Disclaimer: Fate/Stay Night is property of Type-moon, RWBY is property of Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC. This work is purely fanfiction and as such earns me no income.
This was written partially in the blaze of a heatwave. Some parts may get changed later on.
Edited for minor corrections: 9/18/2015
In a wide grassy field, dawn breaks over the horizon, bathing the earth and the sky with its shining radiance. Various clouds dot the clear blue sky. A very serene and peaceful scene that anyone could tell. Maybe even a perfect place for the curtains to be drawn towards a fine end.
In this field, a girl in a blue dress can be seen standing proudly and looking toward the rising sun. The light bathes her slender figure and her soft, white skin. Blond hair that shone as beautiful as gold with the light of the sun reflecting off of it. Her beauty is magnificent but her regal presence is even more so.
Shirou Emiya found himself standing just behind the girl, dazed and confused. He was having trouble remembering how he got there. 'Where am I?' The teen didn't have time to ponder his question because he was now looking at the girl's elegant back and remembered just who it was in front of him.
"Saber?" asked the boy. Unable to utter anything more because of the myriad of emotions that was now swelling up within him.
A gust of wind passes them that causes Shirou to close his eyes. As soon as the wind died down, he looked up once more, and found himself staring straight into Saber's soft green eyes. She wore a small smile on her face that was warm yet sad as she looked at him.
"In the end, there is one thing I must tell you, Shirou," said Saber in a determined voice.
Shirou couldn't bear to tear his gaze away from her. It felt like she would disappear at any moment if he blinked even once. He couldn't explain why, but he knew it to be true. The boy could only find himself asking the girl in front of him "What is it?"
Saber widened her smile a bit and her face glowed with happiness as she said, "Shirou, I love you."
With those words, another gust of wind blows through that blinds Shirou. As soon as the wind was gone, so too did the woman he loved in front him.
Pain filled his heart, as he clutched his right hand to his chest. The loss of a precious loved one is never easy, but in this case… Memories of himself driving a dagger trough Saber's heart as she stared at him, was repeating itself over and over in his mind.
He struggled hard to make sense of his jumbled up memories. "There is nothing I want more than you," he remembered he had said to Saber. "I love you more than anything," himself saying it again to the girl. Lastly, the moment his arm came down with the weapon that killed her.
Unable to endure the onslaught of emotions, he fell to his knees with tears streaming down his face. He stayed in that condition as he continued to stare at the spot where his Saber stood in front of him. Forever would he have stayed like that if not for the sound of someone's voice calling him from somewhere behind him.
"Shirou?" a familiar voice asked. "Tell me just what do you think are you doing?"
He turned his face to see Rin Tohsaka, a girl who became the school idol, perfect honor student, and someone he had always admired.
"What's wrong, Shirou?" she asked.
"I… killed her… I killed a woman I loved… I killed Saber." He answered so, as the pain in his heart threatened to consume his entire being.
"Huh?" said a confused Rin. "What are you talking about? Did all those projections finally melt your brain?" She had a look of utter disbelief pointed at him. "Saber's right here with me."
Bewildered by that piece of news, Shirou looked up and saw that Saber really was right beside Rin. The King of Knights was looking at him with a confused expression.
He froze there still staring at the woman he thought had disappeared forever.
"Really now, how can we possibly keep up with having to take care of you?" sighed Rin. "You should remember that Saber is MY Servant now, so you should do your part and help me with making sure she stays here in this world with us." She told him so as she moved in closer to him. There close proximity was causing his heart to beat faster and his face flushing. Surprising, considering his condition just a few moments ago. He couldn't really help himself as the face of the school idol face was bewitchingly beautiful to him, the softness of her hair and her scent was sending his mind off racing.
"W-what are you talking about, Tohsaka?" he stammered. For some reason, he can't keep his eyes off the curves of her lithe body. He gulped the back the saliva that had started building up in his mouth.
"Honestly, how are you still this dense after all we've been through?" she questioned. "I guess I'll just have to keep punching through your thick skull until you remember it permanently." Rin wrapped her arms gently around his neck and pulled him into a kiss, which caused his mind to blank before he found himself returning the kiss and embracing her in his arms. After a moment that seemed to have lasted hours, she finally broke away from their passionate kiss to look at him lovingly and say, "I love you, Shirou."
Her lover was stumped, but he couldn't stop himself from saying what he thought deep inside.
"I love you too, Rin."
At his words, Rin let out a smile filled with joy. That happy look she gave him was enough to set his heart once more into a fluttering mess. Before he could control himself, he found Rin's form fading in his arms.
He tried desperately to hold on to her but he was unable to feel anything but air pass through his fingers. Along with her Master, Saber too, had vanished.
"No… No… NOOOOO!" he screamed.
The world around him seemed to shake from his voice. It was only a minute later did he find himself someplace else.
The smell was the first thing he noticed. A distinct scent hung in the air surrounding him, one that his memory will not allow him to ever forget.
The coppery scent of blood pierces his senses.
It was so overwhelming that it almost made him vomit right there. The scene he saw next would have done so, had he not felt so stunned.
Bodies littered the earth around him. Man, woman, young, old, eastern and western, there was no discrimination. All of them were dead. Piles of human bodies in different forms of decay are scattered all around him. Some old and rotting. Others, still fresh with bright red blood flowing from their various fatal injuries. Arrows to the heart or right in their heads. Blades of different cuts and stabs can be seen on a lot of them as well. Other forms of damage could be seen and made for a macabre of dead. He couldn't understand the scene before him. Not until he looked at his own hands.
Blood.
His hands were stained with blood. The clear red of it shows his own reflection, that of a white-haired tanned man. 'I see,' he thought. 'These are all the people Archer killed.' He realized that what he thought wasn't right. 'No, these are all the people that I, Shirou Emiya, had killed because of my ideals.'
He stopped looking down at his hands to see the glowing dark blue sphere that embodies the will of Alaya floating a few feet away from him. Right below it, he could see Shirou Emiya standing there watching him with his distorted will shining through his eyes.
