poor job of murder if he thought murder necessary."

"Well, the obvious answer is that he didn't actually want them dead. If you want to kill a bunch of kids, you stab them or throw them in meat grinders or slice them up with knife-hand-gloves or..." Shiho began. "Why are you two looking at me like that?"

"You...nothing," Arturia said. She sounded like the voice of experience but surely not.

"I didn't sleep for a week after those movies," Shiho said.

"What movies?" Rei asked.

"Some American thing Dad watched when he thought I was asleep. Then he and Mom would make out," Shiho continued. "During them. I was kind of hoping for a little sister, but Dad always used protection."

Too much information, Rei decided.

Mistress Nine had a serious problem. Natsuki had essentially levelled the Tomoe dwelling and buried her under rubble. This was the global focal point of the storm and she was buried under a small mountain of snow on top of the rubble and Natsuki had hurt her gravely. The grail had healed her wounds but she was still exhausted and low on mana. The Grail was trying to refill her, but it was burning most of its power on rendering the earth cold enough for Master Pharoah 90 to manifest himself without burning to death. Mind you, all the heat it absorbed would be turned into mana, but this took time, as the Grail had not been properly summoned. They needed more dead masters or to drain the life force of many humans.

But soon, soon she would have the power and then she would be free.

For now, she would hang out in her little ice cave and work on reformatting her parents; she'd tucked her mother back inside the grail to save her from Natsuki's attack.

As for Natsuki, she wasn't sure if the woman was alive or dead. She couldn't have survived this and yet the Grail didn't hold her soul, either. WHERE WAS SHE?

"Hmm, give me two," Natsuki said, sliding two cards across the table to Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh tossed her two cards. He grinned at his own. "Heracles?"

Heracles grunted with disgust. "DAMN THIS HAND." He threw all his cards wildly at Gilgamesh. "Five."

Medea made a gesture and the cards stopped in the air, danced around each other, then landed on the discard pile. "This is not fifty-two pickup, Heracles," she said.

"Foul sorceress! You will not fool me again!" Heracles said angrily.

Gilgamesh dealt him five cards. "Cu Chulainn?"

"Three." He tossed in three cards.

"You always throw in three," Gilgamesh observed.

"He has a taboo against discarding less than three," Medea said. "I could fix that for you, you know," she told him.

"I'm fine," Cu Chulainn said, then looked at his new cards. His aura turned dark and he howled, grabbing the table.

"Oh not AGAIN," Alexander said.

"I am never playing cards with him again," Medusa said, jumping back from the now wildly swinging table.

Natsuki shot him in the head and he collapsed.

His body, which had begun to twist and distort as he entered his 'warp spasm', his killing frenzy, returned to normal and he sat up as the hole in his head closed up. "I'm very sorry about that."

"You spilled my drink," Heracles howled and Natsuki shot him in the head.

"I like you, girl," Medea said. "I need to introduce you to my ex-husband, Jason. He's around here somewhere."

"You need to meet Perseus too," Medusa said.

Hanging out with ancient heroes for eternity was kind of cool, but when one out of every seven of them, maybe more, had fits of berserkergang...it was good Natsuki's guns had infinite magical ammo.

There was probably something Nao liked less than wandering around in sub-zero temperatures while her boyfriend slowly turned into a living snowman behind her, hunting for an out of control insane brat and her murderous android.

She couldn't have said what, though.

"So what's the plan, Sailor Moon?" Nao asked Sailor Moon.

"One of the anomalies possesses the Orange Crystal of Wrath and is accompanied by Bokushi," Sailor Star Mercury said. "The other possesses the Blue Crystal of Lust and is accompanied by Rikoukeidaa."

"Reika," Jupiter said, pained. "We have to heal them. I don't know if anyone...I'm sure the Priest has friends and Reika..." She stared at the ground, then straightened up. "Nothing would make Motoki happier than to get Reika back." She looked around, frowning. "Is it just me or is this close to the Crown Arcade? And...Mercury, show me your map."

Mercury did so.

"Oh god, we're headed right towards Motoki's apartment as well as that guy's house," Jupiter groaned.

"Blue Gem of Lust?" Nao said. "Does that mean the most horny person should fight them or the least?"

"Least," Mercury said.

"Which means Mercury," Sailor Star Venus said, grinning.

Mercury turned red.

"Who is still a virgin after dating Ryo for two years."

"Holy shit, girl, what is wrong with you?" Nao asked in shock.

"Juliet-chan, you shouldn't make fun of her," Umino said.

"I'm sorry," she said to him. "But come on. They've dated two years and no sex?"

"I'm shy, okay?" Mercury said to her computer.

"It's fine, Ami. I was a virgin until a few days ago," Sailor Moon said, patting her shoulder.

"Me too," Akane said.

"And me," Naru said.

"And I," Umino confessed.

"Am I the only virgin left?" Mercury asked weakly.

"Yes," Venus said. "But that's good because with your boyfriend not here, you probably can resist the Gem of Horniness better than the rest of us."

"Or maybe all her pent up frustration will explode," Nao said. "That being said, I should probably stay away from the Gem of Wrath too. Who is our least wrathful person?"

"USAGI," Naru, Nephrite, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, and Umino said in unison.

Sailor Moon said, "Nephrite, you should back up Mercury. Your love for Naru was so strong it broke Beryl's conditioning. It should let you resist the gem too. Juliet, I want you to engage Rikoukeidaa. She's got ranged attacks and can turn ranged attacks back, but she's weak at hand-to-
hand, I think. Once you grapple her, I can turn her back to Reika, I hope."

"Sailor Moon, I..." Jupiter began.

"Jupiter, you're our strongest hand-to-hand fighter. You haver to take on Bokushi or he'll start punching people out. Once you wear him down, I can heal him. Akane, Venus. I need you to deal with the person with the Gem of Wrath. Stay at a distance, hit them with winds and light, keep them busy chasing you as you are both fast and mobile. "Naru, you and I are in the reserve. We'll use our power to tip any fights that are going badly and I will need to heal people. If the person with the Blue Gem really is...somehow my daughter...I will have to help Ami talk her down." She frowned. "Or fight her."

Naru nodded.

"Holy shit, I think we have an actual battle plan," Jupiter said. "This feels weird."

"See, with our luck, the person with the Gem of Wrath will be a super-fast ninja who fires exploding throwing stars and the Gem of Lust will actually be the gem of LUSTING FOR BOOKS and Mercury will become DARK MERCURY, SLAVE OF THE WRITTEN WORD, or something," Venus said.

"Please don't give the universe any ideas," Umino mumbled.

"We need a good plan," Sailor Moon said. "I can't...I won't...I have to do better. Which means better planning. Though as Venus said, we may end up surprised by what we see."

And then, suddenly, Diana appeared with Yukino riding her. "Wait! I have critical news!" she said. "Don't shoot!"

"Yukino!" Akane said. "Are you in this war too?"

"The Arbiter of the war betrayed us all and took the Grail for himself, using his daughter to resurrect his wife," Yukino said. "But Master Pharoah Ninety...whatever that is...broke through and took control and now is controlling Hotaru and is going to destroy the world and we have to all team up to stop it and I think Natsuki is dead." She looked rather unhappy. "And the Grail ate Haruka and Michiru."

Sailor Moon frowned deeply. "They were friends of mine," she said softly.

"I was Michiru's servant," Yukino said. "Unfortunately, I think something went wrong at Shirou's house and now his house has vanished inside a big shining sphere."

"We're about to try and take down whoever has the Gems of Wrath and Lust," Usagi said. "Which may be my daughter from the future. Her Servant is Miyu, an artificial construct Servant from the future."

"She's incredibly dangerous," Yukino said, then began telling them everything she knew from their battle.

Kenji kicked the footrest, feeling extremely cooped up and frustrated. "Damnation."

"Language," his wife said instinctively, then they both laughed nervously.

"Our children...I'd do anything just to know they're okay."

ANYTHING?

They both started in shock. "Okay, I was exaggerating," Kenji said. "Umm...what are you?"

I NEED SOMEONE TO ACT AS AN ANCHOR FOR MY CHAMPION, the female voice said. IN RETURN, YOU MAY COMMAND HIM THRICE.

"I'll do it," Ikkuko said. "I'll do anything to know my children are safe."

YOU CAN COMMAND HIM TO FIND AND PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN AS ONE OF YOUR ORDERS.

"Then we have a deal," Ikkuko said.

"Wait, honey, we..." Kenji began.

A crescent moon blazed on her forehead, and three similar marks now appeared on her arm.

THE CONTRACT IS SEALED.

The light coming from her forehead coalesced into a person, a somewhat muscular man with short white hair, wearing black pants, a red tunic, and twin swords at his hip. For just a moment, Ikkuko regretted being married.

"I am the Red Counter-Guardian," the man said, then kissed Ikkuko's hand.

Kenji frowned at the man, who clearly wished Ikkuko wasn't married either. And might not let it stop him.

Ikkuko smiled and tried to make herself not smile. "I am Tsukino Ikkuko and this is my handsome husband Kenji."

"A pleasure to meet you," he said. "Here is my card."

'COUNTER GUARDIAN RED, EMIYA SHIROU'
'CGR , 111-UBW-FATE'

"Find my son and my daughter and rescue them. That's my first command," Ikkuko said. "I'll call you if I have more."

He whispered something to her and she turned red and Kenji grimaced. Then he held out a hand to Kenji and very seriously said, "I will ensure the safety of your children, sir."

Kenji softened just a little. "But how will you get to Tokyo?"

"Watch the parking lot," he said.

He then vanished and they went to the window.

The snow in the parking lot suddenly churned and a huge black sedan with a lot of probably unnecessary artistic flourishes evocative of bats on it exploded upwards out of the snow and then did a bootlegger reverse. Its giant jet afterburner kicked in and it took off at super-high speed, sending snow flying everywhere.

"Did we just make a deal with Kuan Yin to hire Batman or something?" Kenji asked, boggled.

Ikkuko tried to forget what the Red Counter-Guardian had told her he'd do WITHOUT needing to be commanded.

"You're the King," Arturia said. "I think...I think we have to tell him the truth so he won't end up thinking we hid this from him. But I will not be here a lot longer, and you will have to live with the consequences."

"DAMNATION," King Arthur said, pounding the table.

Guenevere rose and stood behind him, hands gently kneading his shoulder.

"I should have just killed Morgan, laws be damned!" Arthur said angrily.

"No, we must not stoop to injustice," Arturia said. "That is why I did not kill Dame Brisen. I know it is easy to hate Morgan, but that only...it never did me any good."

"How else am I supposed to feel?" Arthur said angrily.

"The King must cool his wrath with justice. Laws must bind men, or else hatred and force will rule. We have to present an example for others," Arturia said. "I know, father, I know."

"You calling me father makes me feel very strange," Arthur mumbled.

"I have died and been reborn," Arturia said. "But I come from you. If we acknowledge Mordred, he will be the heir. You and Guenevere were married in 514, so he predates me, though he would be a bastard."

"Technically, you would have precedence," Guenevere said. "Being legitimate."

"It would be best that I not assert an actual claim ahead of Constantine or Mordred, as I will soon have to return to the future," Arturia said.

"If you don't have Avalon, shouldn't you be aging now?" Guenevere suddenly asked Arturia.

"It hasn't been long enough to make it obvious yet," Arturia said. "However, once this is all complete, I will become a counter-guardian, eternally unaging, as is the case of all heroic spirits."

"Wait...I'm unaging?" Shiho asked.

"Yes."

"I AM GOING TO BE STUCK AT AGE 13 FOREVER?" Shiho asked.

Arturia had a sudden sinking feeling. "You didn't know?"

"But...but...how am I ever going to be with big brother if he grows up and I don't?" Shiho asked.

Rei said, "If he's a heroic spirit, he won't age either."

"But...we'll be kids forever," Shiho mumbled.

"I would happily give you some of my years if I could," Guenevere muttered, then looked embarrassed.

"You are still as lovely as the day we met," King Arthur said, then kissed her.

"Liar," she said, but she smiled.

From what she'd heard of Shiho's story, Arturia was dubious that 'Tate Yuuichi' had become a heroic spirit, but she wasn't going to rain on Shiho's parade any more than she could help. Hard enough to be stuck at that awkward age forever.

"So you think I should tell him," Arthur said to Arturia.

Arturia knew that tone of voice. It was the 'I am going to let someone wiser tell me how to think and what to do' voice. The voice that had to die if Arthur was ever going to have any happiness. "I think you are the King and it is your throne and you must make your own decision by your own wisdom. I think it best to tell him to avoid a repeat of the doom that consumed my reign. But you have to stop coasting, Father, and letting others dictate your life. That's how I blew everything. If you lead, I will follow."

"You certainly led last night," Guenevere purred to him and Arthur turned a little red.

Rei and Arturia both grinned, while Shiho looked confused.

"Where is Lady Yumeni?" Arturia asked.

"Good question," Rei said.

The Panther Knight looked down from the walls of the city and the palace (which connected to said walls). "I'm pretty sure the knight is supposed to humbly ask his lady to bring him up and to woo her with poetry and music and fine presents," he said.

"You can't climb well in that armor," Yumeni said from down on the ground. "And I'm much lighter to lift up in a laundry basket. Besides, it's only fair to take turns."

The Panther Knight knew they were often behind the times in Carbonek; they had only gotten in the 540 Edition of the Laws of the Court of Romance last year when a giant serpent who had been slain by the Knight of the Lion had turned out to be full of books, having eaten a monastery.

Wait, why did a bunch of monks have that?

"Okay, now hold on." Yumeni began frantically sketching.

Twenty minutes later, she was still at work and the Panther Knight found himself starting to nod off from having exerted himself so much trying to get up this wall the previous night.

This is why the 554th edition of the Laws of the Court of Romance (by Queen Guenevere, of course) strongly recommends against 'free style drawing and painting' as a form of wooing.

When Sailor Moon's crew spotted Alyssa and Miyu and Bokushi and Rikoukeidaa, the four of them were flying along on a huge glowing blue serpent creature which just went straight to flying without bothering with wings or visible means of support. He was just cool like that. Alyssa now looked to be a full blown adult, tall and bustier than Sailor Moon (to Sailor Moon's aggravation), and as Ryo had said, basically dressed for clubbing, wearing a dark blue dress cut low in front to show off her cleavage (on par with Jupiter) and with a skirt slit twice nearly to the waist, showing off her legs to good effect. She had hugely spikey blonde hair, though it was a handful of big spikes, not many small ones. She wore a silver tiara, half hidden by her hair, with the Blue Rainbow Crystal set into it.

She and her minions could only barely be seen at this distance, due to the howling winds and snow which were pouring down, but Alyssa spotted them and turned aside from her original course.

Yukino had used Diana's spores to establish contact with everyone; Sailor Moon was riding on Diana in the back with her, guarding Yukino and being ready to engage whoever she had to.

Nao immediately entered stealth mode; she was only second in stealth to her frustration, but second was still good, and arced upwards to head for Rikoukeidaa without entering lines of fire.

Venus mounted up on Harry with Akane and they arced to one side, with Venus opening fire on Miyu with crescent beams, which Miyu easily parried with her sword mode, while Akane fired bursts of wind at Miyu, which Miyu ALSO parried with her sword.

Sailor Star Mercury's giant bow on her back now began flapping like wings and she flew towards Alyssa. The serpent thing was being evoked or maybe augmented by the Blue Rainbow Crystal mounted in Alyssa's tiara.

Nephrite and Naru headed forward on the floating horoscope to support Sailor Star Mercury.

Jupiter suddenly found a hole in the plan as she rode along with them. She couldn't fly so how was she going to take on Bokushi, who had wings? "Um...I think I found a problem."

"You need to power up to Sailor Star Jupiter," Venus shouted.

"It doesn't just happen because I want it!" Jupiter shouted.

Rikoukeidaa hurled a bottle at Naru, but Jupiter blasted it out of the air. As they moved in, more bottles came their way and she kept blowing them up.

"Well, I think right now, we need you to cover us," Naru said. "Let me see if I can figure out how to make you fly."

Sailor Star Venus began to fly with her bow as well, moving off ninety degrees from Akane, still firing at Miyu who now found it much harder to parry the shots.

Alyssa turned her giant serpent and headed towards Sailor Moon. "False senshi! I won't let you destroy Mom and Dad and our future! You will be made to serve as is your fate! For I am the Night Side of the Moon! I am the Dark Lady of Serenity! I strike in the dark so that my mother may rule in the light!"

Sailor Star Mercury tried to decide whether to continue approaching Alyssa or not. She definitely had the blue gem, but if this was Usagi's daughter from the future, maybe Usagi could talk her down. Also, she wasn't sure whether her attacks could actually hurt Alyssa, given the howling blizzard around them didn't seem to bother her even in that revealing outfit. "Sailor Moon, you should probably try talking to her before I start blasting."

"Alyssa! I'm your mother, Usagi! We don't want to fight you!" Sailor Moon said, crescent moon want in hand. "Please don't make us fight you! We can help!"

"You're trying to kill Miyu! You can't be trusted!"

Sailor Moon winced. I come up with a plan and it backfires, she thought. "Venus! Akane, wait!"

"You will all love me or you will die!" And then a wave of blue energy washed over everyone from Blue Lady.

Nao drew power from her gem and fed it to herself and Umino. The Blue Crystal's power washed off them as if it didn't even exist, to her relief.

Nephrite was a powerful servant with a powerful mind. Even Alyssa's power was not enough to overwhelm him. Naru, on the other hand, struggled desperately to resist it and would soon succumb, he knew. She had power but not experience with using it and the crystal augmented Alyssa's already formidable might beyond what an inexperienced mage like Naru could handle. He clasped a hand to her shoulder and shared power with her, enabling her to hold off its power, though she now was beet red.

Sailor Star Venus absorbed the energy and instinctively processed it, reversing the polarity and strengthening her determination with the power of her love for her friends and Sailor Moon, for the Blue Rainbow Crystal was also the Gem of Love; its power could be light or dark, depending on its user.

Unfortunately, Alyssa was increasingly succumbing to the dark spiritual energies which were filling the city, as she lacked the experience and maturity to hold them off. It wasn't too late to save her, but it would not be easy, for she did not know or trust them; she was unable to make the connection between the adults she knew in the future and the children she confronted now, especially given history had changed. With Pluto's guidance, everything would have been fine, but with Pluto cut off, all had gone poorly and she was sinking fast.

Sailor Moon was able to do the same thing as Venus, in fact could do it even more strongly; her love was strong and she rode the tide of the energy, converting it into power, able, in fact, to transform into her higher form, Sailor Star Moon. She could feel Akane succumbing, but she drew upon this power and now forged an item with it, two rings, one for each of them. There was a sudden rush, and now they were linked; she absorbed the energy flowing into Akane and fed it back as the power of love itself. Akane now got a goofy smile on her face.

Yukino was a Servant with a very powerful mind and strong self-discipline. Maybe too much self-discipline. It took some effort but she fought off the effects of the gem and studied how it worked, looking for a weakpoint.

Sailor Star Jupiter fought desperately; if Motoki had been present, she would have succumbed, but by focusing on her friends and her love for them and on the less-carnal side of her love for Motoki, she was able to hold it off at the cost of basically hovering and doing nothing else. Ironically, her long years of having to restrain her desire for Motoki because of Reika helped her here.

Sailor Star Mercury, however, was succumbing fast. She had years of pent-up desire for her boyfriend and he had clearly wished to see her dressed like and acting like Alyssa, who had become Ami's very stereotype of the sexy woman. Her love for him was strong, but so was her desire, desire she'd been fighting so long from fear of what might happen if she succumbed to it. She didn't want Alyssa to control her, but she wanted to lose control with her boyfriend and he wanted her like this and she wanted to cut loose for once and satisfy her needs...

"Ami! THINK ABOUT YOUR BOYFRIEND!" Sailor Moon shouted.

Sailor Star Mercury thought about her boyfriend. With him dressed in his bathing suit and her dressed just like Alyssa and...and...

Sailor Star Mercury's costume suddenly exploded in a storm of blue ribbons, then reformed itself into a blue dress, lighter colored than Alyssa's but cut exactly the same. Her figure was a little more ample, though this simply put her on par with Venus; it enabled her to use the outfit to good effect. However, she still had the big star bow on the back, whereas Blue Lady had no bow.

She began to stalk towards Alyssa, showing off her legs and moving as if walking on air. "Blue Lady, won't you lend me your tiara?" she purred. "I need it so I can show Ryo a good time he won't forget."

Blue Lady, who really didn't fully understand how her gem worked (she was, after all, eight when not under its influence) suddenly had the feeling she'd committed the classic sorceror's mistake: Do not call up what you cannot put down. "Demons, Miyu, ATTACK! False Mercury, you have to obey me!"

Blue Mercury waggled a finger. "I don't think you understand. I have to go see Ryo now and I don't have time for little girls who dress up in their parent's clothing. You're between me and a night with Ryo he and I will never forget, and I can't tolerate that."

Bokushi charged and began battering Sailor Star Jupiter, who couldn't defend herself and fight him off at the same time. "RIGHT JAB! LEFT JAB! RIGHT JAB!"

Rikoukeidaa and Venus began trading shots, with Venus blowing up her hurled flasks as quick as she could throw them.

But now Nao dropped down on Rikoukeidaa like the wrath of God and tangled her up in thick red cables; she struggled but she wasn't all that physically strong and she could only deflect ranged attacks. "Sailor Moon! It's healing time!" Umino shouted.

Miyu, however, now launched herself at Sailor Star Moon at very high speed, aiming to cut Sailor Star Moon in half; Yukino tried to outrun her with Diana but Miyu flew with great orange wings that resembled flame and she was far too fast. Venus tried to shoot up Miyu, but Miyu was moving too fast. Nephrite continued to shield Naru's mind and now opened fire on Miyu, but Miyu easily drew power from the Gem of Wrath and healed those shots that hit; most of them missed even though Nephrite could predict her movements. Fuelled by Wrath, she moved with high speed and power, though she was slower than Lancer's gem would have made her (but more powerful in striking).

For a moment, terror utterly paralyzed Akane. She'd seen her first love dissolve away into nothing and now her second love was going to die. Sailor Star Moon was leveling her wand, but Akane knew it wasn't enough. A Servant against a Mage, especially a Servant backed by one of the Rainbow Crystals, in that Servant's area of strength? Not a chance. NOT A CHANCE.

And yet she could feel Usagi protecting and comforting her even now, looking sorrowed as Miyu tried to kill her, not angry. Even now, Usagi regretted this had to happen. Even though she'd just met Alyssa and only just found out that Alyssa was her daughter, she didn't want to fight her. Her love was so strong and Akane envied that. She was getting stronger and stronger feelings for Usagi, but she knew Usagi loved her more than she could love her back yet. Loved everyone more.

But now she would die. Tuxedo Kamen was dead. There was no one to step in with a rose and a word of inspiration. The Outer Senshi had been eaten by the Grail or else were locked beyond the Gate of Time. Most of the Hime weren't present and the duplicates of them, the older ones, either never had powers or had no powers now. Shirou's team wanted to join them, but Yukino had told them something seemed to have gone horribly wrong there.

There was no one else, no source of help, no one would come to their aid.

Which meant she couldn't lean on anyone else as she always had. There was no one to save Akane and her love but Akane. She had to step up or watch Usagi die.

She stepped up.

"Usagi, I NEED A MIRACLE!" she shouted.

"Lesser Miracle, transfer to Akane!" Sailor Star Moon shouted.

It appeared on her wrist and she activated it. "HOWLING VACCUUM TORNADO!" Harry unleashed several times his full power, powered by the miracle and created a huge howling tornado around Miyu which sucked up all the air around her; the resulting vaccum then collapsed in on her, sucking in all the ice and snow and freezing her inside a giant ball of ice and flinging her far away to crash into a building.

She was too tough to kill and began melting her way out but now Akane moved to cover Sailor Star Moon.

Blue Lady was desperately flying around wildly trying to keep away from Blue Mercury, who was chasing her at high speed, shouting, "I NEED YOUR TIARA! GIVE IT TO ME SO I CAN GO TO MY BOYFRIEND!"

This disrupted Blue Lady's use of the Blue Rainbow Crystal, freeing a battered Star Sailor Jupiter to go on the counter-attack. She blocked all of his punches and unleashed a series of lightning-crackling kicks on him, forcing him back. He wasn't good at defending against kicks, but couldn't get through her defenses, so he was in serious trouble.

Diana, Yukino, and Sailor Star Moon headed over to try to heal Rikoukeidaa now that Nao had her on the ropes. "Great job, Juliet!" Sailor Star Moon said.

"It was easy," Nao said. With the gem feeding her information about the future, it had been REALLY easy. This was Nao's definition of a good fight.

Sailor Star Venus moved with Nephrite and Naru to blast away at Blue Lady, cutting off her routes of retreat, even as Blue Mercury closed in on her. Best to get the tiara off her by whatever means and then Sailor Star Moon could heal Mercury.

With Akane keeping an eye on the giant frozen ball of Miyu, Sailor Star Moon now shouted, "MOON HEALING ESCALATION! FOCUSED EDITION!" Narrow beaming to avoid blowing up Julia or Nao, she purged Rikoukeidaa of evil, turning her back to Reika. Who immediately began trying to freeze to death.

They hadn't thought about that. "Juliet, get her to her fiancee! He can take care of her, then rejoin us!" Sailor Star Moon said. "We're really close to where he lives."

"Are you sure it's safe for me to leave right now?" Nao asked. Her gem seemed to indicate good results, but something in her gut made her nervous.

Nephrite now conjured up several layers of warm clothing for Reika, while Naru continued to throw blasts at Blue Lady, driving her towards a building to pin her with no escape so Blue Mercury could catch her.

Miyu exploded out of the ice, then converted her sword into a gun, which she began blazing away with, forcing Blue Mercury, Nephrite, Naru, and Sailor Star Venus away from Blue Lady, who now began to concentrate on something as her blue serpent coiled around under her feet.

"Juliet, give me Reika," Akane said. "Protect Usagi until I return!"

Nao curiously gave Reika to Akane, then started laughing as she saw the future. Sailor Star Moon now used Moon Healing Escalation on Bokushi, turning him back into the priest. Akane scooped up both of them and shouted, "One order of fiancee with a side order of priest COMING UP!" She then called on her waitressing abilities as Waitress to streak off to Motoki's apartment at super-
high-speed.

"Give it up! You're two down and we're still standing!" Sailor Star Venus said to Blue Lady and Miyu.

"GIVE ME THAT TIARA I NEEEEED IT," Blue Mercury said, about to charge again.

"That gem must be LUST FOR TIARAS," Nao said, then laughed more. She was about to go stealthy, then remembered she had to cover Sailor Star Moon.

Then, suddenly, there was a flash of red, black, and purple. The Gem of Wrath suddenly flicked out of its socket on Miyu's arm, though Miyu now stabbed the person responsible, only to get blasted back and knocked down into the ice by the power of the Gem's new owner. Blue Lady desperately evaded a second blow by the new arrival, only to end up in the hands of Blue Mercury, who stole her tiara and merged it with her own somehow. There was a flash of blue light and a very satisfied Blue Princess Mercury now matched Blue Lady's build. "YES! TIME FOR FUN WITH RYO!" she crowed.

For a moment, Nao felt a surge of triumph. But then she saw who had arrived and what was going to happen next, even as the woman rose into the air.

Akira was barely recognizable to Nao, her hair now long and dark red with streaks of black. She dressed like a queen and looked substantially older. Her skin had faded to very pale and she now held a staff in one hand, tipped with an orb. Inside the orb floated the Gem of Wrath now. She was pouring energy into Miyu, who was coming apart under the assault. Miyu dissolved away into black and yellow sparkles which now suddenly were sucked away as the Grail took her.

"REVENGE!" she crowed. "Now you die for telling her to kill my SHINGO!" Akira shouted at Blue Lady, who tried to hide behind Blue Princess Mercury instinctively. Ironically, Mercury now looked much as Blue Lady remembered her.

"Mercury! SAVE ME!" Blue Lady said in a panic.

Blue Princess Mercury paused before running to Ryo. "Weren't you just trying to kill us?"

"I didn't know it was you, auntie!" she said frantically. Blue Lady still looked an adult but now the slits in her costume had closed up, making it look rather more modest and really quite nice.

"Is that Beryl?" Jupiter asked in disbelief.

"Mom? Oh god no, please don't let that be Mom," Naru said in an utter panic.

"It is not your mother; the Magnificent Beryl is consuming someone else," Nephrite said.

"It's Akira," Nao and Yukino said in unison.

Sailor Star Moon said, agonized, "Shingo? Shingo is dead?" Oh god, what about Mom and Dad? I completely forgot to make sure they were okay!

Akane now returned, even as Nao said, "WE HAVE TO GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE OR WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!" Sailor Star Moon was about to have a guilt breakdown and couldn't fight her own cousin, Naru was terrified this might be her mother and wouldn't be much use, Nephrite had a history of being bent over a barrel and owned by Beryl, and the Sailors all remembered how Beryl kicked their ass last time. It had taken the Silver Crystal to stop Beryl and her lord, Metallia. And this time a SERVANT was under the gem's control.

Worse, there was STILL the menace of the Grail and Master Pharoah Ninety and...

"RETREAT TO SHIROU'S HOUSE! NOW!"

They fled at high speed toward Shirou's house and Beryl gave chase.

King Arthur was still deep in brooding over the question of Mordred when it was time for dinner.

The hall was crowded and the topic of conversation was the question of how Carbonek would respond to the arrest of Dame Brisen and the exposure of their plot. The ladies' table was also abuzz with people clearly discussing the need to find Arturia a lover, which Arturia studiously ignored.

Shiho, Rei, and Yumeni sat at the ladies' table with Guenevere; Shiho tried studiously to pretend she was not the only thirteen-year-old at the table and that she was not stuck that way forever. It was easier in the court garb they'd dressed her up in; she was wearing what felt like twelve layers of clothing, and it tended to hide most women's figures, though some of them had altered the inner layers so as to show off their cleavage, arms and ankles.

Yumeni was a little woozy because she was overheating in her outfit; indeed, many of the ladies looked ready to faint at a moment's provocation. Rei, however, found herself comfortably warm; she had altered her outfit to show off her arms for freedom of movement in a crisis. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to have invented zippers yet.

Rei could see Galahad sitting at the secondary knight's table, which was made up of lesser lights and visiting knights from other countries. He looked miserable and Rei wasn't too surprised. Those around him were either discussing how likely Logres would end up crushing Carbonek flat or else discussing how General Narses was finishing up the conquest of Italy. Italy had been conquered by Arthur back in 525, but had revolted in recent years and Arthur had ceded his claims to the Byzantines, who were now in the process of conquering it. In return, the Bzyantines had recognized him as 'Emperor of the West' formally. (Brittany, France, Ganis, and Gaul all still owed fealty to Arthur on the Continent, though in practice they mostly governed themselves. Arthur directly controlled the Province of Normandy, which was a major source of revenue for him, divided up into counties ruled by Sheriffs appointed by Arthur instead of feudalized.)

"Do you have a lover, Lady Rei?" Yvette asked. She was a French lady-in-waiting from Guenevere's lands in Normandy, short and slender with long blonde hair and brown eyes. She was one of those who dressed in the risque manner gaining favor among the young at court who still had the figure to show off. (You could actually see her elbows and some of her calves!)

"I do not currently have a lover," Rei thought.

"You don't need a boyfriend when you have a cute little sister like me," Shiho said.

Many people put two and two together, even though there was no two. Rei could see this but couldn't figure out how to deny it without making more people think it was true.

"I have the best boyfriend in the universe, but he needs to work on his wall-climbing," Yumeni said dreamily. "But so do I."

This generated gentle laughter.

