Chapter One

The Collapse from Within

Bile was raising sharp, bitter, and burning from deep from within as a thousand things swirled at once. Small hands encased in heavy gauntlets made from blackened metal with vicious ridges trembled violently as the slight form rolled over. Pressure was burning behind closed eyes as the acidic contents forced themselves out through a raw throat. Tears streaked down a bloodied face with each dry heave until the small girl was coughing and trembling.

What have I done? What was done to me? I failed . . . They betrayed me . . . I betrayed them . . . Why was I not granted my peaceful end? Have I not suffered enough?

King Arturia Pendragon rose to her knees before screaming again.

The former Servant Saber was aware of the cave around her starting to tremble and quake in the wake of the events that had taken place here. Automatically she looked down at the blackened armor covering her and the gash in the dull steel that had gone straight into her flesh. Her fingers prodded the tear in the armor to find the wound completely healed, as if Avalon had been restored to her, but she had not had her sheath since Emiya Kiritsugu had been her Master. Her eyes had narrowed as she absently brushed back a lock of hair that had fallen into her face.

She was aware to notice that her hair had been restored to its normal gold, not the ashen color it had became when she had been taken by the Shadow. However further glances downward proved that she was still garbed in the hellish black armor and garb. Small teeth worried a bottom lip as ice fear gripped the knight's chest as she looked over beside her. Her eyes closed for an instant as the chill continued to race through her veins before she took a deep breath and opened them.

Lying there almost like a gleaming beacon was her sword. Excalibur was resting upon the ground gleaming silver, golden, and deep blue. The Sword of the Lake was exactly how she held it for so many years, the taint of the evil that had gripped its wielder completely scrubbed clean. Saber almost sobbed in relief as she reached for her sword and brought it to her chest. A loud rumbling lurched again from the walls around her as bits of stone began to fall more and more to the cave floor, yet she remained still.

Let these walls be my end. Let this cave be my tomb, she thought as she looked up with gritted teeth.

In the distance she heard a loud cry that sounded like her second Master's voice. Automatically she looked towards the direction it had came but shook her head. She felt no ties to anyone anymore. She was no longer anyone's sword but her own, and she had no battle left within her. It was not the beautiful death at Shirou's hands she thought she had been granted, but she was not going to argue the unfairness of it all.

After all, she had been a King. She had walked hand and hand with miserable duty and unfair situations to serve the Greater Good. Now it will just end. I had failed, this is an acceptable end to me, she thought as she tightened her hold around Excalibur and shut her eyes.

The cave rumbled again and she held her head up, waiting for the crushing pressure to end her misery. However there was a sound that was growing louder and louder, like the footsteps of someone at a heavy run. Her eyes opened to see a tall figure approaching and she widened at the deep red they wore.

Servant Archer stood a mere stone's throw from her with his broad chest rising and falling with each heavy breath. His steel grey eyes locked upon her before widening as they stared at each other. You died, Saber thought with a tilt of her head as she studied him. Mayhap the same force that forced her back to life had done the same to him as well.

Unlike me, Archer deserves it, she thought as he rapidly approached her. The last she had seen of him had been the first battle she had partaken in since the darkness within Sakura had taken her. The battle had changed her opinion of him; after all he stood alone against forces he had no chance to win against. In fact she had swatted him back as if he had been an annoying fly only to have him come rushing back to protect his Master, Shirou, and Ilya.

Saber bowed her head and waited for the killing blow, after all the last time they had met they had been enemies. Instead large hands grasped her shoulders and lifted her to her feet. Her eyes widened and she snapped, "What are you doing?"

"This cave's going to collapse any minute. Rin, Sakura, Emiya Shirou, and Rider are still in here. I'm not letting anyone die here today, especially not you," Archer said in a low voice with narrowed eyes as he propelled her in the direction where she heard another yell, but this time in Rider's voice.

had ran through the rumbling cavern at a frightening speed as he poured more and more prana into his limbs. With each step his mind was racing as he was assessing everything around him. My body seems to be in the same condition as when I was a Servant before Saber injured me, he thought as he heard her voice screaming over and over again. He Analyzed the cave: Structural integrity compromised. Stone structure cracked, the fissure rapidly spreading. Five minutes until complete cave in.