"That's right," Archer said with a sardonic smile as he stared back at his younger self. "Shirou Emiya is the kind of person who will pursue his ideals regardless of knowing what will happen to him in the future." He stood up straight with Caliburn in his right hand, gripping it resolutely. "To break this never ending cycle of death, I have to kill Shirou Emiya!"
Forward, he ran filled with killing intent for his self that was responsible for their cursed life.
Archer had covered the distance between them in only a short instance. He now had both his hands gripping his sword tightly, and swung it down with all his might, fully prepared to finally end his eternal torment. The blade would have cut clean through… except he stopped himself before the blade went even close to touching his target. His reason, a beautiful girl with violet hair was now standing between them both, looking at him with sadness.
"Move aside, Sakura," ordered Archer. "This has nothing to do with you." His sword just a few inches away from her and still tightly clenched between his hands as he said so.
"Why Senpai? Didn't you promise me that you'll protect me?" she said. "Didn't you promise me that you'll be my superhero no matter what?"
"I-I didn't-," before he could finish, Archer has a flashback of a time with Sakura in his arms as the rain continued to pour all around them. He could clearly hear the words he spoke that day to Sakura of protecting her.
He could also remember himself not only breaking his ideals, but also going entirely against them just to try and save the girl he loved. There were many people that died because he couldn't go through with killing her. People that died like the ones in that fire he was in many years ago. They must be cursing him for turning his back on them.
Still… he did not regret saving her.
"Ha…haha…ahaha!" he laughed. "It's true, I went back against my ideals that created Counter Guardian EMIYA, in order to save you." He realized that he no longer had any reason to kill his younger self, since he would no longer be able to turn into a Counter Guardian without those ideals. Dropping down the sword in his hand, he looked at her warmly and said, "I'm sorry, please forgive me for almost forgetting my promise."
"Please just come back to me," pleaded Sakura with a smile on her face.
"Yeah, I'll be there to protect you," he said as he embraced her. The forms of Saber and Rin also appeared next to them, along with Illya and even Rider. "I swear I'll protect all of you, forever and ever." He looked at each and every one of them while saying so.
With that, the world around him grew dark once more, along with his consciousness.
Waking up coughing, Shirou Emiya was lying on the wooden floors of the apartment building they were using as their test site. His memory still foggy from what he could only assume was caused by the failure of their test.
He sat himself upright, causing his dizziness to swirl. It was hard for him to see as the smoke cloud around him was still dissipating around the room. If he waited a little bit, it looked like it might clear up soon enough.
The sound of a worried voice calling his name, drew his attention.
"Shirou?!" Rin called desperately, "Shirou?! Where are you?!"
He had wanted to call out to tell her that he was fine, but he could only cough as some dust may have made its way to his lungs when he was unconscious. His coughing must have been enough to notify Rin where he was because after a moment's pause she started calling in his direction.
"Shirou! If you're fine, get over here quickly. I need your help!"
The desperation in her voice cleared up his thoughts quickly.
Standing up, he made his way towards Rin's direction until he could see the back of her sitting figure on the ground in front of him.
"R-Rin, are you alright? What's wrong?!" he asked. His voice still a bit raspy.
He saw her look in his direction and saw her gasp in surprise. Did he perhaps have some serious injuries he might not have noticed after waking up? It must be pretty bad if it left Rin Tohsaka frozen speechless.
"Archer…?"
What?
"… Is that really you, Archer?!"
Perturbed by this, he quickly scanned his surroundings to look for the Heroic Spirit. The smoke had pretty much cleared up all around them, but he could not find Archer anywhere.
He looked back at Rin to see her still staring right at him. "What are you talking about, Rin? I don't see Archer anywhere. Is he in Spirit form?"
Rin looked confused for a moment before it was replaced by a look of epiphany. "Shirou?" she whispered.
"Yeah."
"Are you kidding me?" muttered the now angry magus.
"Look, I'm fine, so tell me what's wrong?"
"You! You're not fine. Just look at yourself right now!"
"What do you mean?" He checked his body to make sure that there were no serious injuries. Nowhere in his body did he feel any sort of pain, and he couldn't find any sign of even a scratch really. There didn't seem to be anything wrong. Aside from a moment ago waking up, he actually felt great.
Which was how he realized that something indeed was wrong.
His left arm had stopped hurting. The arm that Archer gave him to save his life. It had been causing him pain continuously ever since it was attached to him, and was now completely fine. In fact, it seemed to feel perfectly normal. It was as if his arm had never been severed in the firs place.
It was at this time that he noticed that both his arms matched. They were muscled before but now they were much bigger and a lot tanner. Not just his arms though, his entire physique seems to have changed like that as well.
"Oh, so that's what happened," he said plainly.
"Don't say it like it's not really your problem!" shouted Rin.
"I have Archer's body… No, Shirou Emiya… is Archer, and always has been." He continued to stare at his arms as this revelation sank into him.
"We can figure all of this out later. Right now, I need your help Shirou!"
Shirou snapped out of his thoughts. "Y-yeah, so can you tell me what's wrong?"
Rin moved herself a little bit to the right while still sitting down. On her lap was a familiar blonde girl's head.
"Saber?" said a dumbfounded Shirou.
"That's right," answered Rin. "I found her here lying on the ground. I don't know what happened but she was seriously injured, and she would have died if I hadn't tried to heal her. But she's not out of danger just yet so I need you to help me get her and Illya upstairs. I think this house still has some old mattresses in some of the rooms."
Shirou saw Illya was sitting propped up against the wall near them. It looked like she was in a deep sleep and looked very much fine.
"I can carry Saber," declared Shirou, as he went over and picked her up in a bridal carry. "I can come back down for Illya once I'm done."
"You don't have to. Illya is pretty light so I can carry her myself."
"Okay. I'll go on ahead then." He quickly went upstairs to find a bed.
Rin was left to pick up Illya. "Time to put you to bed princess."
"Ooof!" Rin nearly fell down at hefting up Illya. "Did you gain weight?!"
The Einzbern homunculus did not reply since she was asleep, but she did tighten her arms around Rin's neck in response. "Ack!"