"I hear you were wall-climbing loudly the other night, Guenevere," Lady Annette, daughter of Sir Lucan, said. She was the head of Guenevere's Ladies-in-waiting. She was ample in build (if not so much so as the queen) with long brown hair she always elaborately curled into giant ringlets in the fashionable French style. Like Yvette, her dress showed off her cleavage; unlike Yvette, she had a lot to show off. She grinned. "Decided it's time for another daughter?"

"She's not as pretty as you, but she is quite beautiful. She doesn't try to show it off though," Lady Gormlaith said; she was a short, pudgy redhead from Leinster in Ireland. Her clothing was a good ten years out of date, simpler with less layers and more modest than the others, but she wore several exceptionally fine pieces of jewelry; Rei admired the golden serpent swallowing its tail with a cross imposed in the middle of the circle. "I would have expected your daughter to be, well, more feminine," she said with some criticism in her voice.

"Now, now, Gormlaith, she's surrounded by 149 men and we're not; you're in no place to criticize," Yvette said teasingly.

"Arthur and I were less discreet than usual," Guenevere said proudly. "I am, however, too old for more children."

"You never breathed a word to anyone about her," Annette said. "I didn't know any secret could be kept so well in this place."

"The fewer who know a secret, the easier it is to keep. No one knew Arthur existed either, until he was revealed," Shiho said.

A knight, dark haired and muscular, middling of height, now rushed in. Sir Cathal shouted, urgently, "King Arthur! Knights of the Round Table! A marvel approaches! Come and see!"

Everyone streamed outside in a great tide into the courtyard. What they saw was a great pale winged horse, and upon its back sat a black robed swordsman; a black sword hung from his belt, and you could not see his face, only his blood-covered hands. The horse pulled a sleigh in which six people rode, though there was room for more.

One was a regal-looking old man, clean-shaven with short white hair, wearing a long tunic in royal purple, covered with golden alchemical signs and with golden leggings and sandals. On one finger he wore a silver ring with a ruby set into it, and on the ruby was carved a six pointed star and in the center of that, the letters 'YHWH' in Hebrew script. Next to him sat a short youth, wearing a simple brown tunic made of hides with sandals, holding a slingshot and a bag of rocks. And yet, somehow, he looked every bit the equal of the man next to him.

In the long seat behind them sat two men. The first was a brown haired roman wearing a red toga; he wore a laurel wreath in his hair and at his waist hung a long, blood-stained knife. On his left hand, he wore a silver ring with a diamond set into it and on his right hand, four gold and emerald rings, one per finger. Next to him was a hoplite in greek style bronze armor, his long shield and spear propped up next to him. His hair was set into long, elaborate black curls and his skin was deeply tanned and probably bronze in tone to start with. He looked as if he was somehow both a man who led a rough, brutal life with many hard knocks and a man who was very wealthy, for his armor was high quality and shone with fine polishing and tender care. At times, his eyes flickered over to the bloodstained knife and he would frown.

Behind them were two men; one was a knight with two swords at his belt, clad in the finest new gothic plate, painted black on one side, white on the other. One sword had a white hilt, the other a black hilt and the man was average in height and build, but his helmet totally hid his face. The other man was a roman centurion with short cropped black hair and vivid purple eyes. He had a deep tan like the hoplite ahead of him but while he had clearly taken his knocks in life (right down to his somewhat bent Roman nose), he'd never had any real wealth. He was busy wolfing down a sandwich with the attitude of someone who seizes any chance to eat because there may not be another chance for days. A large bag of salt sat tied shut on the seat next to him; you could tell he normally carried it on his belt with his short sword. A spear, the head stained with blood, sat next to him on the other side, along with a long shield.

Father Alaric mumbled, "And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth."

"But where are the other riders, then?" Sir Mordred asked skeptically. "Is this going to be some sort of very strange morality play?"

"What, do you recognize them, Mordred?" Arthur asked him.

"Obviously the man on the horse is meant to be Death from the Book of Revelations. That is King Solomon and King David in the first set of seats, Brutus and King Leonidas in the second, and the Centurion who stabbed Jesus and Sir Balin the Lackwit in the back. I must confess I would not want to be King Solomon, riding all the way here with Brutus sitting behind me. What if you hit a bump?" Mordred laughed loudly.

Many knights laughed, though there was a tone of nervousness in their voice. Mordred's brothers, though, all laughed heartily without fear.

They landed at the far end of the courtyard and King Solomon rose. "I am King Solomon, and I have come in service of the House of Carbonek!"

Mordred put his hands on his hips. "Good King Solomon, you are EXTREMELY DEAD. You died over a thousand years ago. Indeed, close to fifteen hundred years ago. Further, why are you now the errandboy of Carbonek?"

King Solomon said, "When I was your age, boy, I ruled the great nation of Israel and had already suppressed a revolt by my wicked brother Adonijah and married several hundred women and was starting my brood of dozens of children. Every king in Europe is descended from me, one way or another. What have you done, child?"

Mordred squirmed, looking angry but clearly unable to answer this.

"I am King Arthur," Arthur said, stepping forwards. "Why have you come?"

"You have unfairly imprisoned Dame Brisen, a member of the House of Carbonek and descendent of myself though Joseph of Arimathea, and Prince Galahad, son of Princess Elaine of Carbonek. You must hand them over, along with the woman who claims to be Arthuria Pendragon, who stole her weapons from the House of Carbonek and assaulted Dame Brisen and destroyed property belonging by right of war to the House of Carbonek. Otherwise, we will take them by force."

"No," Guenevere said. "You will not have Dame Brisen who plotted against us and you will NEVER have my daughter." Her voice was fierce.

"Prince Galahad is a guest and is free to come and go as he pleases," King Arthur said. "But we will not yield up Brisen until she has been tried, nor will I give up my daughter, Arturia. Further, I demand you apologize to Mordred."

Mordred looked stunned by this, then smiled weakly. Gawaine nodded very approvingly.

Rei's eyes widened. "Arthur, they are legendary heroes summoned by the use of the Grail," she said very softly to him. "Each of them is as powerful as Arturia, though in different ways."

"Then this means war," King Solomon said, pulling out two flasks capped with rubies with inscriptions like his ring, but mirror-reversed. "You know King Pellam's orders, men. Have at them!"

"Yumeni, take cover! Get Guenevere to safety! Shiho, you have to stop King Solomon unleashing his bottle-demons! I will duel with King David," Rei said. She looked up at the sky; the sun was setting. Dammit, Gawaine is going to be getting weaker all fight long instead of stronger. "Arturia, take Balin!" That left Brutus...where was Brutus? SHIT! She looked around desperately but couldn't find him anywhere. Death and the Centurion and Leonidas all needed someone to fight them. Except, of course, that there wasn't much chance of that. There were tons of potential volunteers, but she was dubious even the knights of the Round Table could deal with these men.

Lancelot had leaped onto a horse and was now charging at Death, sword drawn. "I have stared you in the eyes and survived many times and I do not intend to change that now!" Well, that might slow Death down a little, especially since the house of Pellinore and the Ganis clan were charging with him as best they could on foot.

Gawaine, the Orkneys and various hangers-on were charging at King Leonidas. "It is a pleasure to meet you, your highness!" Gawaine shouted. "I promise you that I will give you a better fight than the Persians!"

"I welcome it!" Leonidas shouted, grabbing his armor and shield and charging at them.

Rei called upon her power, summoning a bow of fire and opened up on King David, while dodging his sling shots. Unfortunately, she could tell she was outmatched and soon he would find his range and start tagging her.

Arturia drew her twin blades and launched herself at the Knight With Two Swords and they began to fight, the White and the Black Blade against twin Excaliburs and she started to drive him back. He was good but she was better and her weapons unsurpassed.

Yumeni and the Panther Knight began to hustle Queen Guenevere and the ladies away from the chaos.

Sir Sagremore le Desirous charged at the Centurion, joined by his usual friend and companion (and possibly boyfriend some whispered) Sir Dodinas the Charming, who won the heart of many ladies with his grace and good manners, but always seemed to end up back accompanying Sagremore in the end. Sir Palomedes and his kin, Sir Tristam and the knights of Cornwall, and others besides followed them. "You will pay, King Mark!" Tristam shouted.

"That's not King Mark," Sir Dinadan whispered to him. Tristam had notoriously bad eye sight and Sir Dinadan often had to act as a 'seeing eye knight' for him. "That is the Centurion who stabbed Jesus in his side, or more precisely, it's an effort to con us into thinking they raised him from the dead, so we'll be afraid of him and mess up."

King Mark had successfully kidnapped Iseult from Joyous Garde where Iseult and Tristam had been holding court for several years. Despite Iseult still being married to King Mark. So Tristam had come to help round up a rescue party. But while he was here, he would do his duty as a Round Table Knight...so long as he was pointed in the right direction.

"Foul Jesus-stabbing-wretch!" Tristam shouted at the Centurion. "You will perish for your crime against our Lord!"

"It's a con job," Dinadan said urgently. "That's probably actually POISON on his lance."

"He poisoned Jesus? SURELY HE MUST DIE!" Tristam shouted.

Dinadan regarded Tristam-wrangling as the way in which he expiated all his sins before God, so he patiently said, "Don't let him cut you, or he'll poison you too."

"IT IS KING MARK!"

The Centurion said, "My name is Casca. Galbus Casca." As Sagremore closed with him, he blocked the man's two-handed sword with his shield, then jabbed a point on Sagremore's chest. Sagremore howled and fell down gibbering and shaking, lost in an epileptic fit. The spear came around, stabbing Dodinas' hand and then the butt end of it came up and hit Dodinas in the groin as he dropped his sword, lifting him up to tumble through the air and crash to the ground. Palomedes' sword bounced off Casca's shield and the spear's butt-end whipped around, taking Palomedes' brothers in the solar plexus one by one and knocking them down.

Palomedes actually parried a thrust at his solar plexus and Casca said, "You have talent," then jabbed Palomedes hand, causing him to drop his sword, then took him out with a groin-shot from the butt.

Tristran shouted and struck a blow so mighty that it sent Casca tumbling backwards to drop his shield and land on his ass. It also shivered Tristam's sword into a hilt and many small pieces, some of them embedded into Tristam.

"SEND MORE SWORDS!" Dinadan shouted as Sir Aggravaine tumbled through the air overhead. Dinadan stared and felt his gut clench. He tried to avoid high adventure in general and especially magic and he could tell this was all going to end badly and would be ending worse, except their foes seemed reluctant to kill. Casca could have killed all these knights, but he was only knocking them out.

Tristam grabbed a sword off Saffir, brother of Palomedes and rushed over to Casca as he sat up. "Yield, good sir knight, or I will smite you again!"

Stab to the hand, but Tristam managed to clench his sword, though his hand was trying to spasm. Casca was standing and Tristam stumbled. "I shall not give up, though I would appreciate it if you got me as many swords as possible, Dinadan."

He aimed another mighty blow at Casca, even as Sir Percival flew overhead, shouting something incoherent. Casca lithely dodged to one side, then hit Tristam in the ass, knocking him down and stabbed his hand again.

Tristam rolled, switched hands, and rose. "You fight well, sir knight, but it is dishonorable to strike a man's buttocks."

"I am a soldier, valiant knight," Casca said. "To us Romans, honor is in holding to laws and treaties, not in the manner by which one fights."

"Then you should respect the laws of Camelot by which Dame Brisen was arrested," Sir Dinadan said angrily.

Casca looked pained. "I cannot disobey my orders," he said, then stabbed Tristam's other hand and tried to disarm him, only to take a huge blow that knocked him on his ass again. Tristam's sword shattered, and his left hand was shaking violently and his right arm looked paralyzed.

"What sorcery is this?" Tristam stared at his hand in horror.

"The blood on my spear abhors violence and ends the capacity of those struck with it to commit violence," Casca said. "In honor of it, I never slay unless I have no other choice. Please do not force me to that decision." He sounded pained.

"I too do not slay unless I must; I live for adventure, not death. But I must avenge the kidnapping of my lady love!" Tristam said. "And so I cannot allow myself to be defeated before I rescue her!" His voice blazed with passion and now Dinadan understood how he still stood. The greatest of Round Table knights were driven by mighty passions which could make them both heroes and monsters, depending on the circumstances. Sir Dinadan STILL wasn't sure how he had qualified. Perhaps it was a reward reflecting the difficulty of his Tristam-wrangling. He avoided love because he feared the madness and the foolish behavior it could cause, but he knew this also meant he would never number among the greats.

Thus he both admired Tristam for his dedication and feared what kind of crazy thing Tristam would do. Just to be sure, he sent squires to get more swords and began moving the fallen knights so Tristam couldn't mistake them for Mark or Casca or Caligula or something and kill them.

"What a passionate champion of adultery and law-
violation you are," Casca said rather sarcastically.

Tristam tried to pick up another sword, but in his passion couldn't tell the difference between a sword and the arm of Sir Rhodri, a knight of Cornwall, who quickly passed Tristam his sword before Tristam could try to wield him in battle.

Tristam charged. "FOR ISEULT, I CAN DO ANYTHING!"

His sword broke into bits as it struck Casca's shield, but Casca's spear pierced his chest and then withdrew. Somehow it left no hole or cut but now Tristam fell to his knees, clutching his chest. His other arm now froze up and he then flopped down. Casca stood up and rubbed his butt. "You fight well, Tristam. I'm impressed."

"ISEULT! NO!" Tristam began to scream and twitch and shout, lost now in despair.

Dinadan felt his gut clench. Everyone else near Casca was running away, having seen Tristam, the third mightiest of the Knights of the Table Round, fall. (Opinion remained divided on whether or not Lancelot or Arturia, equally armed, would win, but they both lacked Tristam's great flaw of poor eyesight.)

Arturia and Balin were tiny dots, off across the courtyard, still going at it, twin swords against twin swords. Gawaine was still fighting King Leonidas, but the rest of the Orkneys and most of the Knights of Lothian were down. Lancelot was fighting Death, but there were knights of Norgales and Ganis scattered unconscious everywhere. The ladies had been evacuated, thankfully, and King Solomon and Shiho seemed to be having a contest to see which one of them could actually command his demons, who were starting to get whiplash from turning back and forth back and forth as her music and his invocations of the 111 secret names of God did battle. Galahad was trying to have an argument with King Solomon about laws or something, but King Solomon was trying to ignore him. Rei was battered and bruised, still conscious but losing badly against David.

He'd seen Kay hustling Arthur away. This was only common sense and Dinadan approved. Arthur was getting old and even if he had Excalibur...well, Arturia had TWO of them and only had a modest advantage on her foe. Also, someone had to...where was Brutus?

"You look a sensible man," Casca said to Dinadan. "Stand aside and I will leave you alone."

"I wish I could," Dinadan said miserably. "I have not been in a real fight in years. But I am a Knight of the Round Table and Tristam's only friend who isn't an idiot. Hard as it is sometimes to be that man's friend. I couldn't give less of a damn about his Iseult who has only lured him to destroy himself, but I care about this kingdom and this brotherhood and so I fear I must come and get my ass beaten by you, sir."

"So be it," Casca said. Then he charged.

Dinadan threw himself at Casca's feet, surprising him, and Casca fell down as he tried to stab for Dinadan's hand, where it would have been. Dinadan rose and then Casca was on him like a thunderbolt, stabbing his legs, which went limp and he fell.

"You may keep your sword, good foe," Casca said, then turned to study the battlefield.

Arturia cursed. Balin was a death machine and his swords proved able to resist even Excalibur twice over. He was heavily armored and had plenty of mana and the strength of a servant. It might well take another half an hour to finish him off and she didn't HAVE half an hour.

Sir Kay shouted from the roof, "FIRE!"

King David looked up and then got hit by a ballista bolt; as he went flying, the head of it exploded, covering him with burning pitch which clung to his skin, burning all over.

"FIRE!"

A second arrow slammed Leonidas across the courtyard, away from Gawaine, who was wobbling and nearly fell, with only his squire holding him up.

"FIRE!"

Lancelot's horse took a sword to the gut and died; Lancelot went down with it, battered and bleeding; the slightest prick of Death's blade seemed to cause very nasty wounds. "Foully done!"

Then Death got hit by a bolt and caught fire and his horse was burning too as they tumbled together.

Solomon gestured and the remaining bolts exploded on the roof, which caught fire and sent panicked men everywhere as Kay cursed. However, Shiho now took control of three of the demons, which were big burly men, fifteen feet tall with horns and reddish skin, wearing very fancy, ornate poufy pants and sandals with golden scimitars. Their ears were pointed and they were on fire. All the time. They turned and slashed at Solomon, cutting his robes and drawing blood before he counter-commanded them and tried to scamper back.

David, Death, Death's horse, and Leonidas rose, covered with ash and still burning. And clearly only hurt a little. But now the roof of the palace was blazing and people were scampering to get water.

And now a knight in full armor with lance rode out of the stables (on the other side of which were the challenge grounds and arena in which the duel had been held yesterday). It was King Arthur. "You are quite good at slaughtering unarmored knights when you come in your full regalia!" he thundered. "Death! I challenge you!"

"No, sire...I have him..." Lancelot said, his squire trying to help him up onto his horse. William was Lancelot's squire-for-life. He was into his forties and could have been knighted, but he found himself more honored as Lancelot's right-hand-man than ever he would have been as a mediocre knight.

"STAY DEAD!" Gawaine howled, charging at Leonidas, who gave a cry of rage and shouted something about Persians, charging him.

Rei rose and turned and waved her arms and shouted. The fires on the roof snuffed out in an instant. Then she turned to David and began concentrating and the flames around him became a howling inferno and he began to scream.

Arthur levelled his lance and charged at Death, who produced a lance of his own. Time seemed to slow down as they both rushed towards each other, Lancelot trying desperately to get mounted, Galahad staring at his injured father and looking utterly paralyzed, Round Table and other knights practically carpetting the ground.

WHERE IS BRUTUS, Rei asked herself as she focused on turning David into ashes.

The ladies' section of the palace was designed to be sealed off if necessary, with only two ways in and a secret way out. (Rumors spoke of several secret ways used to smuggle lovers in and out and technically, there were a LOT of windows and laundry baskets rigged for easy lowering on a rope...) Trained knights now sealed the doors and took up defensive positions. Sir Lucan took up the leadership of one gate and Sir Lionel the other; a squad of knights joined each and the third squad was given to the Panther Knight, who retired to Guenevere's quarters with Yumeni and Guenevere and Guenevere's closest companions.

They could hear the sound of battle and chaos outside, but couldn't tell who was winning, though the sounds like fire on the roof made them nervous.

"Can you tell us aught of what is going on?" Yvette asked Yumeni.

"My powers enable me to find the hidden truths of the past," Yumeni said. "Like the time you and Elenore had sex in that closet while drunk, then didn't know how to approach each other for a year." Her eyes widened. "Ack, I didn't mean to reveal that!"

"Oh, THAT is what it was," Annette said.

Elenore turned purple; she was tall and slender; her hair was a beautiful wavy brown, long and curled at the ends, but her face was not very lovely, with freckles and a nose that was too big. She was middling in build. She was very intelligent and indeed had helped to design revisions to the women's quarters over the last decade, having studied at the Queen's University of Cambridge. (Oxford was home to the Royal College, founded by Arthur after Badon in order to advance learning in the Realm; Guenevere's brother, Clyde (born Clydno, but like Guenevere, he had modernized his name. She had been born Gwynhwfar), the 'King of Cameliard' after her father's death at Badon, had founded a school at Cambridge in her honor after she and Arthur had been married for ten years, in 524 AD. Arthur had made him a knight of the Table Round for it. The two schools were rivals.) This caused many to assume she was a sorceress and she was indeed an alchemist and engineer and also rather good at making incredibly potent alcohol. But usually also good at drinking a lot of it with no apparent impact.

Yvette said, "I...we...WE WERE DRUNK."

"Now I'm a little jealous neither of you found me attractive," Lady Annette teased.

"Or me," Guenevere said, smiling.

"Your breasts are too big, both of you," Yvette mumbled.

"Kiss me," Yumeni said. She couldn't say anything foolish so long as her boyfriend was kissing her. He rather enjoyed it, but now all the ladies looked jealous.

"No wall-climbing while people are watching," Lady Gormlaith said. "When none of the rest of us have someone to climb with." Her voice was teasing, though everyone knew she had an unreturned affection for Sir Palomedes, but he was well known to love the Lady Iseult, though she loved Tristam, always had, and likely always would, unless her husband had killed her by now, which some feared. Gormlaith had been seen to dally with one of Guenevere's distant relatives, Sir Owen (born Owain) from Cameliard, but everyone knew it a case of 'if you can't have the one you love, love the one you're with'. Sir Owen was married, but his marriage, like most, was political. They were probably having sex; the practice of chaste romantic love from afar was increasingly being replaced by people blatantly having sex and only barely concealed affairs. Iseult and Tristam were the champions of that practice; at Joyous Garde they had openly held court for four years before Tristam had been tricked into leaving long enough for King Mark to recover his wife.

The Queen had always been the champion of chaste romance, but most suspected strongly that she and Sir Lancelot had passed on into carnality long ago. They still did not kiss or embrace or hold hands in public, and Arthur seemed remarkably unruffled by the whole thing (leading some to wonder if perhaps he and Lancelot were also having an affair), but no one took her claims of chastity seriously, not even her own ladies, though they would not press the point out of good manners.

"Most people find my breasts quite attractive," Annette said a little huffily, taking a deep breath to emphasize them more. Certainly most of the knights present did agree.

"I think they are quite lovely," Guenevere said; her own bosom was covered by a layer of clothing, but she was the only woman present larger in that area than Annette. "But every size is lovely in its own way," she said with a tiny smile.

Everyone tried to figure out what that meant.

Yumeni continued to kiss her knight, fearing she'd reveal Guenevere's adultery and that Arthur was a woman if she stopped.

"My goodness, I think their love enables them to overcome the need for breathing," Elenore said, studying them.

Sir Lionel now gave a very loud scream and there was the sound of violence from his gate.

The Panther Knight released Yumeni and moved over to guard the door closest to that gate, the other knights falling in with him though three moved to the other door.

"You kiss magnificently," Guenevere said, patting Yumeni's shoulder.

She was breathing hard. "Please don't ask me any questions about the past." But she could suddenly see things about each of them, knowing their past glories and sins, their moments especially of humility or pride. "Or I'll tell you about the time Lady G...G..." She put her hand over her mouth. Lady Gormlaith had won the prize in harping at the Tournament of Roses, then Gaheris had invited her to harp with him. They played all night, passed out, and everyone assumed they had sex. She'd let everyone think that too, and he had not contradicted it; they still sometimes met to play, covertly, trying to avoid making her current boyfriend jealous. (Gaheris had not touched a woman since his mother's death, or so he told Gormlaith, anyway.)

Annette mumbled something incomprehensible.

Guenevere turned to Annette and said teasingly, "I can kiss you if it makes you feel better." Annette had a half-
dozen boyfriends but wasn't really serious with any of them; they were a good source of entertainment and presents for her. "Since none of your friends are here."

Annette started to say something, then suddenly found herself lost in Guenevere's eyes; she found her body heating up and her brain began to imagine what Guenevere would look like in a fully modern outfit of the style Annette wore. She looked a little younger and her smile was so much brighter than it had been for so long and now Annette's whole body was tingling and her hands trembling.

And then she saw something and with instinct moved and the result was that Brutus smacked her in the head with the butt of his long knife and her eyes crossed and she fell, pushing Guenevere to one side, having gotten her out of the way.

"ANNETTE!" Guenevere shouted and then a horde of Romans in togas with long bloody knives burst through the doors and walls and out from under the beds and chairs and there was chaos everywhere and the sound of distant fighting.

Yumeni lifted the chair she was standing by and hurled it at Brutus' face. Caught by surprise, he stumbled backwards and she grabbed Guenevere's hand and ran. There were Romans everywhere and sometimes they would suddenly have Brutus' face and lash out at her and Guenevere. Guenevere had grabbed Annette and was slowed down by trying to carry her.

They reached a window. Let me out, a voice whispered inside Yumeni. Otherwise, we will die.

No, I can't, you're a monster, she told it.

We are just two sides of the same person. As long as you suppress me and refuse to stand up for yourself, you will always be walked on and unable to protect those you care about. Your lover is fighting desperately to protect you, but you cannot fight back and help him so long as you deny me.

I don't want to become a monster, Yumeni whispered to her inner voice.

Those who reject their inner strength can only be weak and watch those they love get crushed. I am only evil if you make me so. Pride is not always unjustified; surely if you do something great you have the right to be glad in it. And who will want to buy your work if you don't have the faith in it to step up and take credit for it?

Yumeni made a big point of hiding her identity to 'let the art speak for itself', and would circulate anonymously at her own shows. It had become quite a mystery of the last two years as to the real name of the woman who used the pseudonym 'Peggy Jones'. Or whether it was a woman at all. The buzz was good, but sometimes she wanted to step up and defend herself when attacked and she couldn't and it hurt.

Usagi had been urging her, ever since she found out, that Yumeni should step out into the light, but it was hard to overcome the fear. What if the end of the mystery caused everyone to lose interest?

Do you want them to love a mystery instead of you? Better to be honestly rejected and to honestly earn respect by your work, not an artifical mystery, the voice told her. Please, if you keep hiding me, you and Guenevere and everyone will die.

She'd been a prideful little brat as a kid; it had gotten her in so much trouble that the pride had been beaten out of her. Meekness and mildness kept her out of trouble.

It got your boyfriend stolen in eighth grade, and ninth and tenth and eleventh and then you gave up and hid behind your art, the voice told her. You want someone to steal the Panther Knight too?

It suddenly struck Yumeni that she didn't even know his real name.

And you won't, if he dies! Please. Let me out.

Guenevere ripped the side of her dress and pulled out a knife in a sheath, then found she couldn't actually get the sheath to come off with one hand while she held up Annette. The Romans were coming on, and there was more shouting and the clash of weapons in the distance.

"I think Lancelot is going to have to come rescue us again," she said, sighing. "Can you help me get this loose?"

Why were the Romans approaching them so warily? Why would they be afraid of an old woman with a knife and a young woman who wasn't even armed with a pocket knife. Unless they could sense her power and were afraid of them.

Unless there was something she could do to save them from Brutus and his Romans. What was Brutus afraid of? Marc Anthony and Augustus, maybe. The demon inside her. The power of the Rainbow Crystal she knew was inside her but didn't know how to use.

I can use it. Let me out, the voice inside her urged.

Brutus and his co-conspirators were afraid of her. She could do it. She had to do it. She reached down inside herself with her vision and studied the threads of her own past and found the words she needed.

"I am the hand that guides the brush!" Yumeni shouted.

Guenevere blinked in confusion and a few points of light appeared on Yumeni's forehead.

"Graphite is my body and paint is my blood." Yumeni said, thrusting her pencil forward. Guenevere stared at it; she'd seen Yumeni use it before, some sort of miracle pen that required no ink...or perhaps that was charcoal in the middle of the wood, used to draw?

The Romans stopped moving and stared.

"I have created over a thousand works of art!" Even if she wasn't very proud of a lot of them.

You should be, her inner voice told her.

More points of green light were emerging on her forehead, though the final form was not yet apparent.

"You don't know who I am, only my work!"

The light shone brighter.

"My heart has been pierced with a thousand lances of hate and spite and disdain; I bore it all in silence!" She was growing angry now at all the people who felt free to criticize someone they didn't even know, because they knew she wouldn't, couldn't retaliate and keep her cover. That resentment had been buried deep, but it was rising up now.

"Is this your power?" Guenevere asked, staring as green light spilled out of the outthrust pencil, washing over her and everything around them.

"I will be silent no more! Not only my art will speak!" Her voice had dropped an octave, still feminine but rather husky for a woman. A sigil blazed on Yumeni's forehead now, in the shape of a paintbrush, and the light washed over her, hiding her, blinding everyone.

"FOR MY LIFE ITSELF IS A WORK OF ART!" Yumeni shouted. "VICTORIOUS BEAUTY REVELATION!"

And then there was light and shadow and they parted and Katsumi floated just off the ground, with large white wings whose tips nearly touched the walls; she wore a very high, long skirt that started just under her breasts, flowing down in green waves to her knees, and over that, a billowy short-sleeved shirt that went down to a little above her waist, overlapping over the skirt; sandals girded her feet, but with long green stockings that went up inside the skirt. There was a silver tiara on her brow and the Green Rainbow Crystal shone brightly in it. She gestured and two feathers flew into the air, drawing at a frenzied speed, creating a pair of blades which she seized. "I dream my dreams into reality," Katsumi announced with a husky voice. "This is Marc Anthony," she said, holding up the long sturdy weapon, as much a cleaver as a sword. "And this is Octavian," she said, holding up an ornate saber with a fancy hand-guard set with jewels. She bore Marc Anthony in her right hand and Octavian in her left. "Brutus! SHOW YOURSELF!"

Instead, the Romans fled and she chased them, but they were able to dive under or behind anything and vanish and soon there were no Romans and no Brutus. Just battered knights and ladies. The Panther knight turned and stared at Katsumi, whose long brown hair spilled down in a tide around her shoulders and back. She had the same eyes as Yumeni, but without glasses, and looked rather stronger as well. She strode up to him and smiled confidently. "Like what you see, my brave Panther Knight?"

"Lady Yumeni?" he said, stunned.

"We are one and the same," she purred, then kissed him, arms crossed behind his back, letting the swords dissolve, since she didn't need them now, while everyone stared. "I simply took off my mask. So which of me do you like better?" she asked. "Would you rather I be like this in public or in private?," she asked, arms around him.

"Which do you prefer? It is your face and your body and your life," he said. "I leave the choice to you."

Guenevere, who had followed her, now smiled a little. Dame Ragnell would be laughing...where is she?

Annette began to recover. "My Queen, are you okay?"

"You were exceptionally brave," Guenevere said. "You could have been very hurt."

"You are my Queen, it is my duty," Annette said, wobbling. "I know you would have done it for us. That is why Arthur married you, to have a lioness for a queen. But even a lioness must sometimes let her cubs fight."

"Perhaps I should make you my champion, then," Guenevere teased her.

"I'm sorry, my love, but I have to go help the others," Katsumi said to the Panther Knight. "Make sure the Queen is safe."

"Of course, my love," he said and saluted her.

Annette's eyes crossed and she mumbled incoherently. Guenevere embraced her tightly and kissed her forehead. "Later," she whispered, then turned to Katsumi. "Fly swiftly! Arthur needs your help!"

"I know," Katsumi said. And then she was back down the hallway and out the window.

Rin stared at herself. She was wearing a black leotard, cut down the front in a cross shape that plunged between her breasts. It was shaped, providing support and lift to her breasts; the support was nice but the lift was more than she usually favored in a bra. A very short black skirt covered groin and butt and not much else. She had a red jacket that covered her shoulders and upper arms and sides but was too small to ever be closed. A stereotypical witch hat sat on her head and in one hand, she held a two foot long black wand with a triangularly cut gem on the end like an arrowhead. One of her mana store gems. She wore red stockings inside black boots that went up nearly to her knees and red fingerless gloves. The Seal of Solomon was on the back of the gloves in black. "What the hell is this?" Rin asked.

Artemis blinked, then looked up at her. "Rei, is that you?" He'd tried to hop a train with Luna, they'd been totally buried in snow, Luna began moaning about how her 'big sister' was going to mock her when 'big sis' came for her soul, and then he was here. If this was the afterlife, he was going to be very mad no one told him it was like this.

"Rei? Do I LOOK like a Rei? Do I SOUND like a Rei?" Rin demanded.

"You sound like a Yumi to me," Artemis said, then in a high pitched voice said, "Hi, I'm Yumi, and I'm a new student here at..."

"YOU WILL NEVER SPEAK OF THAT AGAIN!" Rin said, eyes blazing. "Did you dress me up in this?"

Artemis cowered. "Not the face! It wasn't me!"