I can work with five minutes, Archer thought as the screams cut through him. Even after all of his life and the records he had gleaned off of from his duty as a Counter Guardian, he still hated that sound more than anything. He became so familiar with the cries of others to tell if the screams were due to injury, fear, or soul shattering despair. The screams stilled for a moment before breaking off into a heaving, choking sound for a long moment before continuing with a rawness that made Archer's chest tight.

He broke into a chamber that was still smoldering from a previous battle and kneeling in the center of the chamber was a small figure clutching a sword nearly her size to her chest.

Saber was dressed still in her black armor and gown with its hard, cruel ridges. The Holy Sword clutched to her chest was gleaming like a captured star though as if it had been scrubbed clean of the corruption that had infected its master. As always, Archer was caught by the sheer beauty of Excalibur and its master. Despite being streaked with blood, her skin was no longer ashen, her hair was a golden blond, and the wide, red rimmed, tear streaked eyes that met his could shame the finest emerald.

He watched Saber's brow furrow as she tilted her head while she watched him with those wide eyes. Yet she made no move towards him nor did she even stand at her feet with her sword at the ready as she should have. Her head bowed down in surrender and Archer felt something hot flash through him as he closed the distance between them.

"Maybe you can save the one person you failed."

He grasped her shoulders and lifted her to her feet as if she was a doll. He towered over her now, more than he did as a teenager. He was aware she was not his Saber; he had failed his Saber to save the world. It was the first of many difficult choices he had made in his attempt to pursue his idea of being a "super hero", and, from some of the records he had glimpsed in that first night from previous Grail Wars where Rin had apparently summoned him, was a mistake he would try to rectify when he could.

Despite everything, every time he would see her for the first time again he felt like he was seventeen again lying on the floor of his shed looking at a radiant form encased in moonlight. It had been a glorious sight that had been burned into his memory even after he had been thrown into Hell so many times. He wondered each time if it rendered him prone like this time, giving her time to strike at him because for that bright, shining moment he wasn't Archer or Emiya the Counter Guardian, but Shirou the Innocent, Idealistic Idiot struck stupid by her radiance.

Her eyes snapped open and she asked, "What are you doing?"

He glared at her bloodied, tear streaked face and how her blond hair was falling loose from the once perfect bun. The blackened, bloody Saber was dull, dirty and had been cast aside. She was wanting to die, Archer thought as he looked down at her, torn between his anger and the knowledge of the all too familiar feeling himself.

"Maybe you can save the one person you failed."

Archer's voice was surprisingly low and gruff, even for him, as he said, "This cave's going to collapse any minute. Rin, Sakura, Emiya Shirou, and Rider are still in here. I'm not letting anyone die here today, especially not you." Saber's green eyes widened as he pushed her forward. A yell rounded from deep within the cavern, the exotic throb having to be Rider's voice. Saber stumbled forward but did not start walking on her own, so he grabbed her by the wrist and took off at a run again.

He felt another hot spike of anger as she made no move to cut him down with Excalibur, but meekly held the sword close to her as they traveled deeper into the cave. With each step it continued to rumble and shake more, more and more stones tumbling to the ground. Archer gritted his teeth when he heard Sakura say, "Rider, please get Nee-san and Sempai out of here."

"I am not leaving you," was Rider's reply as Archer caught view of another sight that made him curse.

Sakura was cradling an unconscious and bloodied Emiya Shirou in her hands. Archer's eyebrows lifted at the sight of the boy's left arm whole and attached lying limply against the teen's bloodied body. Sakura's nude body was blood streaked as she clung to her lover, her eyes filled with tears. Rider was holding Rin's limp form, but underneath the red turtleneck Archer could see the faint, sickly, green glow of her chest through the fabric.