Later, Shirou and Rin are in Saber's temporary room, discussing her condition.
"Like I said! I used up all my prana healing Saber's wound," said Rin. "I don't have enough right now to keep her stable in this world. It's also quite strange that the mana everywhere here is so light compared to our dimension. The fact that I became her Master did help immensely with stopping her from dying, but it's not nearly enough to stop her from fading."
"But there has to be something we could do!" Shirou slammed his fist on the wall. The jumbled up memories of Saber overlapping themselves with the woman on the bed before him. "I'm not going to lose Saber!" he shouted. "...not again," in a small whisper.
"…It's okay, Shirou," said Saber weakly. She had regained consciousness only a few minutes ago after laying her on the bed. "I'm glad that I'll at least be able to say goodbye to you this time." The King of Knights had surprisingly recognized that Archer was Shirou when she woke up.
"No, …no, it's not okay," answered Shirou. The immense guilt he felt had been tearing at him slowly, when he remembered what he had done to her. How he had took the knife in his arm and brought it down on her chest as he was straddled on top of her.
He knelt beside her and took her hands in his. "Please Saber… please don't leave me."
Saber could only smile at him sadly.
Rin was looking at the two of them unamusedly. "If the two of you are quite done, I'd like to get started on fixing our prana situation."
"Eh…?" the two in question muttered.
Rin sighed and began to explain. "I just said I lacked the prana needed to help Saber right now. That doesn't mean there isn't anything we could do to fix that." She stood in her patented lecture pose and continued, "Saber and I require prana to keep herself grounded in this world. Since Saber will never willfully devour humans for their prana, she can only sustain herself from the prana she has left and my own reserves, which are almost completely depleted. That is unless I try to use a command spell to force her to do so."
"Rin!" growled Saber.
"I know, I know. That is something I would never ask you to do," answered Rin. "So that only leaves us with one other option." She was looking at both Shirou and Saber, waiting for them to realize what she was implying.
Both of their faces went red at the same time as the idea of what the last option was.
"Just so you two know, this is the only plan I have left. Shirou is also the only one who has plenty of prana to spare since we started the experiment. There isn't anything else I can think of," Rin mumbled with her cheeks slightly red as well.
Shirou was having trouble wrapping his head around what was happening right now. How was he going to explain this to Sakura? But memories of his time with Saber and Rin also keep stirring his already confused thoughts.
It felt like he had been in a situation like this once before already.
There were other memories as well. Like a time when both he, Rin and Saber went out for a date, going to the batting cages, shopping, having a picnic out in a park. Then… there was also that final farewell from Saber after she had cut down the corrupted Holy Grail with Excalibur. How much sadness he felt at that. Just how much the pain of losing her had caused him that day.
"Saber. Rin," called Shirou. "Please let's do this. If this will help Saber stay with us then I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to do so." He answered with complete seriousness.
Back at Mr. Chen's home, a slightly worried Sakura had been cooking up a storm due to their unexpected company delaying them and further increasing the number of mouths to feed. Her ability to juggle various work in the kitchen was really quite something.
"Rider? How are our…guests doing?" said Sakura, who was a bit unsure how to refer to their captives. Although... she still felt kinda like a kidnapper after having asked that line.
"They are fine. I have them tightly bound together in this house's basement except for the one who looked to be their leader," answered the Servant. She was keeping watch near the windows for any signs of them being followed from their earlier escape. "Him, I kept in one of the rooms."
"That's good," sighed Sakura in relief. "I hope Neesan won't be too mad at not having the food ready yet when they get back. It's already late and I haven't finished cooking everything yet!" she complained to herself.
She then just noticed just how late it was and how strange that her sister and their group aren't back yet. It was understandable, given that dimension crossing was almost next to impossible and that expecting quick results would be entirely unreasonable. But, then again, her sister did say that it would only be a test and that they would make it in back in time for dinner, if not earlier.
"Do you think something might have happened to them, Rider?" asked Sakura. She was really starting to get worried.
"That is a possibility, considering they are attempting to test the Second Magic."
Sakura frowned slightly at the Servant's answer. She couldn't help but think of how using magecraft always put magi so close to death every time they use it.
Seeing this, Rider sighed and said "Sakura, your sister is a first rate magus. I'm sure she woul-,"
All of a sudden Rider paused and stiffened.
The Servant took out her daggers and readied herself in a combat stance. "Sakura! I sense the presence of two other Servants coming closer," she said.
"W-what?!" cried Sakura. "That's not possible, you're the only remaining Servant left in the war!"
Rider didn't bother on making an explanation and only said, "Please get behind me."
Sakura did as she was told and prepared herself for what may come. Rider however, slowly relaxed her stance while still holding her weapon. She seemed somewhat puzzled.
"It appears something did go wrong with your sister's experiment," announced Rider as she disarmed herself.
Worried at what that could mean, Sakura quickly rushed to the front door. She opened it to suddenly come face to chest of a Servant she recalled was her sister's during the Holy Grail War.
"U-uhmm… excuse me! I'm so sorry for suddenly charging into you!" she apologized quickly and lowered her head at him.
The person in front of her could only stand and stare at her bowing form. She remembered that it was also her fault that caused the Servant's death. It wouldn't be weird for the Servant to hold a grudge against her.
"I-I'm also sorry for trying to absorb you from earlier before and trying to kill your Master! I know asking for forgiveness after everything I've done is unreasonable but please forgive me!" said Sakura to the man in front of her. She bowed lower this time.
He just stood there for what seemed like a minute before a stifled laughter broke the tension in the air. "Pfft! Hahaha."
"Huh?" wondered Sakura. That wasn't the reaction she thought she would get. She was expecting the Servant to be angry at her, maybe even livid with murderous intent. Him laughing at her apology had definitely caught her off guard.
After controlling his laughter, he gave a familiar warm smile that she recognized. "There's really nothing for me to forgive," he said. "If anything, I should be thanking you for what you've done for me."
Sakura tilted her head and questioned slowly, "Shirou…?"
"…Yeah," he answered. "I'm home, Sakura."