"You're not the only one," Archer said to her; she was wearing an identical outfit, except that she had silver instead of black and blue instead of red and her breasts were now rather obviously larger than Rin's. She had her bow instead of a wand.

"You know," Artemis said hesitantly, "Maybe you're both getting power from that western Buddha...Jesus? I think he uses that symbol."

Archer now REALLY looked at herself and turned red.

"Hey, at least you have a shirt," Shirou said. He was wearing nothing but black boxer shorts with red swords on them and a pair of black sneakers. He held a giant spatula, studying it in confusion.

"This is worse than our school uniform," Mai grumbled; she wore the same outfit too but hers had a larger cross cutout and showed off her cleavage which trumped Archer's. Her outfit was the same color as her hair with violet trim that matched her eyes. Her fire orb bracelets spun around her wrists and her tiara had the Red Gem set in it. She'd come to learn it was good at making large amounts of raw materials, but not doing anything processed, so it handled an oil slick better than, say, an oreo.

Sakura's hair and eyes had turned to a shade of brown which was almost the same as Rin's. Sakura looked embarrassed in her outfit, which was plum purple with brown trim. She held Shirou's hand firmly with one hand and in the other, she held a long plum-colored whip.

Suguira-sensei was dressed exactly the same as always and smiling like the cat that ate the canary, axe in hand.

"Cheater!" Rin said angrily.

"Unlike all the rest of you, I have embraced myself and found peace," Suguira-sensei said. "I have no hidden embarrasing bits or inner conflicts to grapple with. I am just all awesome all the time."

"I'm pretty sure I don't have any inner conflicts which relate to spatulas," Shirou said.

"Hey, where is Taiga-sensei?" Rin asked.

"Right here!" she said, suddenly landing in front of them, dropping from above. She wore a tiger-skin themed outfit, but her skirt was striped with black, silver, orange, and plum purple with a tiger-stripe zone at the top by her waist. The shiny magic rock, now part of a platinum necklace, dangled on her cleavage. The other-colored accessories were green. "The Queen has arrived."

"Hey, I could be the Queen," Rin protested. "We don't know yet."

"She's a mafia princess, you see," Suguira-sensei said.

"Exa...no! I went out on my own to make my own path!" Taiga-sensei protested.

Rin took a look around; they stood in a clearing in a forest ringed by greek-style Corinthian columns; there were fragments of what once had been a roof and a pool in the middle of the greensward. "Shirou...we're not in some secret magical part of your house, right?"

"You stand within Avalon, but Avalon is sore divided," a voice said and now a woman rose out of the water, wearing a long elaborate yellow dress, her hair a huge tide of black curls and she wore a golden cat necklace with opaline eyes. A golden crescent moon shone upon her brow. "Each of you is divided and you must become one in order that Avalon may be reborn to its proper purpose, if the Grail is ever to be healed and this world reborn from the Fimbulwinter that now grips it."

"I'd better go human if we're going to have group sex," Artemis said.

Luna's eyes flashed. "I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT SEX YOU IDIOT!"

At least I know Luna's okay, he thought, relieved. He'd been worried. "Well, you were never any good in human form, anyway."

"I'm not divided," Suguira-sensei said.

"That's why you have to sit this one out," Luna said to her.

"But...I don't want to miss the cool stuff!" Suguira-
sensei protested.

"No division, no cool quest," Luna said. "That's the rule."

"DAMMIT!"

Rin could not help but cackle.

Artemis took on his human form; he stretched, then tripped and fell in the pool, splashing Luna. "Dammit!"

"The powers of Avalon, which lies within Shirou, of the Tohsaka family crest within Rin, of the world of Maya within St. Vrus and Archer, of the EverNight within Sakura, of the Egg of the Phoenix within Mai and the unstoppable power of Taiga-sensei's delusions..." Luna began.

Taiga-sensei GLARED at Luna.

"And the power of the Egg of the Crystal Millenium, also known as the Shiny Magic Rock or the Silver Millenium Crystal, which is now linked to Taiga-sensei," Luna continued. "All of these combined have created this world, divided between the light and the dark. This world can only be whole, only challenge the power of Beryl's Dark Kingdom and of Master Pharoah Ninety, the World Which Hungers, if you are whole. It will take a united vision to oppose their obsessions."

"Do we have to dress like this?" Rin asked.

"Yes," Luna said.

"Can't I..." Suguira-sensei said.

"You have to patrol the borders in your chariot and keep invaders out until this ends," Luna said.

"I can do that." She summoned Gakutenou and took to the skies.

"Artemis, you must guide them," Luna said, dragging him out and bamfing him dry.

"And you?"

"I am the power that preserves," Luna said. "You represent the seeking principle," she continued.

"I do?" he said.

"YES."

He covered his head. "Not the face!"

"You do have a rather handsome face," Rin said.

He smiled brightly.

"But you're a cat, so don't get any crazy ideas. Let's go, then," Rin said.

"We shall save this kingdom, I swear it as a Jedi!" Taiga-sensei said. "Okay, everyone, transform and roll out!"

"We're already transformed," Rin said.

"THEN ROLL OUT!"

Time to finish soaking in this nice hot spring, Luna thought. Stupid crisis couldn't wait for me to get done hanging out with big sister for the first time in months. Of course not. I just wish she was here.

The Red Counter-Guardian stared through the blizzard. He had some very potent powers, but seeing through howling snow was, unfortunately, not one of them and even the Batmobile, wonderful weapon that it was, was not really intended to be driven through snow this bad.

Was that a woman in a red tanktop and poufy black pants standing in the snow, trying to thumb a ride with him?

If nothing else, curiosity dictated he stop. There would still be room for the kids and she might well be a Servant.

"Hey, going my way?" he asked, stopping.

"Anyway with heat is my way," she said, climbing in. "I'm Eudial. This damn snow buried my car, so I had to dematerialize it."

"Nice to meet you. You part of the Grail War?"

"Briefly. Freelance. Discovered my new boss just got eaten by the Grail and now it's out to destroy the world."

"Tell me everything," he said, and took off at high speed.

"Oh god, Reika," Motoki said; he was crying as she sat in his lap, holding him tightly.

She wasn't sure if anything she remembered was real. So she just held him silently.

Finally, after a lot of crying and kissing, followed by making out, then sex, then more sex, he finally became rational enough to start worrying about Makoto.

I hope she's okay out there, he thought. Given the hideousness of this storm, which now was rushing across the Pacific and East Asia and towards Australia and the South Pacific Islands, he wasn't so sure of that.

Rei's own flames engulfed her as she struggled to keep David trapped and burning. She could not waver, could not turn aside however tired and pained she became. She pushed herself to her limits. The battle was not going well.

Arthur had been jousted down by Death and now Death was busy beating the shit out of him from horseback, while Arthur's horse was working on dying in agony.

Gawaine was wrestling Leonidas, both of them in a battle frenzy, but Gawaine wasn't long for this fight.

Lancelot had tried to charge Death and was now down and pinned under his own dying horse.

Casca had beaten up Galahad and thrown him in the back of the sleigh. Casca stood by the sleigh, assessing the situation.

David was burning and burning and burning.

Solomon was pressing Shiho back, having gained the upper hand, though Shiho kept him from completely winning back control of his demons.

Arturia had driven Balin through the stables, out the other side, and up into the stands, which they were slowly circling. This was the most frustrating battle of her life.

Rei pushed the limits of her power and then suddenly the fire around her collapsed in on her and she burned away and was reborn, becoming Sailor Star Mars. "METEOR FALLS, EVERYONE DIES!" she shouted and hurled a huge flaming meteor at David, sending him crashing into the stables, which caught fire, though she quickly snuffed the flames.

Then she got hit by lightning and turned and saw Dame Brisen standing in the sleigh, calling down lightning bolts. This wasn't good.

Her intuition warned her and she jumped out of the way and the pavement where she had stood suddenly splintered. Someone invisible with a mace and chain was loose. DAMMIT.

Death rose up over Arthur, preparing for a final strike, only to get shot in the eye with a crossbow bolt. He turned balefully and Kay stood stubbornly at the gates, passing a crossbow to a squire and taking another loaded one. Guards with crossbows came running out, got lightning bolted, and fell down. Kay dove out of the way and shot at Dame Brisen, who blasted the arrow out of the sky. Arthur now managed to pull Death off his horse and they wrestled on the ground.

"Casca, stop lounging around! Deal with Kay!" Brisen said. "We want him."

"No!" Arthur shouted, and Arturia turned and ran with Balin chasing her. She would not allow this. She would NOT.

Casca, however, was too quick and too close. He sprinted towards Kay at high speed, blocking Kay's shots, so Kay drew his sword and sent the squires to safety. "I will show you the valor of a Knight of the Table Round," Kay said.

"I have seen it. It is great but futile," Casca said. "Bravery without results is meaningless."

He was almost upon Kay when Katsumi dove down from the roof, seizing Kay and lifting him up into the air, out of Casca's reach.

"Are you an angel?" he asked in surprise.

Is that...Veena? What happened to Yumeni?, Sailor Star Mars wondered.

"I have a boyfriend," she said firmly.

"I AM MARRIED," Kay said.

Arturia saw this, spun and launched herself at her pursuer, knocking him down and cutting him and now he began to run for the sleigh with her in pursuit.

Sailor Star Mars ran, positioning herself; when David emerged from the building, still burning, to run for the sled, she opened fire on the sled, but now it began to move and Death disengaged from Arthur, remounting his horse.

Casca pried Leonidas off Gawaine and ran for the sled and Arthur said, "Cowards!"

Then Brutus emerged from nowhere and stabbed him in the side, then cut loose Excalibur's sheath, Avalon, and took off with it as Arthur wobbled, spurting blood.

"ARTHUR!" Kay shouted.

Lancelot suddenly rose from the ground like a trapdoor spider and stabbed Brutus in the side. Brutus howled and ran, even as David nailed Lancelot in the head, knocking him out. Arthur fell, clutching his side.

"No king can survive the touch of Brutus' dagger," Brisen said, looking triumphant. "Only the Grail can heal him. You must quest for it, or he will wither and die."

And now the sled took off into the air, towed by Death and Death's horse. Arturia leaped up and grabbed the edge of it, but Casca poked her fingers and her arms went numb and she fell.

A demon appeared and carried off Solomon after them.

"TAKE ME TO HER! I WILL KILL HER!" Kay raged, but Katsumi dropped down to Arthur.

"Rei, Shiho, come to me," she said.

They each put a hand on her shoulders and she concentrated. A half dozen feathers appeared, sketching at frenzied speed, a golden outline which became a shining cup of wine.

"You can't just...can you?" Kay said, mouth open. "I mean... Oh Lord, please do not smite us for our presumption.

Lancelot was crawling over to them and Arthur clutched his side, looking dazed as blood flowed out.

"All power to create comes from above," Katsumi said. "It drives us. We must create or go mad. To do what is our nature is no presumption." The cup finished forming. "Drink."

Arthur drank and his wound closed, but looked ugly and red with a scar and he looked very pale and weak.

Kay stared, then fell to his knees and began to pray.

"Is that...how did you..." Arturia said from the ground, trying to find some way to rise with paralyzed arms.

"It is only a shadow of the reality. I possess one seventh of the full power of the Rainbow Crystals. Without the Red Gem, I cannot give this permanent substance. Without the Orance Gem, it cannnot give the true peace and healing of the Grail. Without the Yellow Gem, it cannot change someone's destiny to give them new life. Without the Blue Gem, it cannot bring hope and love. Without the Indigo Gem, it cannot shield one from destruction permanently. And without the Violet Gem, it cannot renew your energy fully. But it can bring peaceful dreams, soothe wounded pride, inspire the humble to greatness and help you to understand your past," Katsumi said. "Sleep, Arthur, and on your wakening, you will know yourself better than before."

She sighed. "The power of Kingslayer is limited but vast within its desmene. If he had used it on Guenevere, she too would be dying. As it stands, he will survive a year and a day and then he will die if he does not drink from the True Grail or if he is not healed with all seven Crystals or with the Dream of Serenity."

"The Dream of Serenity?" Rei asked.

"One of the most powerful of all Reality Marbles," Katsumi said. "With it, the line of Serenity transformed the Moon from wasteland to a beautiful kingdom for a thousand years, passing it mother to daughter. Only the power of the Magnificent Beryl destroyed that hallowed land." She sighed. "One day, it will bloom again and be used to create the Crystal Millenium by Serenity's daughter. Or as you know her, Usagi." She smiled a little smile.

Rei wanted to sleep forever now. She gently held Arthur up as Kay prayed by his side. "I think trying to quest for the Grail would only play into Carbonek's hands and we haven't the strength to defeat their Servants. Not on their own ground."

"We must return to your time and find the Dream of Serenity," Arturia said. "Then we can return and heal Arthur, once we can unseal the Gates of Time with it."

Guenevere now came rushing out. "ARTHUR!" She kneeled down by him, holding him, as her ladies spread out to tend to the fallen.

"I know Usagi will come," Rei said softly. "Don't worry, Arturia. Once we find her and deal with everything, she will come."

I will return, Arturia thought. And then there will be a reckoning. She tried to touch her rose, but her arms wouldn't move.

Wait for me, Mamoru, she thought. You will be avenged and so will Reika.

But right now, she was going to have to sleep until her arms could actually WORK.

"I think we've been wandering in this woods for days," Rin grumbled as they sat in another clearing, while Mai and Shirou roasted some rabbits and cooked some vegetables; Shirou had discovered he could imagine frying pans and other cooking equipment into existence and his giant spatula could easily be reshaped into other tools. If they were attacked by soy sauce and vegetables needing to be stir-fried, he was READY.

Sakura was busy practicing whipping things, which meant whipping trees, while Rin and Archer watched Mai and Shirou cook. Taiga-sensei now emerged from the trees with a bushel of carrots. "I had to fight some weird rabbit monster for these, but it's worth it."

She quickly peeled them all with her lightsabre and threw them in for the chefs to work on.

Mai was humming a happy tune.

Rin said, "You seem cheerful."

"This feels right," Mai said softly. "Using my powers to create something tasty, to feed my friends and do useful things. I don't like fighting. But when I can do things like this, I am glad to have these abilities."

Shirou nodded. "I know. I want...I don't like hurting people. I want to help people, to be a hero, but this seems what I am best at."

"I will handle the hurting people," Sakura said cheerfully and he sweatdropped.

If she's the good Sakura, I am afraid to meet the evil one, Rin thought.

Why do I get turned on whenever she says something like that, Shirou asked himself but carefully neglected to reply.

Mai gestured, creating some more cooking oil and then some raw garlic, which she sprinkled on the meat, followed by some parsley. "This gem is the best thing ever invented," she said. "It's like having an infinite spice box."

"Be careful," Rin said. "You have to burn your mana; it just magnifies it. We're likely to have a big fight."

Archer licked her lips nervously, wondering what her other self would be like. Probably some crazy skanky whore obsessed with Ishigami-kun. It was bad enough being in this outfit, she shuddered at what her other self might be like. She'd never known how to deal with her carnal side. She'd suppressed it a long time, but then it had consumed her, and she'd done horrible things.

Yet, she seemed to be having a good influence on Rin and that gave her hope she could still atone and be a good nun. After all, Jesus ate with sinners and prostitutes. He would forgive her so long as she asked for it and atoned. She was trying. I'm trying, Lord, she thought.

"Hey, you okay?" Rin asked, worried about Archer looking gloomy.

"I am fine," she said. "Will you pray with me?"

"Of course," Rin said. She didn't like seeing Archer unhappy; Archer was a good woman and she was determined to take care of her Servant.

"How are you, Sakura?" Taiga-sensei asked her.

"I'm great, sensei," she said, whipping another tree. "I haven't felt this good in just about forever."

"Well, at least our big whatever we did worked," Taiga-sensei said.

"I think all my problems are waiting for me at wherever we're going," Sakura said a little nervously.

"Wait...where is Lancer?" Taiga-sensei asked.

"Good question," Sakura said, frowning.

Distantly up the trail, Fujino Shizuru lay asleep on a bier, waiting for the kiss of a Princess to wake up her up. She enjoyed napping, so this was pretty much a perfect fairy tale gig for her. It was nice to finally relax with all her crazy removed.

Best to get in the napping NOW, so she'd be rested for when they needed her, right?

Nearby, Sleeping Beauty and seven knocked out dwarves laid sprawled, having tried to stop her from taking the bier for herself.

Maybe not quite all the crazy removed.

Small Lady Blue was crying; she had reverted to childhood and now everything she'd done was sinking in and she wanted to die. She laid in Princess Blue Mercury's arms and cried. She had just wanted to save her Momma and she'd done so many bad things and Momma would probably rather die than be saved that way and now her closest friend Miyu was dead or worse.

Princess Blue Mercury did her best to comfort her, for the gem she bore had two sides, and where one was lust, the other was love, and love has many facets, from romantic love to friendship to love between siblings to the love between parent and child or aunt and niece. And it was that power she channeled now, whispering soft words to Small Lady Blue as she flew. There would be time for repentance and atonement later; right now, they had to ensure that she and everyone else didn't die.

Unfortunately, they were battered and bruised and battleworn and Beryl was almost upon them. A horde of youma flew with her and around her, reality was twisting and bending as the Dark Kingdom strove to write itself over the city. She was utterly lost to the power now, driven by her desire to avenge Shingo. Everything else could die, so long as those who slew him perished. Sailor Star Moon was crying and her tears freezing on her face.

All would have been lost, except...

BATMOBILE OUT OF NOWHERE!

Beryl howled as the Batmobile crashed into her, but then her power ripped it apart, sending the Red Counter-
Guardian and Eudial tumbling.

"Run! Get Usagi to safety! You must take her to Avalon to be healed! I will deal with Beryl," the Red Counter-Guardian said.

He gestured and a huge gun appeared in the snow next to Eudial. She picked it up, nearly drooling. "What is this?"

"It's a gun that shoots copies of Gáe Bolg, Cu Chulainn's spear of death," he said, grinning.

"MARRY ME!" she said, smiling with joy.

"We can talk later," he said. "Beryl! Surrender now so I don't get bitched out by my Mistress when she remembers she forgot to tell me to find you too!"

Usagi and company fled reluctantly...okay, Nao wasn't reluctant AT ALL...leaving the Red Counter Guardian and Eudial to face down with Beryl and the rising power of the Dark Kingdom.

Eudial levelled her gun at the onrushing youma and pulled the trigger. Gae Bolg flew into the middle of the onrushing hordes, then exploded, blowing a large chunk in the horde. Eudial began blowing away hordes of youma right and left, laughing and laughing and laughing.

Beryl hurled energy and the Red Counter-Guardian leaped to one side as it melted the snow away and nearly melted him. "You can't win! I can keep drawing on the storm's power and the lives of this city! The Dark Kingdom rises and it will snuff our your power. Here, you cannot defeat me!"

The last thing they heard as they escaped by plunging into the glowing sphere around Shirou's neighborhood was the Red Counter-Guardian chanting.

I am the bone of my sword
Steel is my body and fire is my blood
I have created over a thousand blades
Unknown to Death, Nor known to Life
Have withstood pain to create many weapons
Yet, those hands will never hold anything
So as I pray, unlimited blade works.

And then there were swords, and those abundantly.

"I will return, I swear it," Arturia said. "I don't know how, but I will."

"I'm sure once we fix things in our own time, Pluto can bring us back," Rei said.

"I could bring us back, but I couldn't bring us back to our own time," Yumeni said. She couldn't stay Katsumi for too long without exhausting herself. "Now that I have mastered my powers."

"We will figure out something," Rei said to King Arthur, who was now lying in bed, propped up with pillows. Guenevere sat next to him on the bed, holding his hand.

"I hope all the knights will be okay," Shiho said.

"They needed the Round Table alive to be sacrificed properly so they would feed the Grail," Arthur said, grimacing, then touching his wound. "Bring Mordred to me."

"Right now?" Arturia said, surprised.

"I am dying. I know you will do your best, but I must prepare for the worst," Arthur said wearily.

Shiho suddenly wondered what would happen to Arturia if Arthur ceased to exist. "Wait, shouldn't you know if he lives or dies, Arturia?"

"I do not remember any of this," Arturia said. "I don't know if I will suddenly remember it all once I return to the future or what." She frowned. What if he dies and I evaporate? She wasn't a normal heroic spirit; she was still tied to her self that was dying after Camlann and returned there after each summons.

"We will have to see," Rei said. "We will bring Mordred to you."

They found Mordred in the infirmary, flirting with one of the ladies who were attending to the Orkneys, with Dame Ragnell overseeing them. "Lady Raye," Dame Ragnell said. "Lady Shiho, Lady Yumeni. What brings you here?"

"We're here to take Mordred away to see the King," Shiho said.

"I certainly cannot refuse a summons by three ladies at once," Mordred said. "Sorry, Gawaine, you'll have to stay here with your wife."

Gawaine was about to speak, saw Dame Ragnell smiling benevolently at him, then said, "Find out how he's doing, brother."

"I will."

Mordred stumbled along and needed Rei to help him stand up. "I must confess you three have vast and very flashy powers. Nimue tended to be more subtle."

"In my own time, I have to fight giant monsters and invading demons from other dimensions which the police and even the army can't handle," Rei said. "But my powers are pretty tightly focused around setting things on fire, while Nimue has broader powers."

Mordred nodded. "Gawaine is feeling very proud he kept Leonidas busy for so long."

"If the fight had started in the morning, he might actually have won," Yumeni said.

"I understand you turn into an angel of war," Mordred said to Yumeni.

"Yes, I do," Yumeni said proudly. "Katsumi, which in your language means 'Victorious Beauty." Wait...how am I speaking...WHAT AM I SPEAKING?

"You are indeed," he said. "So are we really going to Arthur or am I a very lucky man?"

"I'm thirteen!" Shiho said, blushing.

"I have a boyfriend," Yumeni said firmly.

"I love someone else," Rei said. Usagi...

He gave a mock sigh and they brought him to Arthur, Guenevere, and Arturia.

"Mordred, sit down," Arthur said.

He did so. "That bad, huh?"

Arthur smiled a little. "Not bad, I hope, but good. But also with some bad."

"Is this about why Merlin tried to kill me?" Mordred asked softly, anxiously.

"Do you know why?" Arthur asked.

"No, but I assume he thought I was going to fuck up his plans," Mordred said. "I've been kind of jumpy ever since I was old enough to learn about Herod. Yet, I can't think why Merlin would care about me. He's vanished for so long, I sometimes wonder if maybe my return somehow led to whatever killed him."

"He's imprisoned magically in a well," Rei said. "Someone's probably imprisoned Nimue in the same place, most likely Dame Brisen."

Mordred frowned, his face turning very dark. "And you need me to get them out?"

"We don't know where to look," Rei confessed.

"This is related to why he tried to kill you," Arthur said wearily. "Your aunt Morgan made you from my genetic material and that of your mother or maybe herself. We can't be sure, especially now with your mother dead," Arthur said. "You are my son."

"I have a year and a day to live, unless we can acquire the Grail or else if Arturia can return from the future with things that could heal me," Arthur said. "Constantine has been my heir, but since you are my son, the right to inherit belongs to you."

"I...are you sure of this?" Mordred asked, stunned.

"Rei used her magics to compare our hair, which is used in the future to determine parentage," Arthur said. "Don't ask me to explain it, it made my head hurt."

Mordred laughed the laugh of a man lost at sea. "You are my father," he said softly. "And not King Lot."

"Yes. I did not know until now," Arthur said. "So I had to tell you. Once I knew."

"I never knew Father," Mordred said. "He died just a touch after I was born."

"He was a brave and honest King who thought I was not fit to be High King. Some days, I think he was right," Arthur said wearily.

"Don't say things like that," Arturia said fiercely. "You have ruled well and Britain is at peace."

"I would have assumed after all the fanfare, you would want Arturia to succeed you," Mordred said hesitantly.

"I cannot," Arturia said. "My destiny lies elsewhere and it is likely that I am not long for this world." She sighed. "I will return once from the future, but then I will have to leave again."

"Alright," Mordred said. "So you hope to find something in the future to heal Father?"

"Yes," Arturia said.

"Unfortunately, we are going to have to fake questing for the Grail until you return," Mordred said.

"What?" Arturia said.

"Otherwise, they will attack us again. Without Arturia and her friends, we have no hope to defeat Carbonek's servants. And we must find Nimue or even..." He grimaced. "Merlin," he choked out. "We must make them think they've won or we will die."

Arthur looked extremely angry and so did Arturia. "The Grail Quest killed half the Round Table," Arturia said. "I was trying to prevent that!"

"I thought so," Mordred said. "That you must know what is to come."

"Knew," Arturia said. "I have changed that future, and yet..." She grimaced. "It seems history resists being changed."

"Yes," Yumeni said.

Guenevere sighed and squeezed Arthur's hand.

"I suggest you find the best knights who are not on the Round Table and put them to work finding and rescuing Nimue or Merlin," Shiho said. "Carbonek won't pay attention to them."

Arthur sighed. He knew Destiny was not so easily evaded. And yet he had briefly hoped...

He could see the light in Arturia's eyes. She would defeat Destiny or die trying. What had happened to her in the future had truly changed her. She had found the hope he had lost, the hope he wanted back.

Guenevere leaned down and kissed him and he kissed her back, then smiled. He had never thought...but she did. They were finally truly husband and wife and that did make him happy and feel some hope. Carbonek could not take that from him.

It was a start.

Everyone studied the sleeping Shizuru. "Maybe we'd best leave her asleep," Rin said.

"The inscription says only the kiss of a prince can wake her," Shirou said. "We're short on princes."

Artemis tried kissing her and Shizuru made a face. "I guess I don't count."

"Maybe a princess would work," Taiga-sensei said. "Also, if I'm a queen and everyone else is a princess now, then Shirou must be a prince. Quid pro quo."

"Do you actually know what that means?" Rin asked her dubiously.

"It means I win by being educated," Taiga-sensei said. "Who is the only person here with a college degree?"

"Actually, I have a Master's in theology," Archer said. "That is not a bad use of quid pro quo, which means 'something for something', or in other words, a fair exchange."

"She is my Servant, I will kiss her," Sakura said.

She stepped up and kissed Shizuru gently on the lips and Shizuru sat up and stretched. "Good morning," she said cheerfully. "Are we off to fight evil now?" She didn't seem in any rush to do so.

"Hey, you're wearing a kimono instead of being dressed like us!" Rin said. "If I have to wear this, so do you."

"Ara ara, you're lively today, Rin-chan," Shizuru said cheerfully. "Hold on, how does that transformation go..."

Sakura cracked her whip, somehow removing Shizuru's kimono. She actually had on the same outfit as the others under the kimono, brown with silver accessories. Shizuru gestured and her naginata appeared. "Hmm, I can see some uses for that trick, though you forgot to take off Shirou's boxers."

Shirou turned red and Sakura's eyes crossed.

"Well, it's off to fight the evil wizard," Shizuru said. "Lead on, ladies."

Shirou grumbled.

"And gentleman," Shizuru said cheerfully.

Rin wondered if Shizuru seemed as strange to the others as her. The whole aura of menace was gone; Lancer had a facade of calm, but this Shizuru was totally laid back and happy. There was no hidden core of menace.

Which meant that the other her was likely EVEN WORSE THAN LANCER.

Rin's stomach curdled. This side of her had HELD LANCER BACK. Ugh.

Could this version even fight? She did have a weapon, but...

Rin was now very worried.

Eudial was reeling, low on mana, and EVEN MORE hordes of youma were coming. Nevertheless, she had never been happier in her entire life.

"Having fun?" the Red Counter-Guardian asked, grinning himself as weapons raining from the sky slaughtered more of Beryl's forces. Beryl kept trying to blast him but she was at core, Ninja, who in this incarnation, was more of a melee person. But she was now lost in the Beryl persona and wasn't thinking to summon her giant frog or use the shadowknife. Only the desire to kill Small Lady Blue remained of Akira, consciously.

The problem, though, was that she remained instinctively very good at dodging and he wasn't managing to hit her with anything and fighting her Dark Kingdom's reality with his own was eating his mana like crazy.

He was going to have to do something very risky. He summoned a bow and Hrunting, then began charging them with mana. While he did this, he wasn't able to dodge as well and got blasted up some. He was getting really low on mana now.

However, this was good enough. He now shot Hrunting like an arrow and it homed in on his target, the Magnificent Beryl itself. It shattered and Beryl screamed and fell into the snow. Hrunting shattered into a billion bits and the Red Counter-Guardian collapsed, exhausted. The Dark Kingdom evaporated and the Red Counter-Guardian released Unlimited Blade Works, allowing the reality of hideous ice and snow to rush back in.

"We won?" Eudial asked.

"We won," the Red Counter-Guardian said. "Please help me get to shelter; I need to rest and draw more mana from my master before we go on." That should be quite enjoyable.

She helped him up as the wind howled and the snow came down.

Then there was a crack of lightning and now Mistress Nine appeared over Beryl, flanked by Dark Neptune, Dark Uranus, Dark Berserker, Dark Fumi, Dark Shinji (who somehow looked less evil than normal Shinji), Dark Zouken (hard to tell any difference from the normal Zouken), Dark Illyasviel, Dark Endymion, Dark Miyu (also hard to tell from regular flavor Miyu, except she wore black) and Dark Shingo (who was not very impressive at all). "Thank you for eliminating this threat to our master," Mistress Nine said. "And now you will serve us."

Eudial levelled her gun. "I finally found the perfect man! I'm not letting you have him!"

The Red Counter-Guardian rose and kissed her and she blushed a little. "I'm sorry, dear, but we're going to get our ass kicked. Protect Usagi for me," he said, summoning a really huge bow. Then he picked up Eudial like an arrow. "I promise we'll meet again! THERE ARE OTHER WORLDS THAN THIS!" And then he fired Eudial towards Avalon. "And tell Shirou that if he plays his cards right, he can have two sisters and not just one!"

Eudial wondered what on earth that meant and whether the one sister would kill her if she actually said it.

"Crush him," Mistress Nine said.

This is going to leave a mark, the Red Counter-
Guardian thought. A BIG mark.

Yumeni kissed the Panther Knight. "I'm sorry to leave you so soon," she said. "But this is your time and I must return to mine. But I'll never forget you."

He sighed. "We never even got to where I could tell you my name."

She put a hand on his heart. "I know the value of a good mystery, my love." She took his hand and laid it on hers. "I will not forget."

"Nor I," he said softly.

I will make sure no one can forget you, my love, she thought.

Avalon from above was a really huge island in the middle of a lake. To be precise, it looked like someone somehow crossbred Britain and Japan, then put the whole thing in a lake big enough to hold it all.

Usagi's crew was flying high above it; it seemed much larger inside the bubble than outside. VASTLY larger.

"I guess the northern Island is now named Scotkaido or something," Umino mused.

"Ireland looks weird with all that jungle," Nephrite said.

"Wales looks kind of like wings on Honshu, makes the whole thing look kind of like a dragon," Princess Blue Mercury said. She definitely seemed more mellow and motherly now than a young woman out to take her boyfriend repeatedly for a few hours...days...weeks...

"That's what Japan looks like in the future, but without the cities," Small Lady Blue said.

"Really?" Naru said in surprise.

Small Lady Blue nodded. "I think Mommy and Daddy reshaped it with magic."

"Small Lady Blue, who is your father?" Usagi asked softly.

"It's a secret," Small Lady Blue said.

"Is he named Endymion?" Usagi asked softly.

"No, he's Japanese, not Greek," Small Lady Blue said as if addressing the biggest idiot ever.

Usagi frowned. "Don't take that tone with me! I'm your mother!"

"Small Lady Blue, we need to know," Princess Blue Mercury said, ruffling her hair.