"We're getting everyone out of here alive," Archer said as Rider and Sakura's heads snapped to where he was standing beside Saber. He was already taking off his mantle to drape around Sakura's shoulders as he lifted Shirou's body over his shoulder. He said, "We have about three minutes before the cavern completely collapses. If we move quickly we'll make it."

Sakura's eyes widened at him and she swallowed before looking at Rider. Rider tilted her head and frowned before looking back at Sakura. The Gorgon said, "What did the two of you do, Sakura?"

"Made sure that Sempai wouldn't die and be happy . . ." Sakura said with wide eyes as she looked up at Archer before whispering, "That's . . ."

Archer sighed and said, "We'll talk semantics when we're not in peril."

"Leave me behind," Saber said in a soft voice as she looked away.

Archer glared and said, "No. Are you afraid to atone, Saber? Why, you're shaming that sword to give up that easily."

Green eyes sparked and narrowed as he continued, "You failed to protect him once, it would be shameful of a knight like yourself to fail both people you pledged your sword to, wouldn't it?"

Saber continued to glare at him when he looked at Rider and said, "You're the fastest and physically the strongest. You lead the charge. I can take Rin as well in case there are any obstacles that are probably going to appear in our path."

"This is a turn of events," Rider said with a tiny smirk as Rin was easily placed in a fireman's carry so she could use her hands if need be.

You're telling me, he said before looking down at Sakura who was clutching his mantle to her naked form tightly. She looked up at him and he said, "Sakura, no one else is dying in this cave today. Let's go."

Sakura's hands were shaking.

No matter what, she couldn't stop them from trembling. They had managed to escape the cavern before it closed in. Sempai was alive and so was Nee-san. Rider had gotten Nee-san home where she had called informing everyone that Rin was already rapidly recovering on her lands especially after Rider gave her a bit of the prana she was siphoning from Sakura.

Then there was Sempai.

Archer carried him to their room and laid the redhead out on the futon. Sakura looked up and asked, "Why isn't he waking up?"

"I don't know," Archer said in a soft voice when he shook his head.

Sakura placed her shaking hands to her face and said, "Ilya said we were making a wish. We kept him from dying."

"I think you brought him back to life, but he's still injured," Archer said as he looked down at her. She flushed as she realized that she was still nude except for the mantle he had given her.

Still, she looked up at him and asked, "Is there anything we can do?"

"Actually yes. We need Saber," Archer said with a nod.

Sakura blinked and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Your Emiya Shirou has something of hers within him, something that his foster father placed into him when he found him in the fire all of those years ago. It saved his life, but with Saber close by it activates and would completely heal him," Archer explained.

Sakura's eyes widened as she asked, "Does Saber know this?"

"No and neither does he, not yet anyway," Archer said with a shake of his head towards the sleeping redhead.

Sakura bit her lip and said, "And you know because you were him, weren't you?"

Archer sighed, his large shoulders slumping ever so slightly before nodding. He answered, "Yeah, I was, but because of you now he won't become me. So I thank you for that, Matou Sakura."

She stared at him and said, "I could go get Saber."

"I'll get Saber. You get cleaned off and dressed. Then I can fix us something to eat, I'm sure you're starving after all of this and since I have a mortal body again having a good meal would probably be a good thing for me as well," he said with an all too familiar smile.

Sakura felt herself at ease slightly as he headed for the door. She said, "Archer?"

"Yes?" he replied as he looked back at her.

She bowed to him and said, "Thank you, for everything."

"I really didn't do anything," he said with a snort and a shake of his head.

Sakura ran her fingers over Shirou's left arm before looking at Archer's. The longer length with its darker skin and thicker muscles was all too familiar to her. She swallowed and said, "Yes you did. You gave my Sempai the means to save us all."

Archer snorted and said, "By almost killing him." With that, he was gone, leaving Sakura alone with her lover. She sank to her knees and wrapped her arms around him for a moment. She wanted to clean him off before getting him rested, but she didn't know if that would reopen his injuries or not.

She wondered how Archer had become so bitter, but was relieved by his comment. And something I'm going to ask him about. Nee-san got her answers from Ilya. I'm going to get my answers from Archer directly.