Shirou was anxious about what Sakura would say to his current appearance. He didn't know how he was going to explain this her. It would devastate him if she rejected him because of how different he looked. Not to mention, what she would do once she finds out about the other things he did earlier.
Sakura embraced him tightly and said "Welcome back! Senpai!" Her smiling face showed just how glad she was that he had finally returned.
After seeing this reaction from Sakura, her Senpai decided that he can think of how to explain things later, and for now, returned his lover's embrace.
"Ehem!" said a mildly irritated voice behind Shirou. "Can you two not do this in front of the entrance? I'd really like to get something to eat already and it's getting pretty cold out here."
Both Shirou and Sakura looked to see Rin, Illya and Saber waiting outside for them to clear away from the door. All of them were staring at the couple unamused at being forgotten.
The two lovers were quick to separate and began to blush.
"E-everyone, please come in. I'll have all the food ready soon," said Sakura. Too embarrassed to ask any further questions, she ran back to the kitchen in escape to have the delicious meals prepared.
In place of Sakura, Rider came over and said, "Welcome back everyone. It's good to see you're all well..., including you Saber."
"Yes, I thank you for taking care of Shirou in my absence," replied Saber with a small bow at Rider. "Had it not been for you, I'm sure he would have likely gotten himself killed before the Holy Grail War ended."
"Think nothing of it. I merely followed my Master's orders."
Everyone else greeted Rider back as well and began to take a seat in the living room area of the house. They all settled in nicely around Mr. Chen's rather large coffee table. Drinks have been prepared for everyone.
"So…," Rider began. "May I ask what went wrong?"
Rin let out a rather large sigh and was massaging her temple with her hand.
"A lot of things went wrong," she answered. "The experiment was a bust, and further attempts at crossing back to our dimension using the Jeweled Sword is now useless. The connection has been severed because our anchor, No… our anchors were pulled to our side and we have no likely way of finding another way to get back."
Everyone in the room was silent at that statement. They were trying to contemplate what that just means for them, unable to go back to their original dimension.
"I don't think it's all that bad really," said Illya who was somehow smiling happily at their predicament. "Aside from our encounter with those monsters earlier, this world looks like it could be a lot of fun! Why don't we just live here?"
"You're only saying that because of how good you got it from the failed test!" responded Rin. "And stop clinging to Shirou already!"
"I don't wanna," rejected the little homunculus, who was happily hugging her adopted brother. "Oniichan is mine now! What's wrong with playing with MY Servant?" she said so smugly. "Besides, you already have Saber, and haven't you've always wanted her as your Servant, right?"
"Guh?!" Rin couldn't Illya's words. It was true that she had always wanted the strongest class Servant since before the 5th Holy Grail War even started. But seeing her Archer in the hands of Illyasiviel von Einzbern was really not something she could stand.
"Now, now Illya," said Shirou. "You shouldn't tease Rin like that. If it wasn't for her test, you wouldn't even be able to live past a year or age normally now." Even though he was scolding her, he also had a happy look on his face. Probably from knowing that his adopted sister will actually be able to live a normal life, now that her fatal faults in her homunculus design had been healed by Avalon.
Illya pouted at his words. "You're supposed to take the side of your Master, Shirou."
"I am. I just don't want you growing up too spoiled."
"Aren't big brothers supposed to spoil their little sisters?"
Shirou smiled teasingly at her and said, "Oho? Then I suppose it's alright for me to never spoil you then, since you are older than me, right? Oneesan?"
"Ack!" gulped Illya. "Alright! Alright! I understand. I'll stop rubbing it in Rin's face," she conceded defeat. "Just don't ever call me that. It sounds so wrong for some reason."
Her Servant complied with her request. It looked like his personality had changed somewhat along with his appearance. It seems Archer's wit had become flawlessly ingrained into him.
"I still can't believe this little brat is older than me," said Rin.
"Can we talk about something else other than my age, please?" huffed Illya. "Everyone knows it's not proper to discuss a lady's age."
"Yes, I too think it would be best if we proceeded with explaining about what exactly happened," agreed the stoic Saber. "It is important that we not get derailed from discussing the important points of what happened." She sat with a regal air around her as she was sipping her tea quietly.
Everyone around her agreed with her opinion and was about to continue their discussion, before Shirou remembered and accidentally said an important fact.
"Oh, that's right," as he pounded his left palm with his right fist. "Saber actually stopped aging thanks to Avalon's powers, so she would in fact know what it feels like to look younger than she actually is!"
"Pffft!" Saber choked on what little tea she had been sipping on. "S-Shirou! *cough* *cough* Please! We are trying to have a serious discussion here!" she declared angrily. Her face, a mixture of promise between death and embarrassment if he dared to continue.
"Y-Yeah. Sorry, my bad."
The cold looks all the other girls were giving Saber told her that they now knew why she had chosen to steer the conversation back on track. Her credibility had been totally compromised.
"Leaving aside the mystery of a certain someone's age," said Rin, to which Saber turned redder in response. "The fact that the positive points of the failed test is also the reason why it failed in the first place should be said so clearly." The first rate magus declared.
"Saber is alive, Illya will actually be able to live to old age, and my arm won't accidentally try to kill me anymore," said Shirou. "Honestly, I don't think I could ever think of any of it to be a bad thing."
"I'm not arguing against the results. I would just like it to be clear to everyone. The reason why Saber is here is because, just as you said earlier, that you had unknowingly had her Avalon inside of you all this time since your father saved you with it a long time ago. Her sheath also had connected herself to us when I tried to find our dimension, which pulled her to our side when I was trying to find a connection to Archer in the Throne of Heroes. But since we forgot that Illya was a vessel of the Holy Grail, and also had Archer's spirit absorbed into her, it added to the strength of the spell pulling to our side. The added side effect of healing Illya was probably from that combination of her channeling prana through Shirou and Avalon's reaction to Saber."
"The fact that both you and Illya are still classified as Masters by the Grail System might have been the reason why I and Saber have been summoned as your Servants as well," added Shirou.