"Endymion is Mother's husband but he's not my father," Small Lady Blue said softly. "But don't tell anyone, it's a secret. My Daddy is Prince Archer; he made Miyu for me to protect me, using his Heart World. And my Mother is also my Mommy and she's Queen Serenity. Not you, kid."

"KID?" Usagi asked angrily.

Nao couldn't help but laugh.

"Usagi is not a kid, she's a woman," Umino said lecturingly. "You're the kid."

"What is a Heart World?" Princess Blue Mercury asked.

"It's the world that lives in each person's heart. The refuge where everything is what you dream the world should be." She rubbed her forehead. "Daddy's Heart World is kind of scary, but so are his wives."

Usagi's eyes crossed. "So my future self had a baby by someone I'm not married to who has TWO WIVES?"

"Princess Medusa is really nice and kind, except when she's cutting people's heads off with her whip chain thing, but Princess Sakura is really scary when she gets mad, but Medusa always restrains her," Small Lady Blue said. "But I'm really lucky because my Father and my Mother and my Daddy and his wives all love me very much and so does Miyu." She began to cry. "And now Miyu is dead. And I've done terrible things and everyone will hate me."

Usagi could feel her brain melting. Wait, Endymion said this was a future that never happened...so she wouldn't do anything so stupid...but then Alyssa would go poof, right? She couldn't wish that on her daughter from an alternate future or whatever she is...

Akane listened silently, wondering if she existed in that future and afraid to ask.

"Do I exist in the future you came from?" Nao asked curiously.

"Well, Princess Blue Mercury does," Small Lady Blue said. "And there are people who look vaguely like you two," she said, pointing to Venus and Jupiter. "And Mommy has a picture of you with a pie on your face when you were little," Small Lady Blue said to Umino. "And you with pie on your face," she said to Naru. "I don't recognize the rest of you."

Akane sighed. She'd hoped, but...though Endymion did say that was a future that couldn't happen...

"But I've never had pie on my face," Naru said.

"There is plenty of time to get hit with pies if we survive this," Nephrite said. "However, Alyssa's timeline has ceased to exist. I do not know what the future will be, but it is fixed."

"But...but..." Small Lady Blue said, about to cry again.

"What happens to her?" Usagi asked softly.

"I don't know. Perhaps we will find an answer here, when we find the master of Avalon."

"Scrying...," Yukino said.

"There," Nao said, pointing to a location in southwestern Honshu...England...whatever this was. "We'll find our answer there."

"Then let us go and see," Nephrite said and they dove.

I want to have a future, Akane thought. I don't want to evaporate like Kazyua did. Please.

They found their other selves lounging around a hot springs in the center of a bunch of Corinthian pillars. Their other selves were all relaxing and enjoying the hot springs. In fact, except for the lack of Luna, it was like they had circled to their starting point.

There was one other different thing, a giant statue of a triumphant catgod, trampling dogs under his feet and with smaller statues of humans bowing down before it. It was a good forty foot tall bronze statue, done in a Greco-Roman style.

I AM BAST-KUN, MASTER OF THE UNSEELIE, the statue announced.

"You're me inside a giant statue," Artemis said.

THERE IS NOT A SMALL WHITE CAT INSIDE THIS STATUE, Bast-kun bellowed.

"Well, if he says there isn't," Shizuru began.

"You can't bullshit a bullshitter WITH HIS OWN TRICK!"

FINE, Bast-kun said. THIS BATTLECAT IS FULLY OPERATIONAL! CHAMPIONS OF THE UNSEELIE, RISE!

They came out of the water, clad only in towels which then turned into their usual clothing as they quickly dried off.

Dark Sakura basically wore a black bustier and black lace panties with high black boots and black lacy gloves. Her hair and eyes were plum purple, as Sakura's had been before the creation of this world. She held a whip just like Sakura's and she had her other arm around Dark Shirou. This was necessary because Dark Shirou looked like he was about to crap himself and run away; he wore black leather pants and black boots and his whole body was covered with burn scars on the parts of him you could see.

Dark Mai only wore flames, though she wore her flames in the shape of a greek style suit of armor, complete with a draconic evoking helmet. She flew instead of walking. Darth Taiga-sensei wore a black and grey tiger-
striped wrap-around top tied at the waist with a belt and black pants and grey shoes. She held a double lightsabre in one hand and something heart shaped pulsed blackly under her tightly closed top. Her face was painted with brown tiger stripes and she had horns for no particular reason.

Dark Rin wore a red business suit with black socks and shoes and gloves, with a golden pentagram necklace and gold rimmed glasses which shone with mystic runes. She had one of Rin's traditional jewels dangling from a silver chain in one hand; she was slowly swinging it in a circle. Dark Archer, on the other hand, dressed exactly like Dark Sakura, except she also wore a necklace whose pendant looked rather like a traditional Jesus naked and going down on a red haired woman who looked very happy. And instead of a whip, she had a bow.

"Oh great, I have to dress skankier than my evil self," Rin grumbled.

Archer stared, mouth open wide, unable to speak coherently. "Mergureferz!"

"I made it myself; Wataru-kun taught me some sculpting and then we posed for it while Rin took some pictures I worked from," Dark Archer said cheerfully. "I posed as Mary Magdalene, of course. She's the patron of my profession."

Archer vibrated so much she was in danger of passing through the ground and being pulled by gravity to the center of the Earth.

Dark Rin said, "Archer, dear, we're not here to talk about our art, we're here to kill them and take their souls."

"But wouldn't you rather we bring Archer over to join us and then you could have a threesome with two of me."

Dark Rin's eyes crossed and she drooled a little.

Rin and Archer now began gibbering in tongues in unison as their brains melted.

"What's wrong with me?" Shirou asked, studying his other self and looking nervous.

"My dear little Shirou is so scared of everything that I have to tell him what to do. He trusts me, he loves me, so he knows I won't hurt him but he's too scared to make his own decisions," Dark Sakura said. "And I know because he's scared, he'll never try to rule me as all the other men I've ever known did." Her voice was harsh. "I will rule him and protect him. He used to want to be a hero but he was afraid to actually take any meaningful steps to do so, because he might end up hurt again and he already lost everyone he loved, once." Dark Shirou shivered next to her, staring at the ground, very much NOT looking at Dark Mai.

"Why are you...I mean..." Sakura said hesitantly.

"Didn't you love it when Shirou rode you for hours with his magic?" Dark Sakura said, then licked her lips.

"I...yes," Sakura said. "It was totally different than...It felt so good." You could barely hear her whisper. "I want more."

"Me too, but I don't pretend I don't. I like sex and I like men wanting me. It lets me control them instead of them controlling me." Dark Sakura flicked her fingers and a tiny ball of flame appeared. "And with my powers awakened, I can destroy any of them who try to make me do something I don't want."

"I do everything Sakura wants," Dark Shirou said proudly.

"I know you do, baby," Dark Sakura purred.

"I don't want to fight you. We don't have to fight, do we?" Shirou asked Dark Sakura.

"Fight? I'm not here to fight," Dark Sakura said. "You're the man I love and, well, my younger, naive self. I want you two to become us." She held out a hand. "Let us be the dominant personas."

"I refuse to let myself be ruled by my fear!" Shirou said angrily.

Sakura studied how devoted Dark Shirou was to Dark Sakura. Shirou loves me but...she looks so happy too... A few strands of her hair turned plum purple and there were little flecks in her eyes.

"You've always let your fear rule you. One good beating and you gave up on any real efforts to be a hero, just hid in your shed and practiced magic without making any real effort to seek out a mage who could properly teach you. You were just making gestures and turning into a mechanic," Dark Sakura said. "Mind you, I really like that you worked so hard to help people with your machine fixing skills. It showed you were kind to others and helped me believe you were kind to me." Her voice shifted on that last two sentences from being sultry to being happy in a non-sexy kind of way, maybe even shy. Her eyes widened and she put her hands over her mouth and a few of her hairs turned brown and there were tiny brown freckles in her eyes.

"Of course, mechanics get hot and sweaty and have to take long showers with their wives at the end of a long day," Shirou said.

Sakura's eyes crossed and more of her hairs turned plum purple, while Dark Sakura's hair gained more streaks of brown. Dark Shirou said, hesitantly, "I like showers."

Score, Shirou thought and tried to figure out what to say next.

Dark Mai announced, "I LOVE TO DESTROY THINGS. I love to see things burn, to crush my enemies under feet. I love to fight, to hurt people. When a monster dies, it makes me feel sooo good." Her flames roared up. "There is a joy in battle but I am sick of you lying and trying to pretend you don't like it, Mai."

"I don't! I hate fighting!" Mai protested. Even if it did feel so good to win a battle. To save people. A few flames flickered on around her and she said, "I would rather use my powers for creation, not destruction!"

"Jedi scum," Darth Taiga-sensei said. "Are you ready to fight to see whether the Sith or the Jedi have the true path?"

"Shouldn't you be kind of skanky looking?" Taiga-
sensei said. "And Dark Mai ought to be skanky too. She's hiding from her sexuality, right?"

"I'm actually mostly naked but you can't tell because I'm on fire," Dark Mai said. "Also, none of the people I want to have sex with are here, so I was going to skip that, since Dark Archer and Dark Sakura are way better at being skanky than I am." Her voice was very calm and matter of fact and some of her flames now flickered out, showing she was indeed mostly naked under the flame armor.

"You aren't afraid of your sexuality, everyone's just afraid to date you because your family is Yakuza and they know if they screw up, they will get an ass-kicking," Darth Taiga-sensei said. "You LIKE the outfit you're wearing."

"This is great, I am TOTALLY hot in this," Taiga-
sensei said. "So, basically, I'm the skanky one, having repressed my not-skankiness?"

"You can be skanky if you want to or not if you don't, instead of being ruled by one way or another," Darth Taiga-
sensei said.

"I rule," Taiga-sensei said.

"We totally rule," Darth Taiga-sensei said.

"Wait...so what part of me are you?" Taiga-sensei asked.

"The part that thinks Sith look super-cool but you can't admit it because they're the badguys and you want to to be a goodguy but you're afraid you can't escape your family's past, no matter how hard you try. See, I have Yakuza tats too," Darth Taiga-sensei said, pulling up her sleeves to show the serpents.

"I want a tattoo so bad but I'm afraid people will misunderstand," Taiga-sensei said piteously.

"See, Sith get to just hang out being evil with lots of cool tattoos, like these on my face," Darth Taiga-sensei said. "And look, we're not evil, just misunderstood. Jedi are all about being calm and reasonable; we embrace our passions. Isn't that really more like you?"

"You know..." Taiga-sensei said hesitantly. "If I'm evil, though, I'd like to dress like Lum, fly around, blast people with force lightning."

"Hmm, we could work that," Darth Taiga-sensei said thoughtfully. "There are skanky Sith. I kind of thought you'd save your Lum impersonation for a boyfriend or the beach, though."

"This is a hot spring."

"Taiga-sensei..." Mai couldn't bring herself to say 'Don't go over to the Dark Side.'

"You know, it would be appropriate for a hot spring. Give me a second to change," Darth Taiga-sensei said.

"Me too, show me the changing room," Taiga-sensei said.

Mai and Dark Mai facefaulted.

"Are we going to have a deep discussion of our personality?" Artemis asked Bast-kun hopefully.

I AM GOING TO CRUSH YOU FLAT!, he said, charging at Artemis.

"HELP!" Artemis said, running, but everyone was too wrapped up in their psychodrama to notice.

WHY HAVE YOU NOT KILLED EMIYA SHIROU, THE RED COUNTER-GUARDIAN?

"I...he's kind of cute and I was hoping..." Mistress Nine began.

Dark Shinji and Dark Zouken were holding the tied up Red Counter Guardian, who was quietly drawing power for his final stroke.

HE IS USING UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS TO MAKE AN ATOMIC BOMB. CRUSH YOUR HORMONES AND KILL HIM.

Crap, Counter-Guardian Red thought. He'd counted on Avalon overwriting and fixing all the damage once Sakura and Shirou became the Red Queen and the Red King. Unfortunately, right now, all he had was the outline of the bomb forming behind all the Dark Masters and Servants.

"I'm not going to let you kill Yukino until I can recruit her, even if I do have to kill Shirou," Mistress Nine said petulantly.

KILL HIM YOU IDIOTS!

Being eaten by the Grail didn't hurt nearly as much as Counter-Guardian Red thought, not that he ever wanted to experience it again.

"Be honest," Dark Sakura said to Shirou. "We both know you've had fantasies where Taiga-sensei and I strip you naked and have our way with you because you're just too sexy for us to resist. Often on the kitchen table."

Smoke came out of Shirou's ears. Dark Shirou's eyes crossed and he smiled a big smile.

Sakura's jaw dropped. "Both of us?"

"Now, now, you've had the same fantasy, but if you become me we can make it real," Dark Sakura said to Sakura. "We both know Taiga-sensei is kinder to us and loves us more than anyone other than Shirou. Don't you want to ensure she'll never leave you?"

Sakura's eyes crossed.

"She loves both of us like a sibling, not like a lover!," Shirou insisted.

"She's just waiting for us to be old enough for it to be legal. She's a responsible teacher," Dark Sakura said. "You'd like to do both of us, right, Shirou?"

"Oh yeah," Dark Shirou said.

"But I..." Shirou thinks of me as a lover, not a sibling, Sakura thought. He treats me wonderfully. My sibling did horrible things to me. Ergo, it's better that Taiga-sensei think of me as a lover so she will be kind to me like Shirou, like I want her to be kind to me. She tried to find the hole in the logic but wasn't seeing it. "I..." More of her hair and eyes turned purple. "What happened to the worms?" Sakura asked softly. "Inside me?"

"They know who is boss," Dark Sakura said. "Namely, me." She grinned confidently. "They're a part of me now. Even if you win this, they will still be there, so long as you hide from them."

Shirou tried to figure out his next gambit.

Dark Rin said, "Archer, dear, you shouldn't tell them what we do in secret. And also, won't you two join together and become you if the four of us...you know..." She laughed nervously.

"That's what we want, right, to absorb them and become the true Rin and Archer?" Dark Archer asked Dark Rin, fiddling with the buttons of her coat.

"I am totally not having sex with an evil version of me!"

"I'm not evil, just sensible," Dark Rin said. "You talk about being ruthless and killing, but you're a softy. I'm the part of you that is professional and gets things done. I'd have totally killed everyone by now and taken their lesser miracles."

"Then why are they all still here?" Rin said triumphantly, pointing at the others.

"It's all part of my secret plan," Dark Rin said nervously. "I will kill them, really." Her clothing began to shimmer.

"Let's be honest," Rin said. "You're right. I am a softie. I don't want to kill anyone. I kept finding excuses and now I don't have to. These are my friends, even if they make me crazy being the amateur hour and the fact that I have naughty thoughts about my sister is making me kind of nervous and I SAID IT OUT LOUD." She blushed, but said, "I finally have real friends who know the real me and they like me. You like that, don't you?"

"Yes," Dark Rin said softly.

"Join me. I want your sense of style and your professionalism and I WANT TO GET OUT OF THIS DAMN OUTFIT," Rin said. "I want to be a big damn heroine but I want to do it looking good and respectable."

They joined hands, fusing together, and now Rin was wearing a black and red suit dress with a black jacket, red shirt and knee-length skirt, red pumps, and her usual cross but with three of her jewels on chains as well. The glasses had turned into sunglasses.

"Now THIS is more like it," Rin said, satisfied.

"I don't...I'm not..." Archer said, sweating.

Dark Archer now turned to Rin and kissed her softly. Rin turned a little red, then said, "Are you serious or just trying to rattle me?"

Archer tried to speak but no words would come out.

"You'll never successfully be celibate again," Dark Archer said to her other self. "The genie is out of the bottle. But you don't have to become me to have sex. You just need a steady lover, someone who actually likes and respects you. And, well, it is a way to transfer mana..."

"But I never..."

"Trust me, you'll like it. Give her a chance," Dark Archer said.

Rin made a little come-hither gesture. "I just assumed you wouldn't be interested as a nun," she said.

Archer licked her lips, closed her eyes, then came over and kissed Rin. She felt a shiver and then looked at herself. She looked the same, but she felt so good, doing that.

Dark Archer was gone, but she could feel her inside. Archer blushed a little and kissed Rin a second time.

Mai and Dark Mai were yelling at each other; they were immune to each other's powers, so all they could do was yell about which one of them actually liked destroying things more. However, fires were kicking up around then and starting to spread.

Darth Taiga-sensei and Taiga-sensei both now came out of the trees in matching tiger-stripe bikinis. Darth Taiga-sensei wore an onyx version of the Shiny Magic Rock; Taiga-sensei wore the original diamond-like version. "We look awesome," Taiga-sensei said.

"Yeah, I know, makes me wish there was a cute guy to seduce," Darth Taiga-sensei said. "He totally could not say no to even one of us, let alone, two. Although..." She looked over at Shirou.

"Hey, he's like a brother to us!" Taiga-sensei said.

"A brother you sometimes have naughty thoughts about," Darth Taiga-sensei said.

Taiga-sensei's eyes crossed. "Hey, you two kids, stop setting everything on fire!"

"She started it," Mai and Dark Mai said in unison.

"You like burning things! YOU COOK," Dark Mai said to Mai.

"It's not..." But it was. It was fire. Mai loved fire, loved to see it change things. But it wasn't to destroy; she loved its power to cook, her ability to protect people. With these powers, she had to fight, sometimes even to...kill. But without them, she couldn't protect those she loved and they could be used for good as well as evil. They were not evil unless she made them so.

Dark Mai was a part of her. A part that wanted to destroy, to burn things, to smash things, to conquer and rule to destroy her enemies. But if she never fought, the terrible things she knew were out there would destroy her world. She had to have this power in order to save the world and those she loved, because some infections have to be cut out. Even doctors need knives sometimes. So long as she controlled herself and used the powers responsibly, it was better to have them than not. It meant an end to any hope of normality. But her friends needed her. And she was a heroic spirit. Normality...this was her normality now. Cooking for her friends, fighting monsters by their side, helping to make a house a home. Because people don't just need defenders, they need someone to provide them with a shelter. Food, shelter, clothing. Someone to put them back together after a long day of battling the world. That was her strength. She would fight when she had to, but her true strength was to be that point of haven. The one who takes care of people, not out of duty but out of love. She enjoyed getting up every day, making breakfast with Shirou, having adventures with her new nakama. Fire could be used to create or to destroy; she preferred creation, but she would fight when she must.

She felt the Egg of the Phoenix ignite within her heart and she knew what must soon come, when the third of the queens of Avalon arrived. She embraced Dark Mai and they became one, destruction in one hand and creation in the other. She was ready, now wearing greek style armor made of shining orange metal and a draconic helmet. And on her brow shone a dragon of fire, the phoenix of death and rebirth.

"Does that mean we have to do the fusion dance now?" Darth Taiga-sensei said. "I was kind of hoping for a cool battle with myself."

"We can play until Sakura and Shirou and Sakura and Shirou finish," Taiga-sensei said. "HAVE AT THEE!"

They began flying around and blasting at each other and clashing single against double-saber, having a ton of fun.

Shirou didn't want to be Sakura's slave like Dark Shirou but he didn't want to be her master either, like Shinji had been. He wanted them to be equals. He wanted to be a hero, but he was scared of it too. His father had been a hero and he withered and died from his powers. "Are those all your crest?" he asked Dark Shirou softly.

"Yes, I'm very powerful but it hurts so much," Dark Shirou mumbled.

Shirou studied the crest on his arm. Would it spread all over him like that? But if he could help people, it might be worth it. "Sakura...could you love me like that?" he asked softly.

"I will love you no matter how many scars," Sakura said softly. "I look just like Dark Shirou, you just can't see them unless you know how to look."

"Sakura, I want us to be...I want to be your boyfriend and you my girlfriend, but I don't want either of us to have to obey the other. I want us to both be free of our scars that hold us back." He embraced her tightly. "I want us to walk into the future, side by side."

"Would you love me more if I dressed like her?" she asked softly.

"I want you to dress however you want," he told her. Weakly, he said, "Also, I really wish I had some pants."

"I must admit I like you like this," she said, sounding naughty. "I kind of like how they all want you but you're only for me."

"I kind of like you in that outfit too," he confessed. "Is that how you wish to be?"

"I want to be as free and happy as she is," she said softly. "But I like you like this, no pants and all."

"We might both get arrested if you don't wear a skirt and I don't wear some pants," he mumbled.

"That's okay, we can do that in public," she said, and then her hair turned purple and her eyes as well and her clothing became that of Dark Sakura. "But we're with friends, here. I want to be your Queen and you my King."

"So do I," he said. "I want...I want to be a hero, but I'm afraid."

"Me too," she said softly. "But we can banish each other's fear, right?"

And then she kissed him and there was fire everywhere and his fear rose up around him and he was running through the burning building and there were people pinned under the rubble and the building was coming down and he was going to die.

He was going to die again, here in the burning rubble, all alone; his parents were dead, his siblings were dead, everyone was hurt and dying and there was smoke and he couldn't breathe.

There had been a man, he'd somehow deflected a burning timber that was going to fall on Shirou. His parents had told him to run and he'd nearly died anyway and the man, red haired like his father, had blocked the falling timber and told him the right way to get out. He'd run and he heard a gunshot and he'd thought about going back but he was too scared. Maybe he could have saved the man, but he was too scared.

He'd kept running and gotten out but he was lost and the city was on fire and then Emiya Kiritsugi had found him and taken him in. He'd been gravely injured by the fire, too hurt to live, but Emiya Kiritsugi...he had taken something...put it inside him. Avalon.

It suddenly hit him. The man who saved him...had used magic. And the gunshot...his father, Emiya Kiritsugi, had shot the man because of the Grail War.

The damn Grail War. Innocents were hurting and dying because of this.

Red hair...

He thought I was the man's son. Who he had just orphaned. And he took me and loved me and tried to atone for what he did like that.

I could have tried to help people in the building... maybe I could have saved them. But I was six and terrified and all I could do was run. The guilt had eaten at him all these years. Along with the fear.

As it must have eaten at his father, Emiya Kiritsugi, for all the things he had done in the Grail War.

But he wasn't a child any more and he didn't have to let his fear or his guilt rule him. He had powers now, powers he could use to help people. Without killing. Though sometimes, he would have to fight. There were too many things in this world that wouldn't listen to reason.

Shinji. Poor Shinji, he thought. He had been a good friend once, but his power and the pressures on him had twisted him into a monster who did terrible things to Sakura.

But he didn't have to be a monster to avoid being impotent and scared. There was a middle way. A better way.

Avalon lives in my heart, lives inside me. A place of refuge, hope and healing. A place of creation and joy. The power to help people lived inside him and always had. He just had to find it and accept it and become it.

With Sakura by his side, he could do anything. He didn't have to be afraid and neither would she. "I pledge to be your King, the King of Avalon," he said softly to her.

"And I pledge to be your Queen," she said. "The Queen of Avalon."

And now the image of a lake with an island in the middle blazed on their brows, blue water and purple and red grass side by side.

The third of the Queens of Avalon was coming, and they turned and looked to the skies.

Rin said, "Wait...where is Lancer?"

Lancer, in fact was having a tea party with Shizuru and trading embarrassing stories about Sakura and Natsuki.

"You can't just have a tea party, dammit," Rin said.

"But she hasn't even told me about the time Natsuki had jam on her face and didn't notice for THREE hours," Lancer said.

"It sounds like you already know!" Rin shouted.

"Yes, but it's nice to hear it from someone who likes Natsuki as much as I do," Lancer said.

"Hurry up and come to terms with yourself! We have places to go and evil Grails to kill!" Rin said, hands on her hips.

"We need to be less crazy," Shizuru said to Lancer.

"But my mistress is crazy too," Lancer said, then sipped her tea.

"I'm not crazy," Sakura said.

"Note the outfit," Shizuru said.

"Well, Natsuki would look good in that," Lancer said.

"She does have the figure for it," Shizuru conceded.

Mai began tapping her foot impatiently.

"Perhaps if we cultivate selective amnesia, we could go back to the old days," Lancer said.

"When we hid the crazy better?" Shizuru continued.

"Yes, exactly."

Sakura sweatdropped.

"No need to rush, we're still having fun!" Darth Taiga-
sensei said, knocking Taiga-sensei into the lake.

"I suppose the cold, dead-eyed stare has to go," Lancer said regretfully.

"Definitely," Shizuru said.

"I'm getting good at it, though."

Shizuru sipped her tea. "It turns the ladies off."

"Then it must go immediately," Lancer said firmly.

I hate everything, Rin thought, then Archer kissed her again and she got reasonably distracted.

"HELP ME!" Artemis howled as he ran past them again with the giant statue after him.

"Archer, if you will," Rin said.

Archer shot three arrows into the giant statue and it broke into bits. A white cat stumbled out and Artemis in human form picked him up. "Back to my subconcious or I'll give you to Luna," he said.

BING, merge complete.

Dinner was in progress when the Senshi brigade arrived from the skies. Luna had joined them as well, and a big barbeque was in progress. Taiga-sensei had worn herself out and remerged into one Taiga-sensei still in a tiger-skin bikini; no tattoos on her but she did have the cute little horns still. She was napping under a giant leaf now.

"The world is ending and you're having BARBEQUE?" Nao asked.

"Have you tried my barbeque?" Shirou asked.

"No..." she said warily.

"An army marches on its stomach," Suguira-sensei said, having flown down with them.

Usagi ran over to Shirou. "Please tell me you are not having threesomes with Medusa and Sakura!"

"Medusa?" Shirou asked in confusion. "Like the Greek thing?"

"What?" Sakura said in confusion.

Then Usagi noticed how she was dressed and her eyes crossed.

"We should kill her," Lancer said to Shizuru.

"We can't just flip out and kill people all the time any more," Shizuru said. "We are not a ninja." She sipped her tea.

"Fine, Usagi lives for now," Lancer said, then sipped her own tea.

Yukino saw two of Shizuru and her brain tried to die. She hid behind Nao.

"Hey, I'm not a body shield, you know," Nao said.

"Usagi, once the food is ready, the three of us need to talk. Four, four of us," Mai said.

"Food? FOOD," Usagi said, now starving.

Soon the food was ready and they stuffed themselves, letting their bodies process the food and make more mana; they were going to need it. Indeed, it was one of the best meals any of them had ever eaten; the food seemed exceptionally tasty and there was a novelty to eating venison and rabbit with all sorts of fresh vegetables, including some that were not normally part of their diet like turnips and chili peppers.

As they ate, Shirou went up to Naru and bowed. "I'm sorry," he said.

She looked up from her plate of venison, turnips, rice, celery, carrots, corn, and potatoes too. "For what?"

"Your father saved my life during the last war; when the fire broke out he was trying to put out the flames and save people. But my adoptive father killed him. I am so sorry."

"It's okay. It's all Rider's fault," Naru said angrily. "But it sounds like she died."

"It was NOT my fault," Suguira-sensei said, irritated. "He MADE me leave to save those kids we found. I was Rider," she said.

"But I thought..." Naru began. "Tomoe told me Rider used two pistols..."

"That was Natsuki; she sacrificed herself to let me escape and warn everyone," Yukino said miserably. "But she wasn't in the last war."

"You got conned," Suguira-sensei said. "He fed everyone a big pile so we'd slaughter each other and he could get the Grail faster."

Naru grimaced deeply.

"But Hotaru's wish brought your Father back to life, I think," Yukino said.

Naru's eyes widened. "She...wished for that?"

"She made Kaolinite and I and Natsuki able to live by food so we wouldn't die if our mana supply faded too but...Natsuki died," Yukino said, then began to cry.

Naru embraced her tightly. "It's okay. We will fix this," she said firmly.

Shizuru rose and came over to Yukino with Lancer trailing behind her. "I'm very sorry, Yukino, for what I did to you and Haruka," she said, then bowed deeply. "She was crazy," she said, pointing to Lancer.

"WE were crazy. You can't blame me," Lancer said.

"It was wrong and I am sorry and if I could bring your Haruka back, I would. But I think you and I are both just shadows of the real Yukino and Shizuru, who are free of our sins, thankfully." She sighed. "I am sorry."

"I can't forgive you so easily," Yukino said hotly.

"That's okay," Shizuru said. "Natsuki died for me too and I can never forgive myself for that." She rose and took Lancer's hand and they merged. "But I will avenge her death and you will too, right?"

"Yes," Yukino said fiercely.

"Good. Let us fight together, then, and in time, I hope I can atone," Shizuru said calmly.

"Thank you," Yukino said softly.

"DADDY," Small Lady Blue said, coming over and trying to hug Shirou while holding a plate of food; he nearly ended up wearing it.

"What?" he said in utter confusion.

"DADDY?" Sakura said, eyes glowing.

"Auntie Sakura!" HUG. "Are you going to blast someone now?"

Sakura could not maintain Maximum Yandere while being hugged. "Hello, niece," she said, confused.

"Have you and Daddy gotten married yet? Where's Aunt Medusa?" Alyssa asked.

Sakura blushed. "Married?"

It's a good thing I have a magical healing scabbard inside me, Shirou thought. I think I'm going to need it.

Akane sat with Usagi, eating. Usagi said, "We're going to have to find some way to have kids. Though I guess if the Silver Moon Crystal ever shows up again, we can probably use that."

Akane turned a little red. "Kids?"

"Well, I want kids some day. By you. Not Shirou."

Akane said, "I'm sure with this much arcane power, we can figure it out eventually."

"Our child, however, will not be a crazy brat with a killer robot who CANNOT RECOGNIZE HER OWN MOTHER," Usagi said.

"You're too young for kids but you two do make a cute couple," Taiga-sensei said.

Usagi stared. "Hey, is that the Silver Moon Crystal?"

"No it's the Shiny Magic Rock," Taiga-sensei said patiently, then showed her the receipt. "Your friend thought that too."

"Oh, okay," Usagi said. "If the Rainbow Crystals are all out and about, we'd need to reassemble it."

"Well, that may be tricky and it's probably best we don't have something you can die from using," Sailor Star Jupiter said.

"I hope Rei didn't get sucked up by the Grail and turned evil," Sailor Star Venus said.

"I hope not," Usagi said.

Then Eudial fell from the sky onto her head, giving her other things to think about.

"Here you go," Yumeni said, passing the painting to Arthur on his bed.

It showed King Arthur and Guenevere in full regalia on their thrones, each holding a scepter with one hand and each other's hand, with Lancelot behind and to the side of Guenevere's throne and Kay behind and to the side of Arthur's. A painting of Sir Ector hung on the wall behind Arthur and King Leodegrance behind Guenevere.

"This is lovely," Arthur said.

"Thank you," Guenevere said.

"We must go now, but we SHALL return," Arturia said.

"The knights ride out in the morning," Arthur said. "Good luck."

Arturia touched the rose in her hair; it was still fresh and blooming. "Thank you, father," she said. Then she kissed Guenevere on the cheek and did the same to Kay, then shook Lancelot's hand. "I shall return."

Everyone said goodbye, then Saber sliced the air open and the Gates of Time swung open and they stepped through. The Gates closed behind them and evaporated.

"Do you think she'll make it back?" Arthur asked softly.

"She will, Ursa Minor," Kay said fondly. "She will."

Venus pulled Nao aside. "So you lost someone too, huh?" she said softly.

Nao's eyes opened wide. "How did you know?"

"I lost someone I cared about and had another friend turned into a monster to kill me once," Venus said softly. "I can tell you smile to hide the pain, sometimes. Me too. I just wanted you to know, I understand."

"You can't understand," Nao said. "I lost everyone I loved, except Mom, then all my relatives betrayed me!"

"Mine wasn't that bad, though I had to watch all my friends die one by one when we went after Beryl and I..." She told Nao about her adventures in England. "I didn't want to...I just want you to know I'm here if you ever want to let it out."

"Okay," Nao said softly, her fire going out swiftly. "Thank you."