"I guess that really shouldn't have been too surprising," said Rin as she looked closer at the command spells on her hand. "Sakura's command spells were all given back to her when we first arrived here, and the fact that we have knowledge regarding this world's language can be attributed to the lingering effects of the system still in place."
With the explanation out of the way, it looks like everyone has come into terms with what had occurred. Still, it didn't change the fact that they were now stuck in a foreign world and are currently freeloading without willful permission from a local. They also had no forms of identification and documentation to speak of, if they were ever questioned by the authorities of this world, which was very important if they were to continue living here. In order to for them to fix all of that, they would have to heavily rely on hypnotism. That and get some money… a lot of money.
Rin sighed, "Sweat, blood, prana, and money always fuels magecraft as they say."
"Uuuh… I think that last part might be wrong, Rin," said Illya.
"What are you talking about? Can't you feel your bank account going down every time you use your magecraft?"
Illyasviel and everyone else just looked at her in a deadpan. "No…, no I can't."
"Tsk! Probably because the Einzberns always had one of the biggest bank accounts in the world of Thaumaturgy. Similar to how you couldn't tell the difference if you took out a grain of sand out of a desert."
'That is definitely not the case!' shouted everyone else's mind in unison.
"Whatever, I'm gonna go help out Sakura," said Rin. She stood up and started walking in the direction of the kitchen but stopped when she saw a sack of something propped against the wall.
Curious, she asked, "Hey Rider, what's this sack for?"
Upon finally remembering what happened earlier, Rider decided to get everyone up to speed with what happened with their group.
"We decided to bring the thieves with us since we had no idea what to do with them," said Rider.
Rin was scarily silent as she was lost in her own thoughts at the information of their presence and existence of magecraft being found out. Shirou and Saber seems to be somewhat uneasy as well, considering they too have been given the knowledge of ending the existence of any normal humans who become aware of them. Illya didn't seem bothered by it at all though.
"Really," said Rin in irritation. "This is really a nasty problem right now. We don't know if this world has a Mage Association or the like. Being found out like this, could end up getting us killed. If this world has anything like Enforcers or Executioners, it would be better to dispose of them while we still can."
"Rin… you can't be serious?" asked Shirou.
Rin looked back at him in cold calmness. "I am," she said. "You should know full well how this could turn out, not only for us, but for any other innocent bystanders that could get caught up in our mess."
"But we can't know for sure that will happen here in this world!" shouted Shirou.
It looked like Saber agreed with him as well.
Rin looked at him in complete seriousness and said, "Can you be sure it wouldn't? Are you willing to bet our lives on it?"
Shirou was silent at that. Before, he might have been willing to risk it… but now? He had already betrayed his ideals for Sakura, and now he also had to consider Rin, Saber, Illya and Rider as well. Even though they were Servants and Magi, that didn't mean they were invincible. Who knew how much danger was in this world.
"…No," he finally answered, after a while.
Rin nodded her head in response. "It's not like I want to do this anymore than you do Shirou. If I thought we could modify their memories without risk, I would do just that, but were not entirely sure these people can't break out of it. We're already taking a big risk with Mr. Chen here, and it's not like we'll be killing innocent people here."
That was true. From what they heard from Rider, these people were planning on stealing from more than one shop. They had also hurt their esteemed host and would have tried to do so with Sakura as well, had Rider not intervened. Risking their lives for a bunch of thieves would be asking too much.
"What did they even steal anyway?" asked Illya.
"We didn't have time to check, but I believe the shop was selling something called Dust," answered Rider.
Rin was not pleased with that and tried to open the sack of loot "Geez, it's probably a bunch of medicine that they we-,"Her voice trailed off and was lost. She was slack-jawed upon discovering the contents of the sack.
After what seemed like a minute of her staring into the sack, Saber finally asked, "Rin? Are you okay?"
"RIDER!" she shouted so suddenly.
"Y-yes?!" stuttered Rider, surprised at the sudden eruption of emotion from Rin.
"Are there any more sacks of this?!" she asked pointing to the sack in her iron grip hand.
"Uh… I believe there were a few more that each of the thieves were carrying, but we left all of them aside from that one, since the thief who had it fell unconscious while he was still holding on to it."
"What?!" said Rin, as she had her hands pressed together tightly around Rider's shoulders. "How many?! How many of them were there?! TELL MEEEE!" she demanded, as she shook Rider very intensely, as if shaking the Servant harder would get her answers faster.
"O-Oi! Rin! Get a hold of yourself!" said Shirou. Everyone else was now trying to separate the maddened Master from the Servant. It was surprising how much strength she had in her grip considering she wasn't even a Servant. It almost seemed like she was using reinforcement.
After finally separating Rin from poor Rider and calming her down, Illya asked her gently, "So what's in the sack that you finally lost your mind, Rin?" Well..., what she probably thought was her being gentle.
It was clear to everyone that the sack was probably very precious based on the reaction it caused from the usually practical and logical magus. Not to mention that Rin still had her arms wrapped in a vice like grip around it as if her baby was going to get stolen if she loosened her hold on it for even a second. ...Yes, it was probably very very important to her.
Seeing the worried look everyone was giving her, Rin finally relented her grip and took out a small piece of what was inside the all-important sack. "This-," she indicated to the yellow gem in her fingers, "-crystal gem is one of the many that fill this entire sack. Not only that, but each of these gems are already filled with prana," she said delightedly with zealous passion. "The prana feels a little weird and somewhat raw but it's still a good amount of it. I can't even put enough of my prana into these many gems in my lifetime!"
The entire room was left stunned at that.
"I feel like I'm dreaming," Rin said, as she was slowly caressing the sack of gems like a precious pet, a look of ecstasy on her face. "This world is so wonderful! Let's stay here forever!" She finally declared something completely unreasonable for the wrong reasons.
After regaining her composure from earlier's debacle, Rin went to have a chat with the so called leader of their prisoners. Rider had him separate from his lackeys. While he was tied to a chair in Mr. Chen's study, his friends were all holed up in the basement.
Accompanying Rin was Rider. Saber and Illya went to check up on the prisoners in the basement. While Shirou, wanted to help out Sakura with the cooking duties to help speed things up from the delay.
Rin opened up the room to the study to find a certain "Master Criminal" sitting tightly bound to a chair that has fallen on its side. He was still squirming in the seat trying to loosen his binds while mumbling what could only be curses through his gagged mouth, before he finally noticed that someone had entered the room.
Rin couldn't help but smirk.
"Looks like someone was trying hard to escape."
She moved to take a seat and positioned it in front of her prisoner. The twin-tailed princess took her time sitting herself comfortably in front of Torchwick as he could only glare at her in annoyance.
"Hmmm…," hummed Rin. "I guess if we aren't face to face we won't be able to talk properly like this," she said in an amused tone. It was clear that she was enjoying taking her time in agonizing the man in front of her.
Torchwick was entirely unamused at her performance. He had been in that position for hours after he had tried smashing some part of the chair to loosen his bonds. It didn't work. The chair, was to his annoyance, made from sturdier stuff than what movies used.
"Rider, can you please help our guest?" the girl in front of him asked.
The sultry beauty that had kicked his ass earlier, came over and grabbed the chair with one hand and lifted it upright with ease… while he was still stuck to it. That certainly caused him to raise an eyebrow. The gag on his mouth was also finally removed.
"Gah!" he breathed. "Don't you people know how to treat a gentleman right?" He was complaining while moving around his jaw to stretch the muscles.
"I don't believe a true gentleman would ever be caught stealing," replied Rin, passively. "That goes the same for hurting women and the elderly." She smiled at him but he could tell that her eyes weren't smiling at all. Everyone would probably think how beautiful her smile is, but to him, it was sending chills down his spine.
In total disregard of his uneasiness, he continued to act cocky and asked "So why am I not in a prison cell right now? Got a personal grudge against me or are you one of those out to dispense their own brand of justice thing?"
Rin was humming to herself in thought at his question.
"We're not any of those really," she answered, which elicited a puzzled look from Torchwick. "I suppose you can say that you were just at the wrong place at the wrong time."
"Hey, hey, hey, that sounds like something a bad guy would say right before he kills off someone," he said jokingly.
The silent pause in the room caused him to look again once more at his captors.
The girl in front of him was no longer smiling. Her face only held that of a calm mask that only quietly looked at him. Aside from moving his chair earlier, the woman beside her had stood still at the exact same spot without even a single muscle twitch. You could mistake her for a statue.
For the first time since his capture, Roman Torchwick paled upon realizing that they weren't denying what he had just said.
"L-Ladies, it's rude not to laugh at someone's jokes," he stammered out.
"...Yeah, If only it was a joke." The cold mask she had on, never leaving her face, as Rin said so.
Roman couldn't believe what he was hearing. These people were seriously planning on killing him. He didn't even know what he did wrong. Well, he did kinda know what he was doing was wrong, but from what he had gathered, the robbery wasn't even the reason they were going to execute him for.
He couldn't understand how this could be happening to him right now!
His job should have been simple. Hit up and steal as many Dust as he can take from the entire City of Vale. No muss and no fuss. Aside from a minor setback in the beginning, everything else had been going smoothly without too much problems with any of the authorities. But now…
...He was going to die.
"Now let's calm down here girls," said Torchwick. His mind was racing trying to think of anything to get out of this alive. "We don't want to do anything drastic that we can never take back, right?"
The two ladies in front of him seemed to have already decided his fate. He saw no reaction from them that could even give him a hint that they were just bluffing.
"Look! Just tell me what you want I'm sure I can get it for you," he was now panicking. "I'm a big time criminal here and I've got connections you can use! I'm sure we can work something out." The people in front of him didn't seemed interested. "If you get rid of me, the White Fang will certainly hunt you down!" He had resorted to threatening them.
"Rider," called Rin.
The long purple haired woman had seemingly materialized a nail-like dagger in her hand. It didn't take a genius to know what she was going to use it for.
"Dammit! Dammit! I'll do anything you want! Please just don't kill me!" he finally started begging.
It didn't seem to be working as well so he did the only thing he could do and resorted to complaining about his life in resignation.
"To think stealing all that Dust for the White Fang was going to land me here," he sighed. "I guess this is it huh? All that karma has finally come back to bite Roman Torchwick, and all I can think of is how women have been the bane of my existence." He closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable.
He waited and waited, but after a while, he opened up an eye to check if his death was still coming.
"…You… what did you say just now?" asked the smaller girl in front of him. Her cold look from before was now replaced by a look of a hunter that's caught the scent of a prey.
"Uuuh… That women are the bane of-,"
"Not that! The one about you saying something about Dust!"
"Oh, that," he replied perplexed. "I've been given orders to steal Dust all over the entire city with the help of the White Fang. We only just started operations, but we have gotten quite the load in that short amount of time. If I had enough time, I'm sure we would have had the largest amount of stolen Dust any criminal would have ever seen." He couldn't help but state the last part with pride.
The woman in front of him frowned at that. "When you say 'Dust,' you're talking about this thing, right?" And out of her pocket a single yellow gem was in between her fingers.
Torchwick looked at her suspiciously. "Yeah, that's a Dust crystal. How in the world do you not know what Dust is?"
The girl didn't bother answering him and turned her back on him to think about the new information she had just received. She had her hand on her chin and seemed to be thinking really hard, and all the while muttering something to herself.
After a while, the girl turned back to face him with a scheming smile on her face.
"Well… It looks like we do have something to discuss now, Mr. Torchtick," she said.
"It's Torchwick!" he retorted.
"Whatever," she said lazily. "The important thing is I think I might have found a way for you to get out of this alive," came the sweet sound of the devil's voice. "You mentioned you were willing to do anything, correct?"
Roman couldn't believe his luck. It looked he might not die today at all. If he played his cards right, he could probably trick them into letting him go. For that chance, he was willing to say whatever it was they wanted.
"Become our slave for all eternity."
Okaaay, maybe agreeing to say whatever they wanted to hear was a bit too broad. That line just now seemed something out of a devil's hand manual.