"Does Umino know?" Venus asked.

"No," Nao said.

"Tell him. It helps, doesn't it?"

"I can't dump that on him," Nao said, studying the ground.

"He would want you to," Venus said. "He loves you."

"That's why," she mumbled. "I did some terrible things because of that."

"He'll understand and forgive and accept you," Venus said. "You did what he had to. He'll help you with all his strength."

"Later," Nao told her. Not in this crisis.

"Reasonable," she said, then smiled at Nao and shook her hand. "I can tell you love him too."

"I...uh..." Nao turned red.

"You're so desperate to protect him with all your strength." She touched her heart. "That's love. You two will be an epic love."

I wish, Nao thought. I wish.

But now she smiled.

Usagi, Mai, Sakura, and Shirou had gone off for a talk and now they returned; everyone else had cleaned up dinner and were waiting.

"We're going to have to do something dangerous, but we need reinforcements and we need to be sure that our most important people are safe," Usagi said. "We're moving into teams to secure those most important to us and bring them here to Avalon."

"The four of us will link ourselves and store Avalon within our hearts until the threat passes," Shirou said.

"We believe we can use it, with everyone's help, to heal the world once we deal with the Grail," Sakura said.

"Please help us," Mai said.

"Of course," Naru said.

"I'm ready for some action now that I can go out in public without dying of embarrassment," Rin said.

There was a chorus of assent.

"Sakura and I will stay here to maintain Avalon with Rin and Archer and Lancer's assistance," Shirou said.

"Team Senshi is going to go get my parents and Naru's parents and Ryo and..." Usagi paused. "Makoto, do you think Motoki and Reika should come or are they safer where they are?"

"I don't know what to tell them, but yes. This is going to be ugly for the city," Makoto said softly.

"Oh man, how am I ever going to tell the folks about Shingo," Usagi mumbled.

"Look, your folks are in Tokyo. They're probably safer there than here," Eudial said. "We should just get the people who might be in danger."

Mai licked her lips nervously. "Taiga-sensei, I'm going to need you to come with Nao and I."

"Sure," Taiga-sensei said.

"But you could call your folks, let them know you're okay," Eudial said to Usagi. "Wherever you go, though, I'm going with you."

"You..."

"The best man in the world told me to guard you, so guard you I will," Eudial said. "You can call me Sailor Speargun."

"We had best get Ryo's father and my mother too," Ami said.

They soon planned everything, then moved out.

"Oh dear, it looks like you owe me 3000 dollars rent," Older-Shizuru said as Older-Haruka landed on Park Place for the fifth time in a row.

TWITCH.

"And I get...four. Marvin Gardens," Older-Reito said. "Which I own."

They were all playing board games, listening to the generator hum (the power had gone out two hours ago, but now they were on their own power) and trying not to wonder if the world was about to end.

And then, there was a loud chime and a whir of flame, figures forming inside it. Mai (in armor), Nao (in a striped shirt, beret, and mini-skirt), Umino (dressed warmly, but down to a reasonable level; he'd insisted on coming.), and Taiga-sensi (still in tiger-striped bikini).

"MAI!" Older-Mikoto said, then said, "Wow, that's nice armor."

"The end of the world is coming and we've come to rescue you and take you to Avalon," Mai said.

"As in 'King Arthur'?" Older-Nao asked, pushing her glasses up her nose.

"Pretty much," Taiga-sensei said.

"The end of the world?" Older-Mai asked softly, rising from where she'd been playing spades with Older-Yuuichi, Older-Shiho, and Older-Mikoto.

"Not if we can help it," Mai said determinedly.

Older-Mikoto picked up her sword. "I'm ready to fight. I'm ready to fight for the people I love."

"Are we going to fight?" Shizuru asked. "This seems like something beyond our power."

"They killed our Natsuki," Nao said fiercely. "I'm going to avenge her."

Umino put a hand on her shoulder, but she still looked pissed, though now Older-Nao smiled at the two of them.

"But she..." Older-Mai began hesitantly.

"Look...our generation all tried to kill each other at school," Nao said. "We got suckered and we turned on each other and everyone went down. I don't know how we got a second chance, but they brought us back to fight each other again. Some of us, anyway. But now the Grail's been possessed by an evil god who wants to eat the world or some stupid sci-fi shit like that and I'll be DAMNED IF I LET THAT BITCH KILL ANY MORE PEOPLE," she said hotly.

"You will be safe," Mai said. "I will never be normal again, but once this is over, you'll be able to go back to normal lives."

"The other-me died because of this. We had to run and hide...I don't want to hide," Older-Mikoto said.

"Or me," Older-Haruka said.

"Or me," Older-Natsuki said.

"Or me," Older-Shiho said. "Damned if I know what I can do, but I want to FIGHT. I want to deal with all this shit and not hide any longer."

"Can we fight?" Older-Yuuichi asked. "I want to help but I don't have any powers and neither do the rest of us."

Taiga-sensei studied them with some goggles she summoned up. "We could awaken their magic circuits. Something happened to suppress their powers," she continued.

"I have a suspicion that Mai won the Grail War and rewrote history so it never happened," Nao said. "Thus leading to the current history timeline."

Older-Mai stared, mouth open.

"Magic circuits?" Older-Yukino asked curiously.

"Yes," Taiga-sensei said. "I think if we combined our abilities, we could give you all powers."

"But..." Mai said.

Older-Mai stared at the floor, then stepped up. "We will fight. For each other and for our world. I can still hardly believe this is real, but I want to make a world in which my daughter can be safe."

Older-Nao said, "Won't we get cold in outfits like that, though?"

"Part of magic is that you can pretty much handle any climate and BREATHE IN SPACE," Taiga-sensei said.

"We can...you know, Mai can breathe in space," Nao said.

"Then let's do it," Older-Nao said. "I wanted to be a magical girl when I was a kid."

"Me too," Nao said softly. "You all sure of this? We can use you, but it's not all wine and roses and meeting princes."

"You're my princess," Umino said firmly.

Nao turned a little red. "And you're my prince," she cooed to him, then kissed him firmly.

Older-Nao smiled at them like a big sister. "I know. Life can be hard."

"You have no idea," Nao said. "And I hope you never do. Okay, everyone form a square. Mai, Taiga-sensei, time for zapping with power."

"I'm sorry," Mai said. "You shouldn't have to do this."

"It's okay," Older-Mai said, then her voice turned hot. "What happened to Berserker is not acceptable and I will do anything to make sure it happens to no one else. I want to make her sacrifice mean something. I want her sacrifice to be IMPORTANT. If she could die for someone she just met, then I can die for the people I love more than anything."

"I am totally ready to KISS BUTT," Older-Haruka said firmly.

"But won't Yukino get embarrassed if you do that in public?" Nao teased.

Older-Yukino kissed Older-Haruka. "That's for private."

"Wait...what?" Older-Haruka asked, turning red.

"Okay, let's join hands and DO IT," Taiga-sensei said.

And then there was light.

Naru hugged her father tightly. "Daddy, this is my boyfriend, Nephrite."

"It's good to meet you, sir," he said, shaking Osaka Hayao's hand.

Princess Blue Mercury posed for Ryo. "So..."

He stared. "Oh man, you are so totally HOT." Then he tried to run and shove his head in the oven, but she pulled him close.

"Once this is over, you're getting transformed too," she purred. "I think I know how."

Please don't let me come in my pants during the battle, Ryo thought.

Osaka Hayao said, suspiciously, "How old are you?"

"I'm an exchange student from America," Nephrite said smoothly. "We don't eat enough rice, so we look older than we are."

"Oh, okay," Osaka Hayao said, hornswoggled by Nephrite's sheer sincerity as he lied like a maniac. "Because if you were as old as you look, I'd have to try to beat you up."

"He's a Servant, honey. He'd take us both apart," Osaka Meiko said, hugging Naru.

"Come on," Naru said. "It's time to go to Avalon."

There was a nice palace now, surrounding the hot springs, the place Shirou would have built if he could. And now he could, for Avalon was a part of him.

Reika and Motoki stared at it, eyes wide. "Wow."

"You'll be here during the battle," Shirou said to them.

"Don't worry, you will be totally safe," Sailor Jupiter said to Motoki.

"I...does anyone know what happened to Mamoru and Joan?" Motoki asked.

"Joan?" Usagi asked softly.

"His girlfriend. She's British," Motoki said. "I think."

"We think he's dead and she's probably dead too," Usagi said. "I'm so sorry. I tried to keep him out of this but I think he was in it, trying to keep me out." She hung her head. "He came to me in a dream," Usagi said, shivering as Akane held her hand. "And we can't find Yumeni anywhere. Or Rei. Which probably means Yumeni is someone's demon slave and Rei got eaten by the Grail. Rei..." She shivered.

I'm sorry, Rei, she thought.

Rei blinked at Sailor Pluto, who now was wearing a long dark green dress with black trim; her gloves and boots were black, along with her belt. A big sash-belt circled her waist several times and formed a huge black bow in the back. Unlike the rest of the black trim, the belt was dotted with stars and galaxies. The skirt went down nearly to her feet, but was slit high up the side, revealing her legs and dropped low in front, showing off her bosom.

Shiho grumbled because she was never going to have significant bosom.

Princess Star Pluto said, "I am ready." She brandished her staff. "Lead on, Sailor Star Mars."

"Aren't you supposed to stay here, guarding the gate?" Mars asked.

"Hmm, yes, I had best do that," she said. "I can feel the tides of history changing."

"So you have to flaunt your body," Shiho grumbled.

"That's just a side benefit," Pluto said.

Arturia laughed softly. "Lesser Miracle of the Grail! OPEN THE GATES OF TIME!"

And they strode forth into the last battle of the age and the birth of a new.

Avalon split in four, shrinking away into tiny gems, hidden inside Mai, Shirou, Sakura, and Usagi. And then they all headed for the heart of the storm to find the Grail.

A mountain of snow stood where the Tomoe residence once stood, and out of it rose a black tower, and at its top floated the Grail, the size of a van, pulsing with darkness and a few strands of white light. Behind it yawned a great black chasm in the air; once it grew large enough, it would suffice to allow Master Pharoah 90 to enter the world and fuse with it, remaking the Earth in his own image.

A substantial force was assembled to defend it. Dark Shingo was unlikely to actually matter, but the Dark Red Counter-Guardian, Dark Berserker, Dark Fumi, Dark Endymion, Dark Illyasviel, Dark Zouken, Dark Shinji, Dark Miyu (with the Orange Gem of Wrath), Dark Neptune, and Dark Uranus and Mistress Nine were nothing to sneeze at.

The absence of Rei left Usagi confused, but happier.

Usagi, Shirou, Sakura, and Mai had a substantial force, but much of it was made up of novices. Nephrite, Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Suguira-sensei and Rin had lots of experience. Taiga-sensei, Yukino, Archer, Mai, Lancer, Eudial, and Nao had lots of power if not so much experience. The rest were novices, if strong. Naru's parents had stayed inside Avalon to protect it from invasion and because Naru didn't want to lose them.

Still, they likely had the upper hand on their foe, even if Mistress Nine now had the Indigo Gem of Destruction and Preservation set into her necklace.

"Hotaru, please, you have to end this," Yukino said desperately. "I don't want to lose you too."

"Join us," Mistress Nine said. "Your friend Mikoto has. Won't we have fun together?" she said a little wistfully.

Dark Berserker held her hands out. Except for the black gleam on her blade, she looked just the same as before. "Mai, Yukino, I don't want to fight you. Come and join us."

Older-Mai stared. She was glad she was alive, but Older-Mai knew she couldn't fight Mikoto. Older-Mikoto shivered and fingered her blade.

"Mikoto, you don't have to do this. I don't want to ever fight you again," Mai said. She remembered it all now. How they'd fought, how she'd used the Grail to change history, to save everyone from their darkness, how she'd set them all free. She was just a copy of that Mai, but this Mikoto was HER Mikoto, who she loved and she couldn't stand to fight her again.

Dark Fumi flashed a plate of cookies. "Evil has the BEST sugar," she said.

Dark Berserker and Older-Mikoto both drooled.

"Usagi, my love," Dark Endymion said. "Aren't we meant to be together? Isn't that destiny?" His armor was black and silver but his voice was warm and she shivered.

Usagi stared, then gripped Akane's hand tightly. "I'm sorry but I have a girlfriend now. Destiny has changed. But I will heal you and set you free, Mamoru. Endymion. I WILL set you free."

"We will set you free," Akane said, feeling relieved and surprised at once. But the victor can be merciful.

"Hey, baby, I'm glad to see you," Dark Red Counter-
Guardian said, grinning at Eudial. "Glad to see you came through this okay."

She grinned back. "No hard feelings, right? Winner gets to be on top?"

"Sounds good to me," he said. "Of course, I always win."

Eudial smiled broadly, "Well, see, this might be one time where you win whether you win or lose."

"That's the best kind, baby."

"Big brother, come play with me!" Dark Illyasviel said cheerfully. "I haven't gotten to make you into a doll yet!"

"I'm already...umm...Sakura's doll." BIG BROTHER? First I'm a father and now I have a sister? I don't remember any of my sisters looking like her, though.

"But I've waited all my life to make you into my toy so I could keep you by my side forever!" Dark Illyasviel protested.

"Too late," Sakura said firmly.

"Sakura, have you become a whore?" Dark Shinji asked. "Oh wait, too late, you already WERE one." He began laughing.

"Shinji, I will not tolerate that!" Shirou said angrily. "You apologize!" Even if we are both mostly naked.

Her eyes flashed and purple flames gathered around her. "You will NEVER touch me again!"

Dark Zouken gestured at her and nothing happened. He grimaced. "You have ruined years of work."

"ASK ME IF I CARE," Sakura said, eyes flashing. "Lancer, get ready to rumble."

"I am ready, dear Mistress," Lancer said cheerfully.

"Please, Hotaru," Yukino begged. "Let's not fight. Natsuki is already dead. Please."

Mistress Nine's eyes flashed. "She HURT me."

"Look, Nine," Nao said. "You really think you can beat us? We heavily outnumber you, you know. I'm not big on mercy, but frankly, I'm ready to get this over with." She'd had to get Naru's parents to sit on Umino to get him to stay in Avalon where he was safe, but what if someone somehow got in? Naru's parents didn't have a very good trackrecord.

I HAVE MORE SERVANTS THAN THIS.

There was a huge whoosh as Master Pharoah Ninety drew on the souls trapped in the Grail by past wars and unleashed his hordes of jelly-like daimons, which began infecting everything they could find, which admittedly in many cases was snow, wind or more snow. Every master or servant slain in the past wars and eaten by the Grail was present, except Osaka Hayao, who now was free. Some of them were hard to recognize. Others, like Rin, knew them; she cringed at the sight of her father. (Shirou was quite relieved that his father, Emiya Kitsurugi, was not present.)

Alexander the Great, the Lancer of the Fourth Grail War, stood next to a British wizard in a suit, Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi, who was voted 'Stupidest Name in Mage's Association' ten years in a row before his death in the war, mercy-slain by Arturia, the Fourth Saber (and the Fifth). Alexander had been forced to suicide by Kayneth as part of a deal to save Kayneth's wife...who then was gunned down by Emiya Kitsurugi's assistant, Hisau Maiya.

Tohsaka Tokiomi, father of Rin, stood with his servant from the Fourth Grail War, Archer, known better as Robin Hood. His ally who betrayed and murdered him, Kotomine Kirei, a priest and magus, stood next to Archer and Tohsaka-san, with his servant, Assassin, better known as John Wilkes Booth. Assassin had set a fire, framed Caster, and then everyone had hunted and killed Caster. Kirei had been killed several times over by Emiya Kitsurugi and then Assassin had been killed by Rider.

Tomoe Keiko, master of Caster (Mai) in the Fourth War now stood with her husband Professor Tomoe and her daughter Mistress Nine. Tomoe Keiko had taken a bullet through the brain from Emiya Kitsurugi. Caster had then run out of mana and evaporated while seeking revenge.

Near them were Berserker, Lancelot of the Round Table, and his master, Matou Kariya, uncle of Sakura, who had entered the Grail War hoping to set her free, for he loved his niece, unlike the other Matou clan members.

In addition to those described above, there were an endless seeming horde of daimons forming up all around and masters and servants from previous Grail Wars as well.

This looked pretty ugly and made Usagi briefly long for the relatively simple showdown with Beryl. But only briefly.

KILL THEM ALL. WITH THE POWER THEY POSSESS, I CAN EASILY MANIFEST, Master Pharoah Ninety commanded.

The battle was about to commence when there was a great chime, echoing across the snow and between the high buildings of the city. The Gates of Time opened and out came Sailor Star Mars, Katsumi, Shiho, and Arturia.

Usagi stared at Arturia...the woman from the painting with Mamoru...REI! REI! "REI!" she shouted for joy.

"We've come to save your ass again, meatball-head," Sailor Star Mars said affectionately.

"You have come to die if that is all you have!" Mistress Nine proclaimed.

"You are brave and lovely but you cannot hope to defeat this assembled host," Dark Endymion said confidently. "Come back to me, my servant, and together, we will conquer this world!"

Arturia stared at him and at the assembled host and she understood. Anger raged through her. To take such a just and honorable man and do THIS to him. To take his sacrifice and use it to make him a slave.

She would not tolerate it!

"I will set you free, Endymion," she said, touching her rose. "And I will free you again, Lancelot! I did not fight you so you could be re-enslaved."

"This time, I will be the victor," Lancelot said confidently.

EVEN WITH ONE OF THE GEMS OF POWER, YOU STILL WILL PERISH AT THE HANDS OF MY SERVANTS. THERE ARE ONLY FIVE OF YOU.

"You forget, I AM A QUEEN! And Queens command armies!" Arturia slashed the air with her blades and the Siege Perilous appeared. She sat down and said, "I claim my rights as Master of the Throne of Heroes, the Siege Perilous! LET ALL THOSE BOUND TO THIS THRONE COME FORTH!"

The sky ripped open and now one hundred and forty-
nine Knights of the Round Table poured forth, each of them a legend, each of them a Heroic Spirit, who had bound themselves to Arturia's legend, and at their head rode King Arthur and Guenevere, sharing a horse, with Lancelot and Kay at their sides.

The Siege Perilous now vanished and Arturia said, "When the need of the land is greatest, we return as was foretold! Queen Serenity! I will battle Endymion and then you must heal him when the time comes!"

"You must OBEY ME!" Endymion shouted angrily. "I am a Prince and you exist to serve me!"

"That is the devil within you which says that," Arturia said. "You showed me how a true leader leads, with kindness and compassion. You gave your life to save me. And now I will save you."

King Arthur drew Excalibur and Guenevere a great bow. "Knights of the Round Table! CHARGE!"

And as the armies of demons closed in, the Knights of the Round Table rode to battle them and the battle for the future of the world began. The Age of Metal was over and the world to come must be determined here, at the heart of the World Storm, at the city of the Grail.

And so it began.

Rin crouched down behind an ice barricade, which Archer was using as cover to trade fire with Robin Hood, who had his own ice barricade, because his Master, Rin's father, Tohsaka Tokiomi possessed exactly the same Magic Crest as Rin, given she inherited his after his death. "I don't want to kill you, daughter," her father said. "If you surrender and join us, we can fight together! Isn't that what you've always wanted?"

Rin grimaced. She hated fighting him; she hadn't known him well as he died when she was little, but she admired his talents and had always hoped he would be proud of her. "I can't betray my friends, father!"

"Magi have no friends, only kin, servants, and enemies! They will abandon you in the end! Only family endures!" he shouted.

"You sold my sister to the Matou family!" Rin shouted. "And you'll sell me down the river for power in an instant!" She started crying and hated herself for doing it. She burned a peephole with her Gand spell so she could see what, if anything, her father was doing. She could sense strong magics, but what was he doing with them?

She took one of her jewels, activated it and tossed it to Archer. "Shoot this over their wall," she said.

Archer did so, but Robin Hood counter-shot it in the air and it exploded. Then Robin blew his horn and his entire band of Merry Men appeared, charging towards the barricade. Rin quickly reinforced it with Reinforce, but they were powered by a Servant and began hacking through the walls, while Robin Hood kept counter-shooting Archer's attempts to pick them off.

Rin was determined, however, to win this without calling for further help.

She used her telepathic contact with Archer. Archer, summon St. Vrus, have him call up an illusion of the Sheriff of Nottingham and his men!

Doesn't the Sheriff always lose?, Archer replied.

DAMMIT.

He's not any kind of ghost or demon or anything like that, so the cross won't be any help. Though St. Vrus might be able to just eat...HAH!

Archer, have St. Vrus call up a huge feast with all the goodies, play out a scenario where they defeat the Sheriff and get the food and make merry and then St. Vrus can eat them one by one in reality!, Rin told her.

St. Vrus appeared and did so; the psychic attack was a weakness of Robin Hood, who was a great archer, not a man of vast power of mind (though shrewd, he was no psychic or sorceror), and so the Merry Men, called up by Robin's noble phantasm, the Hunting Horn of the North, fell into the trap.

Now Robin tried to shoot St. Vrus, but Archer counter-fired and kept the shots off him as he gobbled up the Merry Men lesser heroic spirits one by one.

Tohsaka Tokiomi now tried to blow up St. Vrus with a hurled gem, but Rin countered it by blowing it up early in its arc with her sniping spell, Gand.

However, Robin had a final trump card. It would cost him more mana, but he now turned the ring given him during the crusades and summoned forth his liege, Richard the Lionhearted, who now rode forth in his fine armor with lance and sword to ride down St. Vrus.

About half the Merry Men were down but St. Vrus was unlikely to survive being hit by Merry Men and Richard the Lionhearted and couldn't trap both at the same time; the Merry Men could only be taken collectively because their souls were linked. This was the great weakness of St. Vrus' world of illusions; if you caught him while he was using it, it would be child's play to slay him as he could not strike against you without releasing his current victim.

Archer, I have a plan, Rin thought. She prayed it would work.

St. Vrus turned and bewitched Robin himself with his illusions; Tohsaka Tokiomi now turned and cast a counter-
spell, breaking the illusion and the Merry Men hacked away at St. Vrus, gravely injuring him. However, Rin now shot King Richard's horse in the leg, breaking it and as he tumbled, Archer shot him in the throat. This was his great vulnerability; the real Richard had died of an arrow to the throat. Of course, anyone who summons Archer (Robin Hood) is not expecting in a Grail War to fight another Archer who could actually exploit that weakness; Robin's Noble Phantasms gave him both a melee defender and a small army to fight such army Phantasms as Brutus' Roman Senate Conspiracy, while he handled ranged attacks with his bow. His mage ally could then handle psychic and magical attacks. At least ideally. This is why the wise Tohsaka Tokiomi had summoned him.

King Richard now perished, dissolving away, and now Rin turned to dump a jewel on the Merry Men. Unfortunately, her father counter-acted that with his own jewel and Archer and Robin Hood resumed shooting each other's arrows out of the sky. St. Vrus, however, was unable to get a psychic grip now on the Merry Men, who now knew better than to fall for his tricks and they started carving him up. Robin Hood was a more potent foe in melee than Archer, though his mind was not as strong as hers.

Rin tried desperately to think of some way in which Archer could use her crucifix to counter...to do SOMETHING. Robin was down one Noble Phantasm but still had two, but could use both. If Archer lost St. Vrus, she'd be down to two but only one would be useful.

Rin had one advantage her father did not. Like most mages, he relied on his Family Crest to supply him with power, though he had learned a few new spells. But he was just a shadow of her father and everything he knew, EVERYTHING was inside her copy of the Crest. But she had studied all her life for this, determined to win, and had a broader arsenal.

And then it struck her. How ludicrous and yet... satisfying.

She used her pinhole to direct a fire spell onto the ice, causing it to vaporize and form a cloud of steam in which St. Vrus could evade the Merry Men for now. It also blocked Archer and Robin Hood's sight.

She leaped the barricade and sprinted towards her father, using Reinforce to strengthen her legs to run at high speed. Running through the steam as it cooled was rather painful, but she could heal herself later. She came over the walls and began beating the crap out of her father, using Reinforce to strengthen her arms. Robin Hood was pinned down trying to counter-battery Archer's shots through the steam.

Tohsaka Tokiomi had never bothered to learn more than the very basics of Reinforce and like most magi, was not exactly potent at fighting hand to hand. Rin was no black belt, but she'd grown up needing to defend herself and was a fair scrapper and fencer.

He passed out from the battering.

The fog cleared. St. Vrus was now airborne, out of the reach of the Merry Men...who now produced bows and opened fire. Archer and Robin Hood were still going toe to toe.

Rin hurled three jewels over the barricade and blew the Merry Men to little bits. Unfortunately, she was now getting low on jewels. Worse, Robin Hood turned and shot her three times and she fell to the ground, bleeding badly, kept alive only because she was Reinforcing her body. However, this left him vulnerable and Archer pierced his heart, killing him.

"Rin...I have only one last request," he mumbled.

"Kiss my ass," Rin said angrily. "YOU SHOT ME."

"That's what happens in a battle, you fool of a witch!" Robin said angrily. "Just tell me that wasn't Maid Marian who just shot me." He sounded despairing now.

"No, it was a nun, Sister Yukariko."

"I guess she must belong to Friar Tuck's order's sister order...," Robin said, bleeding.

Archer shot him twice more for fear he'd get back up.

He gurgled and said, "Kotomine and Assassin murdered your father...you probably ought to avenge him. Tell the Sister to pray for me." And then he died, dissolving away.

Archer came to Rin's side quickly and used her crucifix to pray, lending her strength to Rin as Rin healed herself. Unfortunately, Rin was now down on mana, down on jewels, and St. Vrus was badly hurt. But she'd won without having to get help.

But now, now she was going to have to get help, much as it galled her. But that's what friends are for, right?

The Dark Red Counter-Guardian and Eudial faced off. She levelled her Gae Bolg-Thrower.

He levelled...a giant nerf hammer.

She began laughing. "If you go easy on me, baby, you'll die! Here it comes!"

He laughed and snapped his fingers and her gun evaporated and he leaped at her, whacking her in the head over and over until she dissolved into light and was eaten by the grail.

"You should have known better than to try to fight me with a weapon I made myself," he said, then ambled off to find something useful to do while he waited for the Grail to give him Dark Eudial to work with him.

Lancer, Sakura, Suguira-sensei, and Shirou confronted Dark Lancer 4 (Dark Alexander the Great), his master Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi, Dark Berserker 4 (Dark Lancelot), his master Matou Kariya, Dark Fumi, her master Matou Zouken, and Dark Cyber-Shinji. By virtue of his status as a high ranking member of the Mages' association (or maybe due to vanity from wearing the mantle once worn by Alexander the Great), Kayneth had taken command of his side of this fight about to erupt. "By virtue of the authority invested in me by the Mages' Association, I hereby arrest Matou Sakura and Shirou Emiya for illegal entry into the Grail War without being members in good standing of the Mages' Association. Further..."

Dark Alexander the Great plucked the mantle off Kayneth's shoulders, then now proceeded to run over Kayneth with his chariot as it spewed lightning, then backed up over him, then did it three more times. He then stabbed Kayneth in the head with his long spear. Kayneth dissolved away and he announced, "As the mightiest of Kings, I CLAIM THIS WORLD FOR ME! Shirou, Sakura, the fact that this BASTARD hated you is enough for me to conclude you must be wonderful people! I invite you to become the first of my companions!"

"We can be a family again!" Matou Kariya said to Sakura. He had entered the fourth Grail War hoping to win her freedom from his own house, for he loved his little niece. He had died in front of her at the end of the war, telling her she was going to be safe and how he loved her.

It was very, very tempting. Like Shirou, she knew he really did love her. He'd given his life trying to win her freedom. His failure had made her give up on herself for many years, blame herself for being unable to help him.

If he hadn't been glowing with dark energy, she probably would have said yes and tried to convince Shirou. He and Berserker had tried so hard to save her before that bitch Saber...Arturia...killed them.

Now Arturia was here, on her side, but she didn't like Arturia and never would. If she joined her uncle, she could help him defeat Arturia before she...

Shirou said, "Shinji, WHY?" He said, agonized.

"You can't imagine what it's like! I was a man without powers in a family of magi! I was so inadequate, they BOUGHT ME A SISTER to carry on the family name because my blood would never do!" Dark Cyber-Shinji shouted. "But she wouldn't obey, so I had to break her! She's a cheap whore, only good for fucking! Nothing but a BREEDING SOW sold to us by the Tohsakas! BUT SHE HAD POWER AND I DID NOT. So I had to get power by stripping her of hers! YOU WOULD HAVE DONE THE SAME THING!" Dark Cyber-Shinji raved.

Shirou felt sick in his gut. Shinji was beyond hope. He didn't want to kill anyone, but he didn't have a choice. Though maybe they could take him alive and eventually... But they would have to fight.

"Alexander, she is an evil willful child. You can see how she betrays our family by sleeping around! Look at how she is dressed!" Dark Zouken said to Alexander. "She must be taught her place!"

"No, wait!" Matou Kariya said. "Please, Sakura...don't make us fight you."

"Grandfather and my brother VIOLATED ME," Sakura said angrily. "There can be no forgiveness and NO MERCY for them! If you side with them, I cannot forgive you."

Dark Alexander was about to speak and then something spoke through him. "THEN SO BE IT! SLAY THEM ALL AND I WILL SORT THEM OUT AND BRING THEM BACK TO SERVE YOU, ALEXANDER."

Shirou REALLY didn't like the odds here, AND all his friends were pinned down elsewhere on the battlefield. He turned his giant spatula into a giant two-pronged grilling fork and Reinforced it. "Suguira-sensei, you have to fight Dark Fumi. I will deal with Zouken-san and Shinji."

"You think you can take them both at once?" Suguira-
sensei asked, worried.

"I have to try." He prayed to any gods who might be listening for strength. Father, guide me.

Dark Sakura reached into the Avalon within her heart and brought forth a magnificent huge plum purple Clydesdale wearing barding. Shiny barding with pretty pictures on it, with ribbons and bows in its mane and tail. Lancer vaulted into the saddle, leveling her naginata like a lance as Dark Lancelot turned to face her, leveling his lance.

Sakura cracked her whip and faced off with her uncle. "I'm so sorry, Uncle Kariya," she said, nearly crying. "Please surrender, I don't want to fight."

"I don't want to fight you either," he confessed and they stood there, telling each other this over and over as the battle commenced.
Dark Alexander did not immediately enter the battle; he wished to observe his foes and learn their strengths and weaknesses. He also felt pity for Sakura and Kariya, hoping Kariya would win Sakura over, which would bring in Lancer and make this easy.

Matou Zouken called forth two of his worms, turning them into long crimson whips and charged at Shirou, moving them in complex patterns. Shirou had to dodge blasts of fire and ice from Shinji's cyber-hand, though it was less potent due to him lacking the jewel, now in the hands of Mai elsewhere on the battlefield. This left him unable to contest Matou Zouken's advance; worse, it greatly hampered his ability to defend himself and he got snared by the worm-whips, one of which took his weapon and the other of which tried to bore into his flesh on his side. He called upon Avalon the Scabbard, however and his flesh healed as fast as the worm could bore, blocking it. But the pain was intense and he could hardly do anything else. But now, Shinji stalked forwards, claws extended.

Meanwhile, Lancer and Dark Lancelot charged at each other. He had huge speed and great potence, but tapping the Violet Gem of Power enabled her to move at blazing speed. She gutted his horse, passing to one side of him and he fell, pole-vaulting himself into the air. He sank into the snow like a rock, and out of the hole came Dark Natsuki, armed with twin pistols and riding a motorcycle.

Lancer stared, mouth wide. "Natsuki?"

"I'm sorry, my love," Dark Natsuki said. "It seems like we're always having to kill each other." Then she charged, firing at high speed at Lancer.