"I beg your pardon?" He could only think that he might have heard wrong.
"I guess what I said was wrong," answered Rin, to Torchwick's relief. "You'll only be a slave until we declare your services otherwise unneeded," she corrected.
Roman stared at her in disbelief.
"You're joking, ...right?"
"Would you rather die right now then?"
"Your humble slave, Roman Torchwick, thanks his kind masters for sparing his life," said the shameless criminal eloquently.
Rider finally moved from her spot and came next to Rin and asked, "Is this really alright?"
"Yeah," she answered. "They may prove useful in solving some of the problems we have right now."
"No, I mean surely you know this poor excuse of a man will betray us as soon he has chance to."
"I'm right here you know?" stated Torchwick.
"You don't have to worry. If my theory is correct, we shouldn't have any problems binding him and the rest to us with a Geis scroll. This no-good so called 'Master Criminal' will have no choice but to obey us."
Rider looked at her carefully, and only saw complete confidence. So she could only nod her consent.
"Again. I'm right here," repeated Torchwick. "You guys are saying some pretty weird stuff right now and it's getting a little bit scary."
Rin turned to face him once more. A businessman's smile plastered over her face. You can pretty much tell she's up to something bad for him.
"Oh, don't worry about that. We were just talking about having you sign a contract to ensure your loyalty. It's no big deal really. All you and the rest of your buddies have to do is agree to sign it and we have a done deal."
Somehow, Roman had the feeling it wasn't going to be as simple as what she made it out to be. But he wasn't planning on honoring his deal anyway so nothing would really change even if they did have him sign something on a piece of paper.
Looks like escaping was going to be easier than he thought. The only thing they had to prevent his escape was having a contract stop him. He was a criminal, breaking a contract is nothing to him. What were they gonna do, sic their lawyers at him?
After Rin had the contract written up, she and Rider escorted the still bound Torchwick to the basement where the rest of his henchmen were held.
"Uuuwaaah…" came an excited voice from inside the room.
Together, Roman, Rin, and Rider, found themselves dumbstruck upon watching an excitable young silvery-white haired girl, who looked like she was stroking one of the female prisoner's behind.
"Look! Look, Rin!" she said happily. "It's so soft and warm!" Illya continued to move her hands in a stroking motion, which caused the female prisoner to fidget and blush against her binds.
"Illyasviel!" shouted Rin. "W-What do you think you're doing?!" She questioned her as she grabbed the small homunculus away from the prisoner. Rin also found Saber just standing on guard nearby and asked her, "How can you allow this to happen?!"
"What?" she said, puzzled.
"What are you talking about, Rin?" asked Illya who was still held in the Jewelcraft user's arms. "I was just stroking her tail. I don't see anything wrong with that."
"How can you not see anything wrong wi-," Rin froze for a moment. "…Come again?"
"I said I was just stroking her tail."
"… Her… tail? She has a tail?"
"Yeah," nodded Illya. "She has a really fluffy fox tail." A very pleased look was present on her face at saying so.
Curious, Rin took a look herself and found that the prisoner did indeed have a fox's tail. A completely real tail, unlike the animal cosplayers they know of. Now that she looked at all of them, she noticed that some were sporting animal ears as well.
"Don't tell me you guys haven't seen a Faunus before?" said Roman after seeing the surprising reaction from his captors.
His captors looked at him and didn't seem to recognize the word he just said.
"Faunus..., you know. People that have physical animal traits… the other people besides us humans that we share the world with," he tried to see if that would jolt these hicks of their memories.
The silence pretty much shot down that idea.
"Unbelievable…" he sighed.
"What is going on, Rin?" queried Saber. The appearance of Roman here seemed out of place for what they had discussed earlier. "Are you planning on doing it all at once here?"
"No. There's been a change of plans," said Rin.
That was good. Saber wasn't looking forward to killing unarmed prisoners but she did understand the need to do so. Still… her knight's honor would be tarnished for doing such a deed. She was inwardly glad at the change.
"Yay! Does that mean I get to keep them?" cheered Illya.
"Techinically, were going to be binding them to us in servitude with a Geis scroll. But I suppose you could say that."
"Rin, are you sure about this?" asked Saber doubtfully. "They are not even magi. I don't think a Geis scroll could work on them."
Rin crossed her arms and explained to them some of the things she found out about Dust from Roman, and questioning the now awake Mr. Chen, courtesy of the smell from Sakura and Shirou's cooking.
"It seems like there's a lot more to the people here than we thought," said Rin. "We'll need to find out more about Dust and Aura later but for now, I believe the Geis scroll should be able to work on them."
She was looking at the prisoners they held, staring a bit longer at the all of them aside from the human. "Although… I wouldn't really mind if some of them were to refuse," she stated. "Think of what I could learn from dissecting any one of them, including that Torchcreep guy."
The Faunus seems to have heard her because they started struggling hard against the ropes that tied them to the steel beams of the basement. Roman, who was tied together with them after he arrived, didn't have ears that could hear as well as his comrades so he was left confused at their desperate attempts at breaking free.
Seeing the prisoners become slightly panicked, Saber came over and tried to alleviate their concerns. "Please calm down," she said. "I'm sure Rin wasn't being serious. She is not the type of person to do something like that." Thanks to her demeanor and charm, it looked like she was able to calm them down somewhat. "You need not fear such barbaric methods from us."
Unaware of the commotion she was causing, Rin whispered to herself, "I wonder how much the Mage Association would have paid me for each Faunus they could dissect?"
And once more, the Faunus started struggling harder, more than ever.
Saber could only sigh in defeat at her Master's wonderful personality.
When Rin finally went over to the prisoners, aside from a very visible gulp from all of them, they sat quietly shivering in fear.
It was like a predator that appeared before his prey. The first one to move would be the first one to get eaten.
Looks like the Faunus really did have a lot in common with animals.
Rin stood before them in a commanding pose and said to them, "Look, I'm going to make you guys the same offer I gave your boss here," she paused to think about how to best explain it in a short, clear, and concise manner.
"Join us, or die."
She wasn't sure if she nailed it right but at least her explanation was pretty short.
The blank stares Rin was getting from everyone including her friends might have gave her a feeling that she may have missed her mark.
Saber coughed to get Rin's attention. "Could you not have phrased that differently, Rin?"
"What? I just wanted to get straight to the point," said Rin seriously.
"It might be better to tell them what exactly your offer entails."
"… Fine," agreed Rin, albeit reluctantly. She went into lecture mode and started by saying, "All of you will be given a magical contract called a Geis scroll to sign, which will ensure that you will remain loyal for the duration of your servitude to me and my comrades without you trying to betray or purposely cause us serious harm, that includes keeping all information we deem important regarding us as a secret. The duration will be determined for as long as I or my comrades see fit that your services are required. You will follow all our orders to the best of your abilities. If should you try and break any of the oaths that I have stated in the contract, the curse will take effect and cause you intense pain, possibly even cause death depending on the severity of your fault."
Upon finishing her explanation, Rin looked to see that Roman and the Faunus were looking at her like she was crazy.
"Any questions?"
Since the Faunus were still gagged, only Roman could talk. "Magical contract and a curse…? What are you, some kind of witch?"
"I'm not a witch," answered Rin. "...Are there witches here?"
"No! Of course not. There's no such thing as witches, and that goes the same for magic and curses. Who would believe in such things?!"
Rin nodded her head at him. "Good. It looks like magecraft isn't known here or at least not openly."
Taking out what appeared to be a scroll of vellum, Rin showed it in front of Torchwick.
"Can you read this contract I made?"
Roman took a look at the piece of paper in front of him. All he saw was gibberish that was completely garbage to him.
"What is this? It's completely unreadable. There isn't even any sort of alphabet on here and looks just like a bunch of squiggly lines all over the place."
Rin let out a tired sigh. "Looks like I was right about needing a magic crest." She went and put away the piece of paper in place of a marker in her hand. "I'm going to be writing a rune on you that should be able to fix this," she said and took Roman's forearm and began painting a weird alphabet that he didn't recognize.
"I really hope this washes off cleanly," said Roman.
"Oh, don't worry. That is going to be permanent but won't really be visible to anyone after were done. It will only show up whenever the curse is active."
"Terrific…," claimed Roman sarcastically.
"Now can you read this?" Rin held the contract once more in front of him.
Roman rolled his eyes and looked again. To his surprise, the contract was actually quite legible now. He couldn't believe it. They must have switched it when she was writing that thing in his arm.
"That's some parlour trick you got there. I'm sure you'd be a hit with the kids at parties."
Rin only smiled at his quip. She freed his right hand, held out a pen to him and said, "All you need to do is sign."
Roman took the pen offered to him and said while signing, "I feel like I'm selling my soul here."
"That's because you are," said Illya. The little girl was smiling innocently at him, but for some reason, he felt more anxious about her than dealing with the one called Rin.
"Are we done here?" asked Roman. "These ropes are starting to chafe me pretty bad."
"Almost," said Rin as she took out a small knife.
Roman panicked inwardly at the thought that maybe she had changed her mind about killing him. That was until he saw her make a small cut on her finger and began to drip her blood on the contract, which glowed blue and became brighter with each drop.
The rune on Roman's arm started to glow a calm blue as well before completely vanishing. He turned his arm around twice, checking all over for how that happened.
"Oookay… I admit. That was some trick you did there," he said.
"Oh, we're not done yet." The twin-tailed girl took the knife to cut the rope tying him and brought out a familiar cane that could only have been his. "I was told that this is able to use Dust," she said while holding the cane in her right hand before tossing it at him. "Why don't you show us how it works?" a seemingly innocent smile on her face.
Roman couldn't believe his luck.
Here was his chance to get out of here. The cane in his hand was still fully loaded, and the girl that gave it to him was right in front of him, far enough from the others for them to be able to help her in time.
"A demonstration? Sure, why not?" he said. "See the bottom tip of this cane?" Pointing said tip right at the girl's temple.
Rin continued to smile amusedly at him and nodded.
"It's a gun barrel!" declared Roman. A small scope popped up and was aimed directly at Rin.
"Now nobody move or the girl ge-," before Roman could finish his cliché line, an intense pain was coming from his chest, causing him to collapse on the floor.
"Aaahh!" he shouted, while clutching his chest tightly. A searing pain was also present on his forearm. The rune that had vanished earlier had now appeared, and was glowing and pulsing an intense red.
"Oh my! Aren't you going to finish the demonstration Mr. Torchsick?" asked the girl with an evil smile at him.
"W-W-what's going…on!" he heaved and demanded. "What… did you do… to me?!" It felt like his heart was being crushed.
"Nothing," answered Rin in fake denial. "Weren't you the one who tried to break the contract just now?" she asked innocently.
"Gah!" struggled Torchwick. He could see that none of her other comrades seemed surprised at his situation. Almost as if they were already expecting this to happen.
It finally dawned at him that they really did put a curse on him!
"I'm sure it'll pass soon,"stated Rin. "Although, it might have been different had you actually tried to shoot me."
All of the other people in the room could only watch as Roman continued to struggle and twitch at the intense pain that was assaulting him. The woman in front of him decided to ignore his current predicament to address his group instead.
She beamed a smile at the rest of her victims and said enthusiastically, "Now, let's get the rest of you all signed up!"
A/N:
I was finally able to get out this chapter. So much stuff had to be done and so much other stuff got in the way. The heat was killing me even though I was just sitting down in my room with 2 fans on me for 2 damned weeks.
I didn't really get as far as I wanted to in this chapter but If I delay any longer, who knows how long before I have another chance to do so. That means next chapter will mean the story won't move forward in time at all. Probably time for dinner, actually.
Please read and review so I can improve.
Also, for updates please go to my profile since I do make announcements on the status of my progress. If I was ever gonna abandon, delay or unable to continue fanfiction writing, I will be sure to post something there so people don't have to keep waiting on my story. That is only if I don't die or something.
P.S.
I have changed the rating to T. I'll be sure to change it if I ever write something in the future that would require an M rating.