Lancer evaded the shots, but didn't want to kill Natsuki again. Unless this was just a trick...had this been Natsuki all along disguised as Lancelot or was Lancelot somehow disguised as Natsuki? Surely you couldn't kill Lancelot with one pole-vault into snow.

But she wasn't sure as she knew little of Lancelot.

"That's not Natsuki, it's Lancelot in disguise! He can become any Servant in form!" Sakura said, who knew all about him from him fighting for her and her uncle during the Fourth War.

Lancer's eyes flared and now she was angry. "KIYOHIME!" she shouted and Kiyohime came forth, moving at blazing speed to snatch up and devour 'Dark Natsuki', who went right down the giant eight-headed squid-serpent-dragon's throat.

Unfortunately, Dark Lancelot now drew his sword Arondight, which had the power to slay Dragons. He sliced his way out and Kiyohime evaporated. The disadvantage for him, however, was that he could no longer disguise himself as anyone else, neutralizing one of his noble phantasms until he fought someone new and put away Arondight. But he could live with that.

Lancer clutched her head and screamed and fell off her charger into the snow. A portion of her soul had just been sliced out by Arondight. Her link to the primal rage and envy of Kiyohime had driven her mad with jealousy and envy and spite during the Fuuka Grail War. Now that madness had been cut out of her, but with it, the power it had given her as well.

This meant Shizuru was still very fast, but now the strength of her strikes, once fuelled by battle-madness, was now much less. That was going to make this much harder, especially since her third Noble Phantasm, Elegant Lesbian, would not work with any significant strength on Dark Lancelot, who could not be seduced by anyone but Arthur or Guenevere.

He charged her like the crack of doom.

"You fight well, my servants!" Dark Alexander proclaimed. "I go to deal with the mightiest of our foes, Saber! Once she falls, all else will be driven before us! Slay them all and the Grail will make them serve me!" He roared off in his chariot, secure in the delusion he would soon rule this world as the Grail's subordinate, then overthrow it and rule in his own right, for was he not the son of Zeus?

Shinji now drove his blades into Shirou. "DIE! And then I will reclaim Sakura for myself!"

Shirou couldn't stop the worms and the blades. Blood flew everywhere and he howled in pain.

Dark Fumi was on Gakutenou, dueling with Suguira-
sensei, scythe against axe as Gakutenou zoomed around over the fight in the air. She wanted to help Shirou but she was locked in combat. But she had to do something.

Sakura howled like the death of hope and shouted, "Uncle! If you don't help us, the man I love will die!"

Matou Kiriya did not have much darkness within him; even corrupted by the Grail, he was a man who had been a decent soul at heart, who only entered the war out of his love for his little niece and his hatred of her father who sold her into slavery, then entered the war. The Grail had used that hatred and his anger from dying at Saber's hands to control him, but faced with Sakura's pain, that control snapped.

White light exploded out of him as his true self exerted itself. "Lancelot! KILL SHINJI AND ZOUKEN!"

Shinji tried to run and Dark Lancelot cut him down, slicing him in half with Arondight. Then he and Lancer turned as one and rushed at Zouken. Zouken released Shirou, turning and trying to tangle Dark Lancelot with his whips. Unused to fighting whips, he actually snagged him briefly, then Shirou rushed him and drove a giant grilling fork into his chest. "This is for what you did to Sakura!" And then he focused and the grilling fork became a blender and ripped Zouken into pieces as it rotated. Shizuru now sliced up all the worms that tried to escape and he dissolved as Shirou collapsed, his wounds closing but now he was knocked out.

Sakura took him into her arms and Dark Lancelot bowed to him. "Your sacrifice was valiant and your blow was mighty, Sir Shirou," he said. "Your father would be proud of you."

"Don't die," Sakura said desperately to Shirou.

"He won't die," her uncle said. "His wounds have already closed, but he will need some time to rest and recover, time I don't know if we're going to GET."

Shizuru looked up at the battle high above, with Fumi fighting against Suguira-sensei. "I can't reach that high. Anyone here have a ranged attack or a way to get up?"

"I have nothing that will do anything but very mildly annoy a Servant-class spirit," Kariya said.

"My blasts of anger don't reach that far," Sakura said.

This was going to require some thought, Shizuru said, producing a cup of tea and sipping. At least she thought more clearly now.

Dark Akbar appeared silently in the chaotic energies behind Pluto; he'd slipped in when she opened the gates and concealed himself. He raised his sphere and hurled the strongest blast he had.

Caught by surprise, Pluto dropped dead.

Dark Akbar stared in surprise and then began trying to figure out how to actually operate the Gates of Time so he wouldn't be trapped in here.

A bright lightshow corruscated around Pluto; unknown to Dark Akbar, she was part of the race of the Time Lords, now mostly sealed inside a time loop. Unfortunately for Dark Akbar, Time Lords had thirteen lives and she had only been on life number 2.

In most places, the light show would have drawn his attention, but this area was one HUGE light show.

Eventually, she rose; she was now much shorter, though built roughly the same otherwise, with long brown hair and brown eyes and pale skin. Her staff had become a bow and she had a horn at her waist. Her dress had become hunting clothes, complete with a jaunty green hat. She raised her bow and charged an arrow.

Dark Akbar's danger sense went off. "IT'S A TRAP!" he announced, turned, and took an arrow to the throat, followed by two more. Then she shattered his sphere and he tried to flee, but there was nowhere to flee too.

Pretty soon, he dissolved away into black sparkles. However, she still couldn't get the gates open, but at least that would keep the Dark Grail from sending Dark Akbar back. She was in no mood to keep having to regenerate.

"I suppose I can use Susan as a name again now, though," she said, studying herself. She transformed to Sailor garb, just to be sure she would be recognized, then waited.

"Kill them both," Dark Illyasviel said to Dark Berserker. "I can't turn my brother into a doll while they're in the way!"

Taiga-sensei did NOT want to fight a nine-year old. However, this is what the force is for. She reached out with the Force, Shiny Magic Rock glowing brightly, and flung Dark Illyasviel far, far away into another fight. Though now she felt a little tired and hungry.

"YOU KILLED HER!" Dark Berserker shouted. "ENEMIES ARE FOR KILLING." She went to kill-frenzy mode and rushed at Taiga-sensei. Even kill-crazed Dark Berserker didn't want to hurt Mai, but Taiga-sensei? Nothing but a mostly naked maniac with a glowing rock and a glowing stick-sword to her.

Dark Berserker rushed at Taiga-sensei, but Mai dove down, grabbed her, and rose up into the air out of Dark Berserker's reach. Without Miroku, Dark Berserker could not fly, so she ran off into the general chaos, shouting about killing and Mai flew after her, trying to think of some way to stop her without killing her.

Dark Endymion gave ground quickly as Saber came on, determined to defeat him and free his soul. Unfortunately, while she was a better fighter, he was very strong on defense and supremely agile. Even with Shiho and Sailor Star Mars trying to provide support fire, they couldn't get him to stop bouncing about and perching on anything perchable. Katsumi circled overhead, trying to figure out how best to leverage her powers. She'd tried creating a wall to hem him in but he'd just jumped up and perched on the top, then threw a rose at her.

"Snap out of it," she said. "This isn't like you at all! You are a good and noble prince!"

"And that always gets me murdered! Do you know how many times I've sacrificed myself for others?" he said bitterly, flipping out of the way of yet another thrust. "I died for you and now you're trying to kill me!"

"You! You ruled a kingdom whose legend is still not forgotten, did you not?" Dark Alexander shouted at Saber, now riding up in his chariot. "The army of knights I see fighting demons everywhere answers to you? One of the mightiest armies of history? We did battle in the Fourth War, neither of us emerging fully victorious?"

"Alexander!" Saber said, gladdened and worried at once. "Yes, I am she and yes we did, and your wisdom helped me to undo a great evil in my kingdom and end the bane of many a good knight! Long did I live my life thinking every choice was binary, either one thing or another, but you taught me to find more creative solutions! To cut through my dilemnas with other actions, as you did at Gordius to secure your chariot!"

This seemed to make him a VERY happy man. "You flatter me, fair lady! You are both a woman and a warrior and I need that! Marry me and we will rule this world together!"

Dark Endymion's face darkened at that, though he didn't say anything and indeed now slipped away from Saber and struck Shiho in the face with his extended cane, knocking her for a loop. He then parried a flame arrow from Sailor Star Mars with a rose and threw three more at Katsumi, who countered them with roses of her own.

"I am sorry, Alexander, my heart belongs to another!" Saber said. "Though you flatter me greatly!" She touched her rose and Dark Alexander understood.

"Then when you are reborn by the power of the Grail after I slay you, I will preside over your wedding to him myself! In honor of your glory and skill! Now, let us resolve as we failed to last time, which of us is truly the greatest Monarch of all time!"

And then he came at Saber like the falling of an avalanche.

It pained Sailor Star Mars deeply to see Dark Prince Endymion once again enslaved. It had happened too many times; his good nature was exploited so often. She hoped she and Shiho could purify him if they could weaken him enough to work, but he was a master of defense, and he now fended off her and Katsumi with ease, blocking every shot they took at him.

Alexander did not repeat his mistake from the last war. He knew that for all his skill, Saber would probably wreck his chariot AGAIN as she had in the last war. This time, though, he deployed all his aces at once. He called upon his Noble Phantasm, Ionioi Hetairoi, which summoned up a horde of well armed and armored Macedonian cavalry with longspears, his faithful Companions, who had accompanied him to the very end of the world. Or India, anyway. He turned them loose to swarm down on her so she had to fight all of them AND him at the same time. And instead of relying on simply trampling her, he poured mana into his spear, the Thunderbolt of Zeus, his father, and it crackled with lightning. Even if you dodged it, the lightning would jump the gap to anything metal, such as Saber's sword, her armor, etc. The disadvantage was that he was burning mana like crazy.

Rei saw all this coming at Saber at once. Even with twin Excaliburs, it was too much. The Companions would hamper her motion, the spear would try to stun or injure her, and then she would be run over.

Katsumi tried to think of something she could create which would tip the balance. Without the gem Mai had, she couldn't create very much of things; it handled bulk but simple creation, she made the complex but smaller scale things.

And then it struck her as the bull-pulled chariot charged, throwing off lightning bolts and the Companions moved to encircle Saber and cut off her escape, there was something she could do. She swept down, grabbed Saber and hurled her at Dark Endymion, shouting to Sailor Star Mars, "BURN UP THE ICE AROUND ALEXANDER AND HIS COMPANIONS."

Mars shot at the ground with a "STAR FIRE SOUL", a bigger version of her normal Fire Soul attack, and Alexander was not used to attacks shooting the ground under him. Which was made of ice. Which quick boiled to steam. Which conducted electricity. Which caused the chariot as it moved to electrocute the Companions, eliminating them, though the Thunderbolt shielded Alexander himself from harm by his own lightning.

Saber and Dark Endymion alike were NOT ready for her to suddenly be airborne and they collided and fell to the ground with her kneeling over him, an Excalibur in each hand.

Saber dropped his Excalibur, pulled the rose from behind her ear and poured every drop of mana into it she could cram into it. Then she shoved it behind his ear and activated it. "BE FREE!" she shouted, pouring her will into it. "GOD, FREE THIS MAN WHO I RESPECT AND LOVE!"

He looked stunned and then pained and then he howled and darkness boiled out of him, and the shadow around him cleared. Then he seized her in his arms, along with plucking his Excalibur from the snow, and leaped up onto a convenient fifth story balcony as Dark Alexander tried to run them down and kill them.

"I...Saber...," he said, stunned. Then he hugged her tightly and they both laughed and cried at once.

"We must free him, Endymion," she said. "Alexander is a noble man, and though he desires to rule, he will not allow Master Pharoah Ninety to rule the world."

"I can help you," he said. "But I do not have the proper emotional tie to him to free him." He paused. "Saber..."

"Call me Arturia," she said. "Our contract is over. I am not your Servant and you are not my Master. But I love you and I wish to fight by your side."

"I..." he began.

"I know. Usagi," she said softly. "I understand the reluctance to move on, to let go. But she loves another now and she is one who will not turn back, having made a promise. There is a new future for you and for me and I want us to enter that future together. If you wish, I will woo you properly as a knight should, once this war is over."

He produced another rose and tucked it behind her ear. "I told her to go on without me and she has. I must take my own advice," he said softly. "I have always...Love takes time to grow."

"I know," she said. "We both have much to learn from each other. But I accept your rose and you have kept mine, so now we are lovers. And we will see what the future brings us."

"Saving Shiho is the first thing," he said, pointing. He passed her a second rose, tucking it into her collar.

Shiho was sitting up, rubbing her head, but now Alexander was charging at her full force, hurling lighting bolts with his Thunderbolt to keep Sailor Star Mars and Katsumi away from her. While he didn't have huge range or great accuracy, they were afraid to get too close to him.

Endymion hurled Saber at him and sprang down, saving Shiho and leaping skywards. She parried every lightning bolt with Excalibur as she descended towards him, then knocked him right out the back of his chariot, which took off at a wild clip. He tumbled on the ground and Saber took the rose from her collar and tucked it behind his ear and focused on purging the dark energy.

Fortunately, she'd regained some mana from the rose tucked behind her ear which she now spent on purging Alexander, shouting, "THE GRAIL AND MASTER PHAROAH NINETY WANT THE WORLD FOR THEMSELVES INSTEAD OF YOU GETTING IT!"

"THIS WORLD IS MINE," Alexander shouted as the darkness boiled out of him. He touched the rose. "We are engaged, then! Together, we will defeat the Grail and rule this world!"

"Wait, I was just..."

He summoned back his chariot, leaped in with her by his side, then said, "First comes conquest, then comes marriage, and then we'll need an entire second chariot for the kids!"

This was NOT how she'd envisioned this going.

Ever on the Daimons came, and among them came various Masters and Servants who had fallen in the first, second, and third Grail War. It was them who the Round Table and the Hime had to battle to give their allies a chance to deal with the Grail.

The Third Grail War had been especially bitter; fought in 1940 during World War II, the masters had quickly butchered each other through the streets of Fuyuki City and laid it waste; it was this war which had corrupted the Grail irrevocably. Heki Danjo Masatsugu, inventor of Heki-ryu archery style, had fought for the Matou clan's master Matou Gendo. Tohsaka Kasumi had summoned Samson as Berserker. Sir Marhaus, Irish knight of the Round Table, had been summoned as Lancer by Italian master Giorgio Massani. The German Edelfelt sisters had somehow summoned twin Sabers-one of them was the heroic legend of El Cid, the other his historical reality. Lady Helen Kestral of Britain had summoned Morgan le Fay as Caster. Much to his aggravation, Lacy Smith of the USA ended up with General Custer as Rider. Francois Benoit had been somewhat non-plussed to end up with François Ravaillac as Assassin. And unknown to anyone, the Einzbern had created a secret eighth class; by doing so they broke the Class structure, also opening the way for the current war. Chariot was a class designed by them to summon someone really ancient and powerful, given no one rides in chariots these days. Ramses II was Chariot. Victor at the battle of Meddigo, the battle of which we have a record, he was indeed quite strong. He was even worse when backed by an army of daimons. Much of the Round Table was fighting him and his armies.

Sir Tristam was fighting Sir Marhaus and mauling him; he'd killed Sir Marhaus when he was first starting out and now he was much stronger. Sir Bors and Sir Lancelot took on Saber-Red-El Cid and Saber-White-El Cid. Guenevere had an archery duel with Heki Danjo Masatsugu, while Arthur went after Morgan le Fay with Excalibur. Gawaine was facing off with Samson and Percival was chasing François Ravaillac around the battlefield.

Percival's pure heart noble phantasm repelled the sorceries of Assassin's master and Assassin couldn't get in close enough to use his dagger. Percival's spear could be used as a thrown weapon which returned, but its armor piercing abilities were not too much use against a man with no armor. So they chased each other around.

Sir Marhaus's strength was growing as night came on, but Sir Tristam was surpassingly strong and very skilled and was giving more than he got.

Sir Gawaine wasn't doing so well as he got smacked around by the jawbone of an ass. His strength, unfortunately, dwindled as night came on. Then he realized what he needed to do. Of course!

He took a painful blow, grabbed some of Samson's hair, and cut it. Samson got weaker, so he grabbed more. Soon, Samson was mostly bald and knocked unconscious.

Bors and Lancelot waded through El Cid's Army of Reconquista Crusaders; they were not heretics or moslems, so the army was not at full strength against them. But it seemed endless in numbers.

Lady Helen Kestrel was unable to assist Morgan le Fay, because Prester John, now returned to the fullness of his strength, had mauled Lady Helen Kestrel and now had teamed up with Sir Yvain and HIS lion to go after Ramses II. Ramses II was fleeing from the three of them but his army fought on. Arthur could parry Morgan's spells or resist them with Excalibur, and but the arrows whizzing around Guenevere rather worried him. "Gawaine, deal with the archer!"

Gawaine raced after Heki Danjo Masatsugu; he was starting to resemble a pin-cushion. This left Arthur free to block Morgan's magics with Excalibur, while Guenevere began riddling her with arrows; she dissolved away swiftly, cursing loudly. "And that is the end of her and the evils she did to us," Guenevere said angrily.

"Unless the Grail summons her again, which it possibly can," Sir Dinadan said. "I suppose it's time for us to go bail out Lancelot and Bors."

"You're relishing the chance to say that," Arthur said, smiling just a little.

"Oh yeah!"

The lions mangled Ramses II's chariot horses, but now the horses of the sun appeared, driving them back and blazing with holy light. Worse, he now used his Biased Personal Account of the Battle of Meddigo to become several hundred feet tall as he was depicted there.

This was going to take a few extra knights.

"I'M RICK JAMES, BITCH!" a deep woman's voice shouted, punching Older-Mikoto in the back of the head and sending her sprawling.

"You can't all be Rick James!" Older-Mai said, sounding frantic, as she laid down sprays of fire which burned up a mailbox with bulldog like legs and fangs in its mouth; a crisped daimon seed fell out of it.

"I'm really getting irritated by this," Older-Yuuichi said, slicing an acid spraying garden hose into segments with a shining white blade in his hand. He couldn't dodge the acid which spewed but it was repelled by Older-Shiho's flutings.

Older-Mikoto rolled to her feet confronting a weirdly feminine light-pole being that tried to make her confused by strobing its light at her. But she doggedly cut it up even as it said, "What did the hand say to the face?"

The Older-Hime were busy wiping out Daimons and dealing, like the Round Table, with past Masters and Servants. Rick James had been summoned from the future by House Einzbern in an experiment during the Second Grail War, hoping that time was a wheel and this would put him so far in the past he'd be virtually invincible. He wasn't invincible, but his Noble Phantasm 'Being Rick James' enabled him to infect creatures with his catchphrases and control them, making him an unusually versatile Berserker. He was currently hidden, though if he had to fight, he was quite potent. His summoning had broken the laws of time, making it easier to screw up history with the power of the Grail.

Rick James had a simple weakness as a servant. Several, in fact. They were, however, deficient in alcohol, half or more naked women, drugs, and couches.

This left them fighting endless tides of daimons; they could see their friends busy fighting knots of daimons as well, but they, at least, were Rick James free.

Shiho finally got a break and called Older-Yukino, who ran a scan. Rick James liked publicity and thus was, in fact, more vulnerable to scanning.

"You need a couch, alcohol, half or more naked women, or drugs to lure him out," Older-Yukino told them.

"Take your shirt off, Mai," Older-Shiho said.

Older-Shiho now half-flashed everything. She still had a bra on.

This drew Rick James out into the open; he jumped for her chest and got punched in the face by Older-Yuuichi; now everyone opened up on him.

"STAY AWAY FROM MY SHIHO!" he shouted.

"Nice right hook, Yuuichi!" Older-Mikoto said cheerfully. She then began stabbing Rick James and Older-
Mikoto did likewise, while Older-Shiho disoriented him with her flute and Older-Mai poured on the fire.

He soon became a rising pillar of sparkles, his last words, "Cocaine is a terrible thing."

Nephrite struggled desperately as Kaolinite's powers rushed into him, trying to turn him into a pig. All he could do was defend desperately, but being the sort of charming, handsome man Kaolinite most liked to sucker, he was rather vulnerable and was starting to get pig ears, a pig nose, and a pig tail.

Naru wanted to help him, but Professor Tomoe had her on the run, chasing her around and hurling bolts of darkness at her. She managed to squeeze off a few shots, but he was a much more experienced magician, even though she had more power.

Tomoe Keiko, on the other hand, was tangled up in Sailor Star Venus' Love-Me-Chain and Sailor Star Venus was using her as a mace-and-chain to smack passing daimons with. She couldn't focus to cast and was, in fact, UTTERLY helpless.

Dark Ninja was back to being Akira instead of being Beryl; the destruction of the Magnificent Beryl and Dark Ninja's reprocessing by the Grail had made her a cold, silent killer. She was trying to impale Nao with thrown knives while Nao tried to grapple her. Nao was bleeding because she'd suckerpunched Dark Shingo, knocked him out with one gem-enhanced punch, then gotten stabbed in the back by Dark Ninja. The gem, however, had warned her so the fatal blow became merely a wound. Further, her prophetic abilities with the gem enabled her to predict and counter Ninja 's moves and to pierce Ninja 's stealth, thanks to being second in Stealth, just behind Ninja. Now that she was ready for it. The result was that she was steadily gaining ground on Ninja, while Julia and Gennai fought as well. That fight wasn't going as well; Julia needed to get close to grapple, but Gennai was mobile and his mace and chain kept her at a distance.

Princess Blue Mercury empowered her Princess Ice Mist with the Blue Gem; Miyu tried to consume the mist to find her with the Orange Gem of Wrath, but Mercury's brain was very potent and Miyu was designed for making people into kibble, not psychic combat. Further, mist attacks were Mercury's signature move and burning up mist with Gems of Power was...not Miyu's. Her normal sensors were unable to defeat Mercury's specialty, for she was only an artificial servant, though in many respects an exceptionally powerful one.

"Miyu, return to your original programming," Princess Blue Mercury commanded, moving about frequently to avoid being found. "Small Lady Blue needs you. She loves you, you know."

"I love her," Miyu said. "This is why I must destroy you, who kidnapped her."

Princess Blue Mercury had an idea but it was a huge gamble, so she would have to think about it just a touch more.

Dark Neptune was not having a good battle. Sailor Star Jupiter was one power-up ahead of her and was basically on her face and in her case, beating her in the head, chest and shoulders with a series of lighting punches. As in, punches that detonate with lightning. She tried to keep her distance, but Jupiter was as fast as her and could fly and could throw distance blasts too.

Now, Dark Uranus could have beaten Sailor Star Jupiter down with her Star Sword enhanced by the Indigo Gem of Destruction and Preservation. Trying to punch someone with a sword that can cut a tank in half would be...dangerous.

However, she faced a flying giant tiger that shoots tornados that cause explosive decompression out of its mouth and a melee oriented fast servant, Waitress, who was armed with magical tonfas strong enough to parry the Star Sword (for a while, anyway), and which could fire blasts of wind. She had huge attack power but wasn't so good at defense and now they were battering her around, though the sword could destroy much of it before it hit her.

Dark Ninja burned mana like crazy, activating her Noble Phantasm, One Ninja is Serious Business. "I lost the man I love and now you will die alone!" she shouted, and unleashed too much speed for Nao to keep up with, pinning Nao's shadow with the Shadowknife, then going to town on her, running through mana at high speed. "You took Takumi from me! And now I lost Shingo too! AND NOW YOU WILL PAY!" Nao was starting to bleed a lot and the she foresaw what would come.

Umino was watching from inside Avalon where they had left him. No one could break into Avalon while it was inside the heart but they could step out of it and he was now out of it and running across the ice. Ninja wouldn't notice him, focused on her, but when he pulled the knife to free her, she'd be on him and at this speed turn him to hamburger before Nao could stop Dark Ninja.

She studied every pathway as fast as she could, trying to see some way to reduce or stave off doom. Even if she sacrificed herself, he would die anyway. She couldn't stop Dark Ninja in time. She wasn't fast enough. Not even with the Gem.

Even if she told him to stop, he wouldn't. He was determined to protect her and couldn't sit back and watch and he was COMPLETELY CANNONFODDER here.

She'd always tried to be the lone wolf, not trusting anyone. But she couldn't do this alone. But even her new team was too busy being overrun and fighting people to help her. Not without getting slaughtered themselves.

She couldn't save her family. Couldn't save her mother. Couldn't even avenge herself. She couldn't do anything and he was going to die and then she was going to die alone.

This was worse than having Shizuru about to kill her; at least then she was going to die for her own stupid actions. But she'd tried to keep him safe, joined this team, did everything she could.

But it wasn't enough. Her own strength wasn't enough but no one was...

"Are you crazy?" Sailor Star Venus shouted and sprang down, seizing Umino and leaping away, then nailing the Shadowknife with a Love-Me chain and flipping it up into the air. "Oh god, you look terrible, Juliet. Let me handle her!"

But without a melee weapon, she couldn't actually keep Dark Ninja away from Nao; Dark Ninja recovered her shadowknife and started trying to nail Umino with knives. "I lost my boyfriend and now you will lose yours and you'll understand how I feel!"

Hurt, Nao couldn't keep up with her enhanced speed. "My entire family died while I could do nothing, except for Mom! I ALREADY KNOW!" She felt an involuntary pang of sympathy and her gem flickered with light.

Mistress Nine faced off with Sailor Star Moon, hurling bolts of destruction which Sailor Star Moon parried with bolts of light from the Crescent Moon Wand.

"Please, Hotaru, let's not fight," Yukino said, hovering nearby and trying to help coordinate the fight and watch out for trouble elsewhere. "I want to be your friend!"

"No one loves me but my parents! We did terrible things to come back together and no one can ever forgive us!" Mistress Nine shouted, pouring more mana into her attacks, but Sailor Star Moon poured in more power back.

Dark Ninja traded shots with Sailor Star Venus, then pinned her shadow with the Shadowknife and prepared to shell her with blades, though Sailor Star Venus turned to shield Umino with her body. "Juliet! You've got to go, you're hurt!" he shouted.

Nao felt like her heart was going to explode. "If you stick around you're going to die!" Not that he had much ability to leave. "I can't stand to lose anyone else who loves me! I already lost all my siblings and my father and they died in front of me and I was too weak to do anything!" And now she was too weak again, stumbling and bleeding as her Julia was chased by Gennai. She could see many futures and didn't like any of them. Yet, she hadn't foreseen Venus' arrival. What am I doing wrong?

"I will protect your love with my life!" Sailor Star Venus said. "For I am the Senshi of LOVE!"

She's totally bugfuck insane, Nao thought. What is it with all these people able to die for someone they just met? She'd rather die than see Umino die in front of her trying to save her. Even if she couldn't see a way to save him.

"And I take care of my friends!" Venus shouted.

Friend. Nao hadn't had a real friend in so long. Not until Umino...except...Natsuki. Natsuki had saved her life and now Natsuki was dead and it pissed Nao off. The most decent person to her in years and now Umino was going to die and...

Sailor Star Venus was bleeding, trying to move around and shield Umino and counter-fire was too much and Dark Ninja seemed to have INFINITE amounts of mana to burn and was just moving like crazy. Her rage, unknown to Nao, was enabling her to pull dark mana from the air and keep fueling her speed. And Nao couldn't even get to the knife to free her without being finished herself.

"I...I did terrible things, but Mai forgave me." Yukino could remember everything from her war now. "She gave us a second chance. Please, it's never too late. I tried...I tried to betray Mai and she forgave me. Please." She was crying. And scanning Mistress Nine, trying to find some way she could leverage her own abilities to help.

Then she discovered something. "Sailor Star Moon, Hotaru is supposed to be Sailor Saturn! She's a Senshi like you!"

Sailor Star Moon stopped blasting and said, "You're one of us, Hotaru." She held out her hand. "You don't have to be Mistress Nine. You can be Sailor Saturn and fight for justice with us. We want to be your friends, like Yukino is. You're not meant to serve the Grail. You're meant to be one of us, as you were in the Silver Millenium."

Mistress Nine hesitated.

Nao's tears were soaking onto her glove, which flickered brighter. It was too much, the scabs on her heart were tearing. Does everyone who wants to be my friend die? Why does everyone who cares about me have to get killed?

"I can heal you," Sailor Star Moon said. "Wouldn't you rather be free?"

Umino was bleeding. HE WAS BLEEDING. Dark Ninja was SPEEDING UP and in every future Nao could see he died, but she still couldn't see Sailor Star Venus and WHY? What was blocking her sight? The scars on Nao's heart were clenched in agony, falling off to leave her raw and vulnerable. And she hated that.

"Don't cry, Juliet," Umino said. "It's going to be okay, don't worry," he said urgently, as if her crying was more important than HIM BLEEDING TO DEATH. "It hurts to see you cry."

"I want you to fight with me, my friend," Yukino said urgently to Mistress Nine.

Ribbons of white light flickered around Mistress Nine, though the darkness kept snuffing it out.

Nao could see her father dying, seeing him take a knife throw meant for her. FOR HER. Just like Venus and Umino. Just like Natsuki stepping between her and Shizuru and then she'd died too. Everyone who tried to protect her died and that was why she couldn't rely on others...IT WOULD KILL THEM.

Mistress Nine took a step towards Sailor Star Moon.

Then John Wilkes Booth, the Assassin of the Fourth Grail War, having snuck up using his Mask of the Celebrity (which caused people to accept his presence as rightful due to his status as a famous actor, so even Yukino had failed to actually pay attention to him), shot Sailor Star Moon in the back with his pistol, Sic Semper Tyrannis, which like Brutus' longknife, had especial force against leaders—
presidents, nobles, kings, etc. His master, Kotomine Kirei, now set Yukino on fire and Booth turned and shot her as well; she was not a noble, but his weapon still did very good damage and her damage resistance was weak.

"You shot Yukino," Mistress Nine whispered, stunned, as Usagi and Yukino fell down.

Was the whole team going to die because of me, Nao thought, agonized. Her blood was in her eyes and she couldn't wipe them clean and knives were flying and Julia begged for help and it was too much. Nao fell to her knees, crying, helpless, desperate.

"USAGI!" Akane screamed and turned and charged towards John Wilkes Booth. This freed Dark Uranus to charge Sailor Star Jupiter and now their combined attacks had Sailor Star Jupiter running for cover.

"She is an enemy of the freedom of the Grail! Once the Grail rules, THE SOUTH WILL RISE AGAIN!" John Wilkes Booth said. He levelled his gun to shoot Usagi again.

"Promise me you won't hurt my friends and I won't fight you," Usagi said. "I would rather die for them than let them die for me again."

She was crazy, Nao thought. How can all these people be so willing to sacrifice themselves?

Booth hesitated. "Your family trod the solar system under their feet for a thousand years. The South can never return to freedom and glory if you rule the Earth in the future!"

"A Queen's word is her bond," Usagi said, trying to stand up and failing as she bled. "I swear that if you promise not to hurt my friends, I won't resist you killing me. For my friends, I can do anything. Even die."

Could friendship, love really be so strong? Nao had believed that in her youth, but she'd lost her faith in it. And yet all of them...they would risk themselves, even die for her. Because of the strength of their friendship. She felt a huge clenching envy in her heart. No one was her friend like that. Light and dark warred in the heart of her gem.

But that wasn't true. Umino loved her with a desperate, crazy love, even though she'd used him. Venus was willing to die to protect them. For love and friendship, Nao thought. And the light grew.

"No, Sailor Moon!" Sailor Star Venus shouted. But she was trapped and couldn't help.

There was no choice but radical measures, Blue Mercury thought. She used her link through the gem to Avalon and pulled forth Small Lady Blue. "You have to help me heal Miyu."

"It's my fault she's been corrupted. Of course," Small Lady Blue said. They joined their powers and sucked the mist into a small sphere of water and empowered it with the power of the Blue Gem of Love. Then they hurled it at Miyu as she began to charge.

"Miyu, let me help you!" Small Lady Blue shouted.

Her love for Alyssa warred with the Grail's power just enough for Miyu to hesitate. And then the power of the gem surged through her, purging the darkness.

"Yukino," Mistress Nine said, vibrating in pain and indecision, light and dark warring desperately inside her.

"I won't let you kill her!" Yukino shouted, tackling John Wilkes' Booth in a ferocious burst of strength, and now both of them were burning.

Yukino...even Yukino, that little coward but she's willing to risk death for her friends, Nao thought. It made her strong. She can't fight worth shit, but she faced down the Dark Messiah and...and... The light began to blaze in Nao's gem.

Kotomine Kirei raised his hands to cast a spell to augment the flames. Then Gae Bolg pierced his heart and he fell, bleeding profusely. Then he got shot with two more Gae Bolgs.

"The traitor to our cause has been slain!" the Dark Red Counter-Guardian announced smugly, with Dark Eudial by his side.

Technically, he wasn't a traitor, but since the Red Counter-Guardian wanted to kill Kotomine Kirei, wanted it A LOT, it had been easy for his buried light side to fuzz his dark side enough to make that mistake.

Then John Wilkes Booth shot Yukino a second time and tossed her aside, then rolled around in the snow.

"I'm sorry, Hotaru, I guess this is the end," Yukino said. A few flecks of light started to rise from her.

No, not more death in front of me. Nao couldn't stand to see another friend die. A friend. Even if she avenged her...vengeance was not enough. She'd learned that much trying to kill Takumi...

Takumi...

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Mistress Nine screamed to the heavens, and then light erupted out of her in a huge whirlwind, even as Akane now hit John Wilkes' Booth with everything she had, battering and bashing him with winds and with her tonfas when she got close enough.

More of Yukino was dissolving away. "Maybe next time I am summoned we can do more together, Hotaru," she mumbled. "I'm sorry I failed you."

"Akira, I'm sorry! Takumi would have been fine if not for me! You're right! Just kill me! Just don't hurt them. I don't care if I die, just please, I beg you, show mercy. Takumi was a gentle boy and I'm terrible and please don't hurt Gurio-kun!" The light of her gem blazed brightly and now she could see what was to come.

"No, Nao, don't do it!" Sailor Star Venus said instinctively.

Unfortunately for Akane, she now came under attack by the Dark Red Counter-Guardian, who drove her back with his twin white and black blades, while Eudial began shooting Gae Bolgs at Harry, who had to dodge desperately.

The darkness burned out of Miyu and the orange light in her weapon switched polarities from Wrath to Peacefulness and she ran over to Small Lady Blue, took her in her arms and embraced her.

Assassin turned and seized the Shadowknife and hurled it right into Nao's heart, pinning her down to the ground as she fell.

"NO, JULIET!" Umino shouted, the power within him now surging chaotically.

"No, JULIET!" Sailor Star Venus shouted, then began angrily gathering power.

"Don't hurt her, I deserve this," Nao choked out, only able to function because she was supernatural. "There's your revenge, Akira, does it taste good?" she whispered.

Sailor Star Saturn emerged from the whirlwind and caught every mote of Yukino, sweeping them about with ribbons of white from her glaive, causing them to reform into into Yukino, but now Yukino was dressed as a Star Senshi, Sailor Star Titan, drawing power from Sailor Star Saturn, their lives tied together.

Sailor Star Saturn laid her hands on Sailor Star Moon. "My Queen, I can preserve your life, but I cannot defeat the effects of Booth's weapon. We need to use Avalon to heal you, and it cannot be called without Shirou and Sakura and Mai."

Sailor Star Moon said, "It's okay. Better I die this time, instead of my friends, right?"

Nao completely agreed with that. She didn't want to see everyone she loved die any more.

"No, you have to live! I don't want to lose you!" Akane shouted, desperately trying to keep herself alive but definitely losing her fight with the Red Counter-Guardian.

"Akane!" Sailor Star Moon shouted, realizing...if she died, Akane was doomed to dissolve away. Her friends could live without her, but she was what kept Akane alive.

Umino's power surged wildly and he screamed at the universe, HELP US! PLEASE! "PLEASE SAVE JULIET, I'LL DO ANYTHING!" he shouted at the universe.

"It tastes like ashes," Dark Ninja whispered, now crying. "He's still dead and I still have nothing."

"You did notice the Grail brought Shingo back to life, right?" Nao whispered. So close to the end, but if she died...she couldn't let herself go. She had to live or he would surely kill himself trying to save her. She couldn't just let go. "Sailor Moon can heal him and you and you can be together, it's what you really want, right?"

"The Grail...it's so strong..."

"FUCK THE GRAIL," Nao said hotly. She bled more, clinging to life only by her gem's power. "Don't let anyone tell you what to do," she said. "But don't try to go it totally alone either."

"Yukino, get them. We will need Avalon to defeat Master Pharoah Ninety," Sailor Star Moon said to Yukino, then rose and stumbled over to Nao with Star Saturn following her and sustaining her life.

"Yes, my Queen," Yukino said and sent out Diana's probes to find the people they needed.

"You have to save Akane, you idiot!" Nao said to Sailor Star Moon. "Just let me die..."

"DO NOT LET HER DIE!" Umino said, still bleeding as Venus now landed and came rushing over.

Sailor Star Moon could see the huge whirling vortex above was getting bigger. All this chaos was strengthening Master Pharoah Ninety. Every dead foe, every fallen ally, all this chaos made him more powerful.

"I can't," Sailor Star Moon said, crying. "I'm too hurt to save her."

Who could stop a man with so many weapons? One person, Nao knew. Her friend. The friend who had saved her. But could she...it might be too much when she was barely holding on.

Dark Ninja was crying and had run over to the knocked out Dark Shingo and was holding him.

Umino took Juliet's glove hand. "Don't die."

Venus took it was well and it blazed light. "LIVE," she said, sharing her strength, even though she was bleeding from several cuts.

Sailor Star Moon placed her hand on it and the light almost became blinding. "You're a good friend," she said firmly.

Miyu now engaged Dark Sailor Uranus, Peace against Destruction. Her weapon now paralyzed instead of slaying and her skill at swordsmanship and her strength exceded that of Dark Uranus. The gem made Uranus' blows much stronger but Miyu's gem neutralized the advantage. Mercury and Jupiter were busy chasing down Dark Neptune.

"You three are really stubborn," Nao croaked. "But so am I." She reached out with the gem, hoping she could do something, feeling for the tie between her and Natsuki, the friendship and justice Natsuki had shown her instead of vengeance.

"NATSUKI! I CALL YOU TO THE WAR OF THE GRAIL! ONLY YOU CAN SAVE AKANE!" Nao's gem now blazed like the sun itself.

Natsuki appeared, riding on Mega-Dhuran. "LOAD BURNING ALUMINUM FURY CARTRIDGE! FIRE!"

The Red Counter-Guardian was not easily slain but the shot hit like a ton of bricks, knocking him out.

Dark Eudial said, "THAT WAS BEAUTIFUL! SHOOT ME!"

"LOAD SILVER CARTRIDGE!"

They were soon ready for purification.

Nao reached out, drawing strength from her friends and was reborn, her clothing exploding out into ribbons and then reforming itself into a dark green and red Senshi uniform, though her elegant glove was clawed and had the Green Gem set in it, and she had her favorite beret on her head. Her wounds were gone and she was flush with mana. Deep in space, tumbling rocks suddenly began to clump together, a broken world reforming itself.

"Welcome, Sailor Star Chronos," Sailor Star Saturn said solemnly.

"There's a planet named Chronos?" Sailor Star Venus asked.

"There is now," Sailor Star Chronos said, then gestured with red ribbons, drawing the injured Akane over and sharing mana with her so she could heal herself. "I just gave Astronomers around the world a coronary."

Once things were normal enough for telescopes to see anything but clouds and snow, anyway.

Sailor Star Moon kissed Akane deeply. "I'm sorry," she said. "I just couldn't stand to lose my friends again." She stared at the ground.

Nao kissed Umino very deeply. "I'm going to ride you forever later," she told him.

He laughed. "Mount me any time my love."

Sailor Star Venus' eyes crossed.

"I know," Akane said softly. "I'm glad you're okay." Gently, she ruffled Usagi's hair.

They soon took out their remaining foes and Sailor Star Moon purified them. Eudial and Red Counter-
Guardian woke up. "Your mom is not going to sleep with me if you die, so DO NOT DIE," he said to Usagi.

"HEY! What about me!" Eudial said angrily.

"Look, we can get her husband to double-team you with me, so you can see what a double-guy threesome is like," he said to her. "That's fair, right?"

"Is he hot?"

Sailor Star Moon tried to speak but no words would come out AT ALL.

"If you like geeky guys, he's hot, if not, not," Venus said.

"So he is hot, if not as hot as my little Gurio-kun," Nao said, kissing him. Then she said to Natsuki, "Thanks for the save. AGAIN. I owe you big."

"I'm sure we can figure out something. Also, I was about to lose half a million yen to Gilgamesh, though I think he was cheating," Natsuki said.

"Hmm, that might be good, then," Eudial said thoughtfully.

Sailor Star Moon's eyes crossed and steam slowly wafted out of her ears.

"Hey, what happened to Naru and Nephrite?" Sailor Star Venus asked.

There was no sign of either of them or Professor Tomoe or Kaolinite. This wasn't good AT ALL.

Sailor Star Moon rose, wobbling. "Let's find Naru-
chan."

"You're in no shape to travel," Sailor Star Jupiter said.

"Doesn't matter. Have to find her," Sailor Star Moon said, leaning on Akane. "We find her and we find her now."

Sailor Star Chronos said, "This way." She could see the path more clearly now that she could believe in more of the possibilities.

Alexander roared around the battlefield, slaughtering daimons with his chariot while Saber took out anything that got too close. She'd decided she could argue marriage with him lader. Katsumi, Rei, Endymion, and Shiho were chasing them, trying to keep up and providing support fire.

Then, out of the chaos, Dark Berserker suddenly leaped into the chariot, knocked Alexander and Saber out of it with a surprise sweep of her sword, and took off towards a knot of round table knights.

Katsumi swept down, grabbed Saber and threw her into the chariot and now a close quarters battle ensued of sword against sword with both parties standing on the rim of a chariot constantly spitting lightning in all directions.

In the cramped quarters, the more nimble Dark Berserker had the advantage, but now Mai and Taiga-sensei finally found Dark Berserker again. "BREAK THE NECKLACE!" Mai shouted to Saber.

She took a nasty wound in the side, but her blow shattered the necklace. Dark Berserker stopped berserking, having lost the source of her 'fire'. She was, however, still controlled by the Grail and Master Pharoah Ninety, which had filled her with Darkness.

So Mai dove down and interposed herself, nearly getting hit, but Dark Berserker gave a cry and the light burned out the darkness and she collapsed into Mai's arms.

"MY CHARIOT!" Alexander shouted as the bulls started down a slope, picking up speed.

Mai pulled Berserker out and now Katsumi shuttled Alexander back and he took control and wheeled it around and they went to find their friends.

Archer filled Dark Fumi with arrows and she evaporated, thanking them for setting her free and now Suguira-sensei wearily landed, joining Shirou and company.

However, they now found themselves confronted by Dark Illyasviel, Dark Irisviel (her mother, created to embody the Grail for the fourth war, who the Grail had now summoned to help her out), and worse, Dark Emiya Kitsurugi, who Irisviel had summoned from the Throne of Heroes to be her servant. Dark Emiya was accompanied by Saber-Black, an evil version of Saber, a construct of the Grail, though only a copy. However, the Grail had no recording of his assistant from that war, so she was not present. Instead, they were supported by a large force of Daimons.

Shirou stepped protectively in front of Sakura and Shizuru stepped in front of him, along with Matou Kariya and Lancelot. This was somewhat embarrassing. Rin and Archer flanked them on one side, Suguira-sensei on the other.

"I would try to convince us to join you, but we both know you want to be a hero," Dark Emiya Kitsurugi said. "I'm really sorry I'm going to have to shoot you in the head, but you should see sense once the Grail revives you." He sounded sorrowful.

"Father," Shirou said, trying to talk through the many people in front of him. "I don't want to fight you."

"I don't fight anyone if I can help it," Dark Emiya Kitsurugi said. "But I have no choice. I exist to serve my dear Irisviel and she serves the Grail. She IS the Grail."

"I wish I could have known you," Dark Irisviel said. "You seem like a very nice young man."

"He won't let me turn him into a doll! He's a bad big brother," Dark Illyasviel said, pouting.

"He is MINE and you can't have him," Sakura said firmly.

"So if Irisviel changes sides, so do you?" Rin asked. She had an idea.

"As she served me in the last war, so now I serve her," he said. "All I ever wanted was to be with her and Illyasviel and now we're together. But I want Shirou with us too."

"Father," Shirou said, agonized. To have a real family like that...But he couldn't join the Grail.

"Before we fight, you should come hug your son, Lady Irisviel," Rin said. "Since you just met." She held herself nervously. This would have to be done just right. She found her energy transfer needle; every day she normally pulled out a lot of her prana and used this to store her energy in one of her gems. But she had another plan.

'ARCHER', she said telepathically. 'You must combine your crosses' purification power with mine; I'm going to inject a lot of my energy into her, purified, in order to drive out the Grail's influence.'

Irisviel eagerly stepped up and so did Shirou; all eyes were on them as they clumsily embraced. "You'e a good boy," she said. "I promise this won't hurt much and then you'll be a corrupted spirit like us," she said cheerfully.

"Hmph, no one wants to hug me," Illyasviel grumbled but then Kitsurugi hugged her and she turned red.

Dark Saber stood nearby, looking ominous.

Rin filled her syringe and moved in, with Archer's hand on her shoulder to lend power and use the cross.

Dark Saber saw this and hurled herself forwards. "WARE TREACHERY!"

Suguira-sensei intercepted her, axe against Excalibur, then was driven back. "Better make this plan quick!"

"Shirou, support me! We have to purify her!" Shirou and Rin poured their power and Archer's purification power into Irisviel, who began to howl as darkness and light boiled around her.

"Son, you tricked me!" Emiya Kitsurugi shouted as he went for his guns and Illyasviel pulled out two bottles.

"I'm sorry, Father, it's for your own good!" Shirou shouted.

"I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!" he shouted. "Like Father, Like Son!" This didn't stop him pointing the barrel of the gun at Rin's head.

Lancer moved like lighting and his gun went flying and then she knocked him on his ass. He called upon his time powers, bleeding from nose and ears, and dodged her attacks, but now he was totally on the defensive.

Daimons swarmed forwards, and Lancelot and Sakura and Kariya began to fight them desperately, but they were losing ground; there were too many.

"Get away from Mother so I can blow you up, brother!" Dark Illyasviel shouted at Shirou, who continued to HUG Dark Irisviel while Rin now focused on channeling energy and purification power. The blackness in her was burning away.

"I can't stop!" Shirou said. "Please don't hurt Father too much!" The darkness boiling out of her was searing his flesh; he was in agony but he wouldn't let go of her, wouldn't give up. He was going to set his father free and his father's wife...his mother (foster)...free. If it killed him.

But the Grail poured more darkness into her as fast as they poured it out and now Dark Illyasviel was shelling Sakura with bombs, which she barely repelled with her whips and now Daimons were carrying her off even as Lancelot and Kariya tried to save her.

But Shirou would not give up, though the urge to run, to save himself, was strong. But not this time. He would not flee, not surrender. This time, he was going to save someone. If only there was some way to sever her connection to the Grail. But none of them possessed a weapon to sever spiritual ties or knew the spells to do so.

But that's why we all have to get by with a little help from our friends.

A rose suddenly struck Irisviel's hat, then pierced it and hit the invisible rune on her forehead, shattering it and delinking her from the grail. She began to dissolve away, but now Rin used her skills at magical energy transfer to link Irisviel to Shirou and now pour more purified energy into her; the darkness in her boiled away and only light remained, though Rin was now rather drained.

"Every family deserves to be reunited! I am the Child Services Agency which strikes in the night!" Endymion announced.

"Wouldn't you be there to take away Shirou?" Taiga-
sensei asked.

"I'm a biologist, not a public policy major!"

Arturia moved in to fight her evil twin, freeing up Suguira-sensei to charge in and rescue Sakura from the daimon hordes. Mai began massively baking the daimons with huge amounts of fire.

Dark Emiya Kitsurugi flipped polarities, then said, "We would have won if you hadn't called in reinforcements."

"Hmm, I'm still evil, though," Dark Illyasviel said.

Emiya Shirou now fell down, feeling pretty mangled. But happy. He'd done it! His father and his mother... "Come over here and let me hug you," he mumbled.

"First a hug, then I make you into a doll!"

She ran over and hugged him and got flushed clean; Taiga-sensei assisted so Shirou wouldn't totally pass out.

"You can't make him a doll, he's MY doll," Sakura said to Illyasviel firmly.

Usagi's brigade now rolled in and Dark Saber was soon dealt with.

The battle still raged around them, but the Round Table and the Older Hime brigade had laid waste to the hordes and scattered the competitors from earlier Fuyuki City Grail Wars like chaff. They were battered and beat up and didn't want to do that again, but they were winning.

Shirou had regained consciousness, though he looked weak. They couldn't find Naru anywhere, which made them very nervous. Nao was trying to read the future.

"It will take Avalon to defeat Master Pharoah Ninety," Sailor Star Moon said. "Assuming we can survive summoning it." She looked uncertain.

"If we pool our strength, we'll be fine," Saber said. "With the battle going out way, this shouldn't be too hard."

There was a huge surge of darkness and Naru appeared, crackling with darkness. She had Dark Tomoe and Dark Kaolinite with her. In fact, every single Master and Servant they'd slain was now brought back to life by the Dark Grail's vast store of energy it was absorbing from all over the world.

"We can't fight all them AGAIN," Eudial groaned.

"We can't win by fighting head on," Shirou said softly. "He'll just keep raising the dead. We have to eliminate him. Which means we have to impose Avalon, his antithesis, on him. He is the dark future of the Earth trying to be born, so we must stand for the light."

"I'm not very light," Sakura said softly, holding his hand.

And people call ME skanky, Nao thought, looking at her. Though Umino would love that outfit...

Mai hoped she could find enough peace in her heart. That she wouldn't just screw it up. Berserker held her hand firmly. "You can do it, Mai. I want to live in your dream."

"We are your dream," Older-Mai said to her, startling her. "You can do it. We already did."

"Remember the good times and the good times to come," Older-Shiho said to her.

"You have a really big heart," Older-Yuuichiro said.

"I believe in you, Mai," Older-Mikoto said firmly.

I wonder if she likes older men, Older-Reito thought.

She could do it. She WOULD do it.

"Naru-chan!" Sailor Star Moon shouted. "I'm coming!"

"Come back here!" Sailor Star Venus said.

Sailor Star Saturn said, "Link to everyone, Titan. Bind us together as one."

Titan began sending out her spores to bind them together, while Sailor Star Saturn flew up to her father and embraced him before he could speak. "I love you, Daddy."

"You left me behind! You could have made me a senshi, but you never even TOLD ME THE TRUTH," Dark Naru accused Usagi angrily. "Why do you get to be a princess and I had to watch my prince die?"

Sailor Star Moon pointed down to Endymion and Saber talking quietly, then said, "You're totally right. I was wrong, I hurt you, I hurt you so much and you have every right to hate me."

Dark Naru began to cry. "How am I supposed to be mad at you if you confess?"

"Do whatever you have to," Sailor Star Moon said. "Punish me. I deserve it."

"No...no..." Dark Naru began to cry tears of light. Her light was always stronger than her darkness. It had long made her monster chow but it also let her bounce back from all her disasters. "I don't want to punish you," she whispered. "No...don't make her hurt her." She began to howl.

Sailor Star Moon took her hands and said, "You know, the Sun could use a Senshi of its own. I can make you one of us right now."

Hordes of Daimons were closing in as the Senshi opened fire and others move to protect everyone. Dark Professor Tomoe howled as Saturn burned the darkness out of him; her love was strong but rough.

Dark Naru squeezed and Sailor Star Moon said, "Mother, Serenity, AID ME!"

Taiga-sensei's Shiny Magic Rock flared and then so did the Seven Rainbow Crystals. Each bearer held theirs up and seven ribbons formed, converging on Sailor Star Moon who vanished into a cloud of ribbons swirling around them, and when the ribbons cleared, Princess Star Sol and Princess Star Serenity floated in the air. They landed by Shirou, Mai, Sakura, and Taiga-sensei. Everyone not to be involved in evoking Avalon formed a defensive perimeter against the renewed onslaught of Masters and Servants. King Arthur, Saber, Alexander, Older-Mai, and Endymion took command of the outer defense.

"KAGATSUCHI!" Mai evoked him and then channeled her gem through him and FIRE consumed everything, activating the Egg of the Phoenix.

Sakura and Shirou kissed, combining their power and summoning forth the Avalon within their hearts, the dream of a better life that had always sustained them in the darkest hour.

And Princess Sol and Princess Serenity and Taiga-
sensei flooded the power of their love and the power of the Shiny Magic Rock and of the Seven Crystals into the dream of Avalon inside their hearts and the powers combined and they began the ritual chant.

Shirou: I am the home that offers refuge to weary souls.
Sakura: I am the will that no suffering could break.
Usagi: I am the love that never dies.
Mai: I am the fire that consumes and creates.

Light exploded out of the four of them, shifting, twisting, intertwining, becoming a sphere of light and on its surface, a map of the earth in all the colors of the rainbow.

Miyu: Strength is not enough.
Nao: Vengeance is not enough.
Yumeni: Creation is not enough.
Mercury: Desire is not enough.
Haruka: Duty is not enough.
Lancer: Devotion is not enough.

The light fanned out across the city, growing as large as the portal and as the darkness surged through it, the light pushed back.

Shirou: Not enough to create that safe haven.
Sakura: Not enough to overcome suffering.
Usagi: Not enough to overcome loneliness.
Mai, Shiho: Not enough to restrain the fires within you.
Naru, Saturn, Nao: Not enough to overcome death.
Small Lady Blue: Not enough to save your family.
Arthur, Endymion, Saber: Not enough to save your kingdom.
Rei: Not enough to stand alone against the tide.

Light streamed through the portal and darkness streamed out, but the light embraced the darkness and drew it within and accepted it, for the light was not perfect and the darkness was not evil unless you made it so.

Miyu: Those who want peace must prepare for war.
Nao: Let he who hunts monsters beware; when you gaze into the Abyss, it also gazes into you.
Yumeni: Excessive humility becomes a form of excessive pride.
Mercury: Let desire be a beast you ride to where you wish to go or else it will become your master.
Haruka: Even a surgeon... especially a surgeon... sometimes use the knife to preserve life.
Shizuru: All work and no play means no energy when it is most important.

Avalon consumed Master Pharoah Ninety as those within overcame their own darkness. Energy rushed out across the world as Avalon grew larger and larger, preparing for the Great Work.

Taiga-sensei: Though the far shores beckon to adventure
Rin: Every sailor needs a home to return to.
Archer: Every traveller needs a family to return to.
Yukino: It is the place we all desire most when it is furthest away, but it comforts us even then.
Mamoru: It is the memory of past glory.
Saber: It is the memory of the safe haven of youth.
Sakura: It is the family you create for yourself.
Shirou: It is the place where heroes are made.
Usagi: It is the place where you can truly be yourself.
Mai: It is the place you can forget about war and hope for healing.
Katsumi: It is the dream which cries out to be born through your hands.
Rei: It is the kingdom of glory yet to come.

Avalon reached out to touch every soul and prepare it for the new age to come, drew on the hopes and dreams of all those caught within the storm. Streamers of it ran backwards and forwards in time, healing the breaks in history and reconciling errors and contradictions.

Shirou, Sakura: I will be that safe haven, my love.
Sakura, Shirou: You will take away my pains and I will take away yours.
Usagi, Akane: Our love will bind us together whether we are close or apart.
Mai, Mikoto: One hand to create, the other to protect
Miyu: This future
Nao: This family
Yumeni: This vision
Mercury: This friendship
Haruka: This warrior band
Lancer: This place where we find our rest

Mai, Sakura: avalon

There was darkness.

Shirou, Usagi: Avalon

There was light.

Sakura, Shirou: AVALON!

And the two twined about each other like lovers.

Everyone: AVALON!

And the two became one.

The last of Master Pharoah Ninety boiled away; he would not perish forever; in every age he takes a new form and challenges mankind to justify its existence, to save their world from themselves. He tears down the old that the new might be born, forces everyone to grow or die.

He had done his work and now he faded away as a new world began, a new hope to replace old failures. So begins every age since the world began, with the death of the old and the beginning of a new age and so it began for the Age of Wood on Earth.

So it began for Avalon.

In the Land of the Rising Sun, in the southwestern region of the land, there is a very large lake, the Lake of Mysteries, a lake shrouded in fog. It is said that if you enter that fog, if your need is great and your heart is strong, you will find the Hidden Island, ruled by the King and Queen of Avalon, and there you will find help and comfort and new strength and return ready to face and overcome everything, possibly with some of the Knights of Avalon by your side.

Avalon reigns over this new world, this new age, but does not rule. They made this world, but it is up to ordinary men and women to govern it and shape and reshape it to reach their dreams.

But sometimes the strength of an individual soul is not enough, and then it is that they may find this place and find help and comfort.

But also, possibly, embarrassment.

"You really should wear court clothing at court," Taiga-sensei, the Royal Tutor to the King and Queens of Avalon, said. She wore a jaunty hat to go with her tiger-
striped bikini and lightsabre and Shiny Magic Rock.

"You'd look great, sister," Sakura said, seated on the left in her throne with Shirou to her right, wearing essentially much more ornate, higher quality versions of the not very much clothing they'd worn into the Last Battle.

"You would," Shirou said. He still wasn't used to this actually, but he did enjoy the view.

"I totally agree," Shizuru said, though she wore an ornate kimono.

Natsuki (now bonded to Sakura to be sustained by her power) was wearing a racing outfit and said, "Don't let these maniacs talk you into it."

"I do not want to run around in my underwear!" Rin protested. She was quite sure she looked better in her suit-
dress.

Archer was wearing a blue beret, a blue wrap-around top and blue jeans, with a silver hairpiece with four of Rin's jewels attached for emergencies. "You can't really accessorize it well. And Rin looks much better with her outer dignity reflecting her inner dignity. I want to keep her in underwear for myself."

"I suppose this outfit isn't too dignified," Sakura said. "But, I can't get Shirou to run around in very little if I don't. So that's that."

It wasn't that, in fact, it was just the prelude for the usual Sakura and Rin argument, which was rather like watching two brick walls ram each other. But they'd make up later. It's part of being sisters.

The Panther Knight studied the instructions again. "Okay, we now light this cord and run."

"How far?" Sir Villiars the Valliant asked. He was the blond son of Sir Yvain, the Knight of the Lion. He had yet to become a knight of the Round Table, and thus could be spared for the mission.

Prince Lohegrin of Estregales, the son of Erec and Enide, who bore three serpent's heads on his shield, said, "Very far." He too had yet to be raised to the Round Table. He was dark haired and sturdy, short but strong.

The concoction was a recipe given to them by Lady Yumeni before she returned to the future; she said it could destroy very large rocks. Given the well which held Merlin and Nimue had a rock on top of it which the local hermit claimed could only be lifted by '100 men', this seemed the time to use it.

Assuming they'd used enough bat dung to get enough of the strange powder to mix with the charcoal and brimstone.

The rock blew into a million shards and it was fortunate they had hidden behind trees.

Less fortunate was that they had knocked out Merlin and Nimue with the shockwave, which they would pay for later.

"The hard part," Merlin said to Arthur, Kay, Guenevere, Nimue, Arturia, and Arturia's small army of allies, "is actually finding the Grail Castle. Most of Logres and the surrounding areas is wrapped in the Mystery of the Grail and, well, basically, the Mystery is rigged to wipe people out unless they are exceeding moral paragons. And maybe even then."

"I can find it," Yukino said.

"We can find it," Rei said. "Shiho, Yumeni, Yukino and I will pool our powers."

"And then there will be a big surprise," Sailor Star Moon said firmly.

"Arthur, I..." Merlin began to say. "I did not expect to ever be free."

"There's someone here who wants to see you," Kay said.

Merlin blinked. "Go on?"

"Close your eyes."

Merlin closed his eyes and Mordred leaped out of the closet and kicked him in the nuts repeatedly.

"He agreed to accept that in lieu of a trial," Kay said apologetically.

Merlin crumpled. "It's a fair cop."

"Things are going along well," Dame Brisen said to the groaning, injured Pellam. "The knights have ridden forth from Camelot and soon..."

And then there was a huge splash of teleportation which carved a small crater in the floor and Arturia, Endymion, Katsumi, Sailor Star Moon, Akane, Sailor Star Sol, Nephrite, Sailor Star Saturn, Sailor Uranus, Princess Star Pluto, Sailor Neptune, Sailor Titan, Sailor Star Chronos (who had dubbed her spider Anake (inevitability), in part because it annoyed Pluto), Akira (who had been dubbed Sailor Shadow Moon by Nao), Umino, Sailor Star Jupiter, Princess Blue Mercury, Sailor Star Venus, Taiga-
sensei, Shiho, and Sailor Star Mars. Nao and Akira were both in stealth mode.

Shingo would have come but he wasn't good enough at magic yet AND needed a codename, since he refused to let Nao call him Sailor Brat Boy. Umino had been convinced to stay home but had been bluffing and had followed them here because he was NOT going to pass up a chance to meet King Arthur, end of story.

"Your reign of terror is over!" Sailor Star Moon proclaimed. "The Sailor Senshi and friends are here to TAKE IT TO THE LIMIT."

"Give us the Grail!" Arturia demanded.

"You'll never find it!" Brisen said. "The Grail cannot be called without sacrifice! Yours will suffice! SERVANTS, COME!"

The Seven Servants of Carbonek appeared. Casca the Centurion (Lancer). King Solomon (Caster). Brutus (Assassin). Leonidas (Berserker). King David (Archer). Sir Balin (Saber). And now they struck.

The fight, this time, however, was rather lopsided. Arthuria and Endymion double-teamed Balin, each with a blade in their hand, flanking him and forcing him to retreat even with two swords of his own.

Sailor Star Sol forced Brisen to dodge right into Nephrite's arms and he grappled her to where she couldn't focus to cast any spells.

Umino hit King Pellam in the face with a pie, just to be sure. Everytime Pellam started to do something, he poked the man's side where he'd been wounded for 40 years.

Sailor Star Saturn took on Casca, glaive against lance in a tight battle back and forth that no one could safely get near. Both of them studied each other, for they had similar appearances, though neither had ever even heard of the other. (Similar hair and eyes, that is.)

Akane and Harry together blew Death off his mount. Harry ate Death's pale horse and Akane and Harry kept blasting him with winds, moving too fast for him to close without his mount.

Pluto, Neptune, and Jupiter combined their powers and drowned some of Solomon's demons, stunned them with high sonics and then let them fall into a crack in the earth, then did the same to Solomon.

Leonidas raged against Sailor Star Uranus, but with her Gem-strengthened Star Sword, she soon gained the advantage on him.

King David was soon on fire again, then clutching his ears as Mars and Shiho combined their powers. His sense of balance collapsed and he fell on his ass.

Brutus summoned the Roman Senate and unleashed them, but Princess Blue Mercury, Sailor Star Venus, and Sailor Star Moon opened fire on them. Chronos and Titan combined their powers to locate Brutus, then Sailor Shadow Moon pinned his shadow and began fighting him, backed by Chronos.

The Servants gave it their best, but this was, simply put, overwhelming force and soon they were subdued. Saturn continued to study Casca curiously.

"Without the sacrifice, you cannot summon the Grail," Brisen said.

"If you study the various texts, it's quite clear the Grail is here in the castle," Titan said. PING. "And I just found it."

"Race you to get it," Sailor Star Chronos said to Sailor Shadow Moon.

"You're on!" They took off into the shadows after consulting the screen.

Brisen ground her teeth as Shiho slapped handcuffs on her and Pellam.

"Please," Pellam groaned. "I have suffered this for forty years."

"Kiss my eternally small ass," Shiho said flatly.

"Unfortunately, while you don't age, you can get fat," Arthuria told her.

Shiho began cursing until Mars calme her down.

"You deserve to suffer," Neptune said.

"Part of the quality of a knight is mercy," Arthuria said. "Once Father is healed..."

"He will die when the Grail leaves this place; only it sustains him," Pluto said.

Arthuria winced.

Endymion stepped forward. "Bring Balin."

Balin was dragged over and Endymion said, "Balin, you remember why you came here in the first place, right?"

"Garlon, the Invisible Knight, gravely wounded another knight and only Garlon's blood could heal him," Balin said.

"You must help us. Only you can heal Pellam."

"I'd rather he die, the bastard," Balin said, grimacing.

"You broke the laws of hospitality by murdering my brother!" Pellam said angrily.

"You pretended to be holy, yet you gave shelter to a murderer who slew many good knights by treachery!" Balin shouted.

"He was my brother and nothing could be proved," Pellam said, staring at the floor. "You protect family, even when they do something bad. You avenge them. You murdered him in front of me. Was I to throw you a parade?"

Distantly, Sailor Shadow Moon winced, listening in via TitanNet (Titan's communication network via Diana's spores.)

Balin winced at that. He'd slain his own brother unawares, tricked into it by evil fae. Or whatever they had been.

"Please," Sailor Star Moon said. "He's suffered enough. The land suffers his pain."

"I will soon evaporate," Balin said stubbornly. "I am not interested in sacrificing my life for his."

"It is possible," Rei said, "To bond you to a person who could then sustain you. That you might atone for the many ills you wrecked while you lived and finish the deeds you left undone."

Sailor Star Moon nodded and Taiga-sensei waved the Shiny Magic Rock around to emphasize their capacities.

"Who would take me?" Balin said. "All that I touch turns to dust and ashes and all that I would save perish instead." His voice was heavy with regret. "I am the most cursed man to ever walk this Earth. I cannot have a cup of water without somehow poisoning someone, it seems."

"I can sustain you for now," Taiga-sensei said. "And I'm sure we can find someone in Arthur's court who will take your charge. Since this is your time."

He studied her. "Why are you running around in your underwear?"

"I am a sorceress. The more skin I show, the more powerful I become."

Nao finally understood the Sailor uniforms.

Balin stared at Pellam, then sighed. "Let my power be used once for good at least, even if he doesn't deserve it."

"It would not be forgiveness if people deserved it; we give it because they need it," Sailor Star Moon.

"Way to rip off a Buffy episode, cousin," Sailor Shadow Moon said over the commnet.

"You're not supposed to tell everyone," Sailor Star Moon mumbled.

"Casca, come forward, please," Saturn said.

He blinked and did so. "Are we...?"

"Your adventures in life took you to many lands and times," Pluto said. "It is a long story."

He stepped up.

"Balin tainted your weapon in its future relative to you by using it with intent to murder; because it was a weapon of peace, it could only wound forever, not slay, but that tainted it and it became a dark thing which would do much damage. But your spear is still blessed. You must draw blood from Balin and annoint the wound with it."

Carefully, Casca did so. Three drops of blood splashed from the speartip onto the wound and then Taiga-
sensei touched the wound, her other hand on the Shiny Magic Rock.

There was a lightshow and a rush of power and she wobbled, but the wound healed.

Pellam rose. "Finally, I am free."

"Now take him downtown and book him," Shiho said. "You're still guilty of treason."

"But you won't die before your trial!"

"But how can you use the Grail without the power it would gather from the ritual quest?" Arthur asked as he stared at the golden cup.

In the background, several members of Brutus' Roman Senate were hard at work scrubbing and cleaning; Brutus had been transferred to Kay, who put him and all his flunkies to work on FINALLY getting this castle the kind of thorough cleaning it NEEDED.

"Well, it's going to be a little nasty, but I brought some of my best spices," Sailor Star Jupiter said. "And... umm... flavored it up."

"Since it's been trans-zapp-ified, it'll be fine, I'm sure," Nao said.

"Each of the surviving knights donated blood, which contains mana," Sailor Star Mars said. "We then used our combined abilities to purify it and finish empowering the grail."

"We had to stop Dinadan from trying to add some wine, though," Shiho said. "And no one would let me drink it."

"You're too young," Rei said.

"I DO NOT WANT TO BE THIRTEEN FOREVER!"

Guenevere took the cup and held it for Arthur and his wound faded away and with it the pain and he rose. "I owe you a great debt."

"You've already paid it," Sailor Star Moon said. She hugged him to his surprise. "Also, in the new timeline..."

Pluto put a hand over her mouth. "With history changed, there will be new challenges, for this world is still wild. But you are now ready for them, King of Adventure. The rest of your story has yet to be written."

"There will be many great deeds to come," Merlin said. "Though I fear I will miss the ending. I have cheated death a few too many times and he always collects."

"I can help with that," Mordred said. "End your pain quickly."

Merlin covered his groin with his hands.

"But I'm going to paint it," Katsumi said. "But first, I'm going to go see my boyfriend one more time!" She flew off.

"You can't see the paintings either," Pluto said. "We've beaten this poor timeline with a stick too many times." Avalon had healed the damage to the timeline but it was best to NOT start messing it all up again.

"But how...how does..." Arthur began.

"I am your daughter now in truth," Arturia said to Arthur. "And you are finally free to find happiness as I have. Rule well, once and future king. Until we meet again."

"So...you're the man who wants to be my daughter's lover," Arthur said, studying Endymion. "Anyone who wishes her hand must go forth and do some great marvel! Past marvels don't count!"

"It's tradition," Guenevere said smiling.

"Then we'd best get on with it. Questing takes time and we don't want our ride back to the future to have to wait too long," Arturia said.

"Oooh, a quest. I'm in," Umino said.

"Then I will help," Nao said.

Pretty soon, a rather over-sized quest was in progress. For this was the Kingdom of Adventure!

Yumeni laid on her lover's chest. "So what is your name?"

"Helin le Blank," he said. "The son of Sir Bors and Claire of Strangorre. Mother and Princess Elaine had rather a rivalry and...well, she ended up seducing Father basically to prove she could get a knight of the round table too." He sighed. "It's so embarrassing I decided to create my own identity unconnected to mother's shenanigans and Aunt Elaine helped me sign on at Carbonek as part of the Animal Knights, who all hide their names."

"My goodness," she said.

"Plus, being a mystery knight is cooler," he said.

Yumeni laughed. "I know. I hope you're around in my time. I don't know if I'll ever be back, but I want to see you again."

"If our love is true, then even the gulf of time will not part us forever," he said softly.

She smiled. I hope you're right.

Hotaru had taken up guardianship of Casca and was taking him to meet her parents; they felt rather odd about this as he was a lot older than her; on the other hand, she was oddly mature and there really wasn't anyone but Pluto who was older, unless he stayed in Arthur's court, which wasn't his time any more than this was. And he had a feeling they must somehow be kin.

However, his own memories of his pre-Heroic Spirit days were rather scrambled; everything after he'd stuck Jesus to check for death was somewhat vague. Though he had visited some place that looked sort of like this, he thought.

"Is the laboratory supposed to be on fire?" he asked.

"No. RUN!"

"Are you sure she'll be okay?" Tomoe Meiko asked her husband.

"She'll be fine," he told her. He now was the staff artificer and charity-mage-for-loan for the Kings and Queens of Avalon. He considered himself fortunate he hadn't suffered worse. "It's her turn to shine now." Hotaru, that is.

The fact that he was living with two women whose power were much stronger than his and each considered themselves to have the best claim to him was generally punishment enough, really.

"Let's go on a date!," Kaolinite said, coming in and grabbing his arm.

Sparks flew from Meiko's eyes and, as usual, his lab was soon on fire again.

So much for today's research.

"I have no regrets," Usagi said, kissing Akane's throat and beginning to unbutton her blouse. "I would have given up without you. I was so...I just wasn't thinking about how it would hurt them, I was just selfish and couldn't stand to live while they died. I'm sorry. You had to shock me back to some sense."

"It's okay, dear," Akane said, reaching up and unbuttoning Usagi's blouse. She could feel the strength of Usagi's affection and it warmed her heart. "We're back in Avalon and we love each other and it's all going to be okay."

"Yeah, it's all...OH GOD, I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT MY PARENTS!" Usagi howled.

"Oh yes...yes...YES..." Ikkuko moaned as she, Kenji, Eudial and the Red Counter-Guardian did things I can't describe because I promised no actual porn. Suffice it to say that weapons were not the only thing the Red Counter Guardian knew how to make and that you don't have two kids and a nearly twenty year marriage without learning a few things about enjoying yourself in bed.

They knew from their guests that the kids were okay, so now they could have a little fun to celebrate being alive.

And for its own sake.

"I can't do it," Nao said, clinging to the door frame of Older-Nao's beat up car as Umino and Older-Nao tried to pry her loose.

"It probably would have been better if you'd worn a real skirt and not something that short," Older-Nao observed. Nao was wearing a green blouse and a dark green mini-skirt and high boots, but right now as they tried to pry her off the door, the mini-skirt wasn't really doing its job. "Mom will be scandalized."

Nao began crying and Umino stopped trying to pull her and just held her.

In theory, they were going to have dinner with Older-
Nao's parents, who were not aware Nao wasn't 'Juliet', a high school student friend of their daughter. Nao was in disguise. But she was terrified something would go wrong, even though she couldn't foresee any trouble with her powers. But she'd been surprised before.

"It's going to be okay," Older-Nao said gently. "Nothing bad is going to happen."

Slowly, Nao relaxed in Umino's arms, then kissed him softly and tried to wipe her face. "Given I see the future, I shouldn't be afraid."

"The future is scary sometimes," Umino said. "But I can face anything with you."

She took his hand. "Let's go in."

They headed into the future together.

Mai danced under the stars with Older-Reito, not sure if this was a good idea but enjoying doing something nice and NORMAL with a guy she liked. Further, she'd dressed up in a really elegant blue dress and had a red rose in her hair over one ear. (Accessories by Endymion.)

He twirled her out to where only a single finger joined them, then pulled her back in, circling the dance floor as they moved. The music shifted to a tango and they moved together at high speed, quickstepping side by side, both hands joined, one high, one low.

She wasn't sure if this would get serious or not but she felt she was going to enjoy the ride into the future. Oh yeah.

"Finally, we're alone," Ami said, sitting on the bed with Ryo; her clothing didn't fit too well with her changed figure, though Ryo rather liked the look of her clothing looking ready to burst off her, her breasts pressed hard against the cloth, since she had no bras that fit. Her gem dangled on a necklace on her ample bosom, though it was rather modestly covered. "First things first, time for your upgrade, dear."

He licked his lips nervously and then she took the gem and pressed it to his forehead. "MERCURY HOTNESS POWER, MAKEUP!" she shouted.

This did two things. One, it turned her outfit into Queen Sakura's usual outfit, and secondly it stripped Ryo down to what Shirou now usually wore, while also making Ryo about five inches taller, a lot stronger, and caused his hair to grow down to just behind his shoulders, giving him a more bishonen look.

He stared at himself, then stared at Ami and then they got down to very enthusiastic business.

Suguira-sensei patted Naru and Osaka Meiko's shoulders. "I'm sorry about everything."

"It's okay," Osaka Meiko said. "We'll just whip Hayao's ass for not telling us."

"I WAS DEAD!"

That never works as an excuse.

"Now what happens?" Alyssa said miserably, basically prostrating herself on the floor in front of Mamoru, Arturia, Shingo, Akira, Mai, a slightly confused Shirou, Sakura, and Usagi. "I did all these terrible things. I just wanted to help but I just...it was so bad." She started crying.

"It's okay," Mamoru said, compassionately.

"No, it's not," Sakura said. "The damage she did was undone, but she still did it. There has to be some kind of punishment."

"I think she's been through enough," Usagi said. "Poor child. It was too much for her."

"Not too harsh; she's just a child, but yes, there should be some; she can atone and then let go of the guilt," Mai said.

"Every child needs some discipline and some love," Shirou said. He picked up Alyssa and held her to his chest. "What do you think we should do, Alyssa?"

"I don't know," she mumbled.

"Lancelot...when he was Berserker...he told me he would have been happier in the long term if he'd been punished instead of me always forgiving him," Arturia said. "Sakura, you should take her as your page; train her up properly to one day be a Queen of Avalon." She said this with a certain amount of reluctance, given she hoped Alyssa did not grow up to dress like Sakura. However, she also knew Sakura would instill discipline without going too far. "And that way she can be with her father."

"Father," Shirou mumbled.

"I want her part of the time," Usagi said.

"Maybe once you graduate so you can't try to make her do your homework," Mamoru said to her. He'd always loved to tease her.

"I'm too smart to do anything as low-level as her work," Alyssa said.

"HEY!"

"I will take her half the time and Sakura can have her half. I too can instill discipline," Akira said with a wicked smile.

Alyssa began sweating bullets.

Kurou Hyouhiko was a second year gym teacher, but he'd always felt like something was missing. Now he felt, somehow, that he'd found it. He'd gone to an art show out of curiosity. The mysterious 'Peggy Jones' had apparently finally revealed herself in a show of Arthurian art. He'd always wondered what it would be like to have a mystery like that, to have others know you only by a pseudonym. The idea of people speculating about him intrigued him, but it seemed like such a thing could be really lonely too.

Something about all these paintings seemed so familiar, as if he'd met these people somewhere. Especially the enigmatic knight in armor painted with images of panthers. One picture starred him alone with an angel in a romantic pose; he got embarrassed and excited looking at it.

He was busy trying to avoid looking an idiot in public when a brunette woman whose glasses clashed with her medieval style garb (similar to that in the paintings) slid up to him. "You like it?" she said.

"It's great," he confessed. "It's weird, all this looks familiar, not that I've ever been to Europe, let alone...well, time travel is impossible."

Her lips quirked into a smile. "Many things are only impossible if you never try."

"It feels like there's a story behind this," he said. "It's weird, it seems so real to me."

She smiled. "Oh, there is. I'm Yumeno Yumeni, the painter." She shook his hand.

He thought she was rather pretty, though he'd sort of imagined someone fancier in his head. Or hideous who had to hide. Or an alien. Or something. "It's nice to meet you."

"Here, let me show you the paintings," she said taking him by the hand. "Each of them has a story."

He let himself be lead into the tale of an age gone by, the time of the once and future King. And into his own future as well.

Arturia and Mamoru sat nervously on the edge of the bed, holding hands. Finally he said, "Okay, I confess, I'm a virgin."

"Me too," she mumbled.

"So I don't actually know for sure how this goes."

"Or I," she confessed.

"But the undiscovered country is the greatest adventure, right?" he said.

"The fun is in the quest, not the destination," Arturia said.

"There's nothing to be afraid of," he said.

"Nothing," she said.

"Umm...I know kissing."

"That's a start," she said, relieved, and drew him down into a kiss, then they began questing for the Grail in each other's clothing.

"With power comes responsibilty," Older-Nao said. "Quid pro Spiderman."

The older Hime brigade were having dinner with Suguira-sensei, Shiho, Mikoto, Akane, Nao, Mai, Shizuru, and Natsuki and various hangers on. It was a rather grand feast.

"We'll do what we can," Older Mai said.

"That's fine," Mai said. "I will be busy a lot with Avalon myself. How's Brigit?"

It was a potluck supper with dishes ranging from okonomiyaki to pork soba to tempura shrimp and mackerel to some great pickled vegetables. Also, a plate of hamburgers.

"She's fine; thankfuly, she's asleep but we'll show her off later," Older-Mai said.

"I'm sorry I worried you all," Mikoto said.

"It's fine," Older-Yuuichi said. "You saved my life. I owe you."

"I guess I can't ask for a kiss since you're married."

He got up and kissed her forehead. "And you're too young."

Mikoto began doing math on her napkin while Older-
Mikoto bigsweated.

"Where's Yukariko-sensei?" Older-Akira asked.

"On a date with Rin," Mai said. "I'm sure they're having a good time."

Rin shot the door down, then she and Archer began slaughtering monsters as they poured out. Soon, smoke and ashes only remained. "Okay, level 5 cleared, only...8 more to go." She grimaced.

They were clearing out the ruins under Castle Einzbern, a huge endless maze of rooms, labs, monsters, ghosts, and other creations. It was taking forever.

"Mind if we help?" Shirou said, shovel over one shoulder. Sakura was next to him, a wand in her hands.

"Hi, sis," Rin said, hugging her sister.

Sakura smiled. "Wise of you to do this. But it's more fun with a full party, right?"

"It certainly is," Rin said, then kissed Shirou's forehead in a sisterly manner. "Okay, team, let's loot this room and then down the stairs to level 7."

"What's at the bottom?" Shirou asked.

"The old Grail mechanisms we need to disable so it doesn't show up again," Rin said.

"You can't just loot my castle unless you let me help," Illyasviel said sternly. "Also..."

"No doll," Sakura said firmly.

"Not even..."

"Not even for your birthday."

"Had to ask," Illyasviel mumbled.

"Okay, Illyasviel, you take point since you know everything, right?"

"Of course," she said, then walked into a pit trap on the stairs, since she'd never come down here before in her life.

"I MEANT TO DO THAT!"

Alyssa was unconscious from exhaustion after her first lesson with Akira; she was napping in Miyu's lap while Akira lurked on the roof of the house feeling guilty. The roof was one of the signs of the age beginning; from above, it looked like bluegrass with some flowers; it actually absorbed sunlight and turned it into electricity, reducing the house's need for electricity.

It also was comfy for lying down now.

"Hey," Shingo said softly. "You moping?"

"No...yes." She sighed. "I was such an idiot."

"I totally would have made the same mistake." He sighed. "Whenever Mom and Dad get back from Hawaii with their mistress and mastress..."

"Mastress?"

"I dunno what to call the guy," Shingo said. "Anyway, she won't be happy about the table."

"I nearly destroyed everything; that's nothing."

"Yeah, well, at least you did something. I couldn't even do something when I turned evil," he said, sighing. He laid down by her and took her hand. "You wanna make out?"

"I'm not very sexy," she mumbled.

"See, I like my women slender," he said. "Like I like my tea."

She blinked. "What?"

"Dammit, that sounded slicker in my head," he mumbled, then she kissed him and they laid together in the grass, kissing and embracing. They just needed a little human contact.

"Why so down, Mako-chan?" Usagi asked Makoto. They were having what was in theory a Sailor Meeting; in practice, it was everyone pigging out at one of the all-you-
can-eat places which now could be found every 200 feet in Fuyuki City. This simplified Usagi's life.

"Oh, I just...nothing," she said. She was happy Reika wasn't dead and happy Motoki was happy, but soon Reika was going to be going on another research trip but she'd come back. And Makoto had decided she HAD to move on before she went mad, but that was easier said than done.

"You need a boyfriend," Minako said sagely.

"Every guy reminds me of Motoki now," Makoto mumbled.

"What about Shinozaki?" Usagi asked.

"I used to look more like a boy than he did when we were little," Makoto said. "I've seen him wet himself. We'll always be very close, but I couldn't date him."

Naru made a face. "You didn't have to tell us about wetting himself."

"Naru-chan did that to the bed one time when I slept over. UGH," Usagi said.

Usagi had not realized how good Naru was at headlocks. Akane started trying to free her.

"We were four! FOUR!" Naru said.

"Do your folks really have live-in lovers now?" Hotaru asked Usagi curiously.

Usagi gurgled, then Naru released her. "Don't remind me! It's like I'm living in Marmalade Boy or something!"

Akane said, "The house really gets noisy at night."

"Oh ho," Nao chortled.

Umino said, "I know a few guys I could hook you up with, Makoto."

Makoto looked rather dubious. Nao said, "Are they as sexy as you?"

"Rather moreso," Umino said.

"Better take the chance now," Nao told Makoto.

"I need to find a nice guy who isn't taken." Her eyes flicked around the restaurant.

"No, no, no, hell no, no, taken, no, BAD IDEA, no, actually a woman, no," Nao said.

"I hate it when you do that," Makoto mumbled.

"Well, if you could convince Pluto to send you, there's a lot of handsome knights in Camelot you could have a fling with," Rei said. In fact, that sounded like fun.

"I'm in," Minako said. "We could all three go, call it the Triple Quest for a boyfriend!"

They never did find out why Umino got soda up his nose at that and fell down.

"You two are Tsukino Usagi's cousins," the teacher said slowly to Akira and Shingo.

"I'm her BROTHER," Shingo said. "And this is my girlfriend, Akira," he continued.

"And yet, you are both as stupid as she is. F!" Miss Haruna said. "You can't just transcribe the subtitles from some American cartoon and fool me!" she shouted.

But Umino-san had been so sure it would work, Shingo thought.

Fine, next time, I'm stealing the test key, Akira thought.

At least detention with Shingo would fun, though. She smiled brightly, making Miss Haruna wonder what was going on.

Alyssa bobbed her head cutely. "I'm collecting money for the soup kitchen down by the river."

Money rained into her bucket, as usual. Her kind of cuteness had power, properly channeled for good. Sakura and Shirou (with Sakura forced to wear more clothing at Gandr-point by Rin) and Miyu and Rin and Yukariko were taking her around to do charitable work; she'd found a niche for her talents and it pleased her. And the charity people always smiled so brightly.

At the end of the day, she was exhausted and Shirou picked her up and carried her. Sakura gave her a kiss on the forehead. "You did well."

"Thanks, Mommy," she mumbled and fell asleep, smiling.

Sakura smiled brightly and Rin said, "That's sweet."

"I'm still not clear on how exactly I had a kid," Shirou said.

Rin rubbed her forehead. "MAGIC," she said. That would have to do.

He ruffled Alyssa's hair, and so did Miyu. "But she's a good kid."

"She'll be as smart as I am one day," Rin said proudly.

"Already smarter than you," Alyssa mumbled.

"You don't have nearly my experience," Rin said.

"Yes," Alyssa confessed. "I love you, Aunt Rin."

Rin turned red and Alyssa fell asleep totally.

"I love you too," Rin mumbled. She'd never really had a family before, but now, she was totally part of one.

And she LOVED IT.

"It's a beautiful day," Makoto said as she sat down with her friends at school for lunch.

"Back in school and I never have to rule the Earth," Usagi said, sitting under a tree with Akane, sharing a large bento box with her.

"But that means you do have to study for college exams," Ami said to her; she and Ryo had their own boxes; Ami's was sphagetti. "And eventually get a real job to keep you alive in the day while we save the Earth and you do your duties as Queen of Avalon at night."

"What do you want to do?" Akane asked her.

"I never thought about it as I assumed I'd be ruling," Usagi mumbled. "Or sleeping under ice."

"Yeah, there's a job for you, meatballhead," Rei said. "You could test beds for a living." Her voice was jovial teasing as she worked on her spanish rice, peppers, and fish.

"I think that's Usagi's perfect job," Nao said.

"It is," Naru said, laughing. She had a steak sandwich, made for her by Nephrite, and a chocolate parfait which she assumed he must have kept cool with magic. Nephrite was at school, pretending to a student so they didn't have to brawl with her parents. He had a big box of pork fried rice, chinese barbequed ribs, and egg rolls. He really liked Naru's egg rolls.

"Yours too, Nao-chan," Minako teased. Nao had finally told Umino and everyone her real name.

"Gurio-kun and I like to test OTHER properties of beds," she said grinning.

He turned red, but smiled. "She's a good tester," he mumbled.

"Oh, Usagi's good at that kind of testing too," Akane said.

Everyone looked at her and she tried to curl up and die, but then she started laughing.

"What's so funny?" Haruka asked, walking up with Michiru, Natsuki, and Shizuru. The four of them seemed to hang out a lot these days.

"We're high on life," Nao said, then laughed.

"We're going to have a swim party on Friday," Michiru said. "I hope you all can come."

"YES!" Usagi said. "We're coming."

"Don't forget to get Akane a nice bikini," Shizuru said to Usagi. "We're looking forward to seeing her in it," she said cheerfully. "Or you could all skinny..."

Natsuki dragged her off. "That's enough embarrassing me in public for one day."

Shizuru tagged Haruka as she went. "Tag."

"Put Natsuki in a bikini too," Nao shouted after her.

"NAO!"

Mai was in the kitchen cooking with Shirou and Sakura, while Yukino, Taiga-sensei, Hotaru, and Mikoto were in the living room trying to play Ultimate Oregon Trail. "No swords? What kind of cheap monsters don't have swords?" Mikoto asked.

"They're Sioux, not monsters," Yukino said. "And Taiga-sensei is trying to negotiate with them."

'SIOUX OFFER 38 HIDES'
'TAIGA-SENSEI TELLS SIOUX THESE ARE NOT THE HIDES WE'RE LOOKING FOR'

"Interesting kind of negotiation," Hotaru said nervously.

'SIOUX FORGET HIDES.'
'SIOUX CANNOT FIND HIDES.'
'SIOUX BLAME THIEVING WHITE PEOPLE.'

"Uh oh," Hotaru said.

"Yes!"

'MIKOTO DRAWS KATANA, THREAT POSTURE'

"No, no, don't threaten them!" Yukino said desperately.

'500 SIOUX DRAW GUNS, THREAT POSTURE'

'YUKINO OFFERS 200 BACON AS PEACE OFFERING'
'SIOUX CAN BELIEVE IT'S BACON'
'SIOUX LOWER WEAPONS, NEGOTIATING POSTURE'

"Okay, now..." Yukino said.

"We attack while we have the advantage?" Mikoto asked.

"No, let's negotiate," Hotaru said.

They were still arguing, but having fun, when it was time for dinner.

Hotaru smiled. She'd always dreamed of this and now her dream had come true.

Makoto finished laying out the spread. Joan (Arturia) had cooked carrots and venison. Reika had brought roast beef, chutney sauce, and a Kenyan vegetable dish called irio, in which you mash corn, beans, potatoes and greens into a pile rolled into a ball; they were used for dipping in meat or vegetable stews. Motoki had made a chicken stew, and Mamoru brought fresh bread, sliced tomatos, and tempura vegetables. They might explode but they would eat well.

"I'm glad you're okay," Mamoru said to Reika.

"Me too," she said. "It's all kind of blurry." She frowned. "But I'm glad to see you two came through it okay and that we can get together before I ride the pegasus coach back to Africa for more work."

"I was really worried about you three," Motoki said.

"We were fine," Makoto said.

"Just snowed in," Joan said. She and Mamoru began serving everyone.

"I met a new guy; he's really cool, he's in a band and everything!" Makoto said enthusiastically. "The Three Lights."

Mamoru felt something odd twinge in his head but wasn't sure why.

"Their lead is this redheaded guy from Ireland; he goes into a total thrashing frenzy when he performs and he's so handsome and strong and charming," Makoto said enthuasiastically.

Joan now felt alarm bells go off in her head.

"Setanta is kind of a weird name, but I guess it's Irish," Makoto continued. "Then they have a huge greek guy on drums and their keyboardist...he's too arrogant for me, but he's kind of handsome and cool too. The greek guy, he has like muscles on his muscles. Their biggest hit so far is a remake of 'Going Berserk', but I heard the whole album and it ROCKS."

"Does Setanta have any nicknames?" Joan asked carefully.

"Sounds like trouble to me," Motoki said.

"Let kids have their fun," Reika said.

Makoto cringed at that, but said, "Apparently back home in Ulster, they called him 'Hound'. He lets me call him that." She smiled brightly.

Oh boy, Joan thought.

Mamoru's eyes crossed. Better keep the cape and top hat handy.

Illyasviel now had her father and Mikoto as Familiars, linked to her mana. Her mother was sustained by Shirou, along with Suguira-sensei. The hardest thing for her now was having to go to school.

"I still don't see why I can't blow up the teacher if she insults me," she complained to her big brother, Archer, Mikoto, Sakura, Rin, Taiga-sensei, and parents. They were having a family dinner.

"You shouldn't hurt hard-working teachers," Taiga-
sensei said.

"They're EVIl and they like Alyssa more than they like me," Illyasviel grumbled, then worked on her soba.

"You have to lure them into a false sense of security; if you go around blowing up teachers, everyone will know your powers and you'll lose your ace in the hole," Emiya Kitsurugi said, his pork and peppers halfway to his mouth between two chopsticks. "This is really great, Rin."

Rin smiled. "Thanks."

"Oh, see, that makes sense," Illyasviel said.

Taiga-sensei rubbed her forehead. This child was going to be a handful by high school.

"I guess stabbing is out too," Mikoto said.

"I wish I was in your grade," Illyasviel said mournfully.

"How are you and Alyssa getting on?" Irisviel asked.

"She is made of PURE EVIL and claims her family loves her more than you love me," Illyasviel said mournfully.

"That's not true, my love is pure and obsessive," Sakura said. "No one can outlove me."

Rin rubbed her forehead then ate quietly, NOT commenting.

"We all love you," Shirou said reassuringly. He was very, very happy. Things couldn't get any better than this, really. It was all he'd ever wanted.

This meant, of course, that trouble would have to come. That's its job.

Shiho was trying to figure out what was wrong with her bra when she suddenly saw Pluto in the mirror and started, falling into the sink.

Pluto pulled her out. "My apologies," she said. "What's wrong?"

"Bra's too tight," she grumbled. "It must have shrunk since I can't get bigger."

"Oh, actually, you're starting to age," Pluto said. "You're linked to Rei, so as she ages, you will age."

"Really?" Shiho was ecstatic.

Pluto held out a pen to her. "This will let you become Sailor Deimos, able to better share power with Rei, since your Child died, this will help you if you have to fight physically."

"YES!" Shiho said excitedly.

And help Rei keep a leash on you, Pluto thought. But she smiled and said, "Why don't we go shopping for new underwear for you? I know a lady in the 2030s who can hook you up with smart fabrics that will adjust as you grow older."

"Am I still from the future or what?"

"Usagi's sloppy wish has been fixed so she won't be sleeping with her cousin," Pluto said. "And you're now just you, from right here, right now."

"That's fine by me," Shiho said. "But let's time travel anyway." She rubbed her hands with glee.

"We should get Rei too. She probably needs some nice underwear."

"I'll help her pick it out!," Shiho said cheerfully. "Dress her right up."

Mission accomplished, Pluto thought. You shouldn't have drunk up all my good coffee, Rei.

They headed out to find Rei and travel to the future.

Rei, Shiho, and Pluto landed in an alleyway, then stepped out into the street. An armored zeppelin flew by overhead with a huge electronic message board on the side. It said 'EMPEROR ALEXANDER ANNOUNCES BATCH 5 OF CROSS-CULTURAL WEDDINGS FOR FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH. WEAR A TUX.'

They all stared, mouths open wide.

"I believe we forgot something in 2010," Pluto said.

"Oh man, we totally forgot about him!," Rei said, slapping her forehead.

"So no fancy underwear," Shiho grumbled.

"We might as well get all the fancy underwear we can before this timeline is erased by us when we go home," Pluto said.

"Does that mean we don't have to pay?" Shiho asked hopefully.

"It's courteous to pay even if the timeline will evaporate," Pluto said. "Manners are important."

"A woman's work is never done," Rei grumbled, then said, "Let's go!"

A woman's work is never done but this story is. But where's a story without a hook for a sequel?

But that, as they say, is a story for another day.

The End