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

This Cannot End Well

Chapter 1

"…so, let me get this straight," Sakura began, speaking with Rin from around the world over Skype. "According to the Wizard Marshal's monitors, some kid from another timeline somehow managed to use a Kaleidostick. Something that's supposed to be impossible, because a) the Kaleidostick's only supposed to work on girls, and b) the Kaleidostick's meant to allow its user to use their alternative selves' abilities, not facilitate trans-dimensional travel. Oh, and apparently, they travelled to this – my – timeline, in particular. Am I right so far?"

"Pretty much, yes." Rin said with a nod. "Though you might have mixed up the order of events in your summation."

"And now we have to go find this kid and keep them from causing a mess." Sakura said, shrugging at Rin's remarks. "Or more likely, keep the Kaleidostick from causing a mess. Because you know…Kaleidostick."

"Well, yes." Rin said with a sideways cough. "That, and I'm actually the one who the Wizard Marshal asked to fix this, I just thought if I could ask for your help."

"…you are so lucky you're my twin sister." Sakura said with a smirk.

"Twin…?" Rin breathlessly echoed.

Sakura winked, and Rin sniffed dryly. "If only…" she said before coughing again. "Anyway…probably not the best time or place but…I have to ask: bad experience with the Kaleidostick?"

Sakura's expression turned sour. "Do you have to ask?" she asked.

"…Magical Girl Kaleido Ruby."

"…Masked Rider Kaleido Ruby."

"…seriously?"

"Seriously."

"That thing is a menace." Rin hissed. "I don't know much less understand why the Wizard Marshal even made that thing in the first place, nor why he didn't just disassemble it afterward. I even sometimes wonder if we can't just melt the damn thing down once and for all."

"I know, right?" Sakura agreed vehemently. "And let me guess, when you ask him, he never gives a straight answer."

"You actually asked?" Rin asked in surprise.

"No, but I'm pretty sure that's what happened when you asked."

"…true."

Sakura made a sound of disgust. "Little big sister once tried to get rid of the Kaleidostick, you know." She said. "Damn thing was practically indestructible. Nothing she did would work. She tried burning it, melting it, freezing it, hell, she even tried eating it. At one point, she just poured acid all over it, and all she managed to do was melt the ground around it."

"What kind of acid did she use?"

"Eh…hydrochloric and nitric acid, if I remember right." Sakura said. "Oh, and my entire stock of aqua regia at the time."

"Aqua regia's just a combination of the first two acids…" Rin began only to trail off. "…okay, yeah, that's pretty academic. Anyway, back to the topic at hand…will you help?"

"Of course I will." Sakura said with a roll of her eyes.

"Great, I'll be heading over as soon as possible." Rin said with a nod. "I understand you're in Tokyo right now. Well, my flight's in about…five hours, and then it's around twelve hours to Fuyuki so…no rush. I'll just see you there."

"Likewise." Sakura said with a smile. "Safe travels, Rin."

"You too." Rin said with a smile, and then ended the call. Sakura sighed as she pushed her chair back, looking up at the ceiling.

"…a Kaleidostick, eh?" she murmured before sighing again, and shaking her head. Then getting up from her chair, she went to look for Little Rin. "Little big sister, something's come up that you need to hear."

As it was, it wasn't until late the following day that Rin arrived, taking a taxi to Fuyuki City from the town of Mashiki, which had the closest international airport, Kumamoto Airport. "The more things change," Rin thought as she regarded the Tohsaka property through the wrought iron gates. "The more they stay the same."

Quickly ringing the doorbell, she didn't have to wait long before the front door opened, Sakura practically running to open the gates to let Rin in. "It's good to see you again!" she said, pulling Rin into a quick hug. "How long has it been?"

"A year, plus-minus a few months." Rin said, before looking around. "Where's…um, little big sister?"

"Hey!" Little Rin greeted, popping into tangibility in mid-air to pounce on Rin's shoulders. "Nice to see you again! How are you?"

"Fine…until you jumped on my back."

"Humph!" Little Rin scoffed. "You need to exercise some more, if you can't take me piggyback riding."

"Anyway," Sakura said with a cough. "Shall we go inside? We can talk some more over tea, and then later we can all have sukiyaki for dinner."

"Sukiyaki…?" Rin echoed.

"Yes!" Little Rin squealed next to her ear, and causing her to wince. "Big little sister bought a lot of meat too! Two kilos, I think, and at least five different kinds of mushrooms!"

"Wow…that's…you shouldn't have." Rin said, as they walked back towards the house.

Sakura waved her off. "It's fine." She said. "Besides, despite little big sister's appetite, we don't exactly feast every night. So having a big dinner like this every once in a while isn't a problem, especially when it's to welcome family home."

"I suppose you're right." Rin said with a sigh. She took a quick look at the surrounding grounds. "Huh…this place is well-kept, even though you spend a lot of time at London."

"I have a housekeeper who checks in every week." Sakura replied. "The house gets cleaned at that time too, though of course, the workshop is off-limits. The bounded fields also make sure no one can filch things from the house, whether it's furniture, random furnishings, and books on any subject. The outside grounds also get tended around once a month, if only to keep the grass from getting too overgrown."

"You let the trees grow out, though." Rin remarked, looking out over the grounds to the few trees around the front.

"I'm not Tokiomi." Sakura replied with a shrug. "I don't have an obsession with…I don't know. A cookie-cutter home? A toy house? Whatever…"

Rin chuckled. "Yeah, I see what you mean." She said. "Good enough is, well, good enough. No need to be so…squeaky-clean if not perfect in every way, right?"

"This is a house." Sakura agreed with a nod. "A lived-in house, for all that I spend a lot of time overseas. It's supposed to look, well, alive, and not a museum exhibit or something like that."

Rin nodded back. "Well, can't argue with you there." She said. "But enough about that man. Shall we have tea, then?"

Sakura smiled, and invited Rin into the house with a gesture.

Rin had to admit, for the most part, the insides of the house were pretty much the same as its counterpart in her timeline. The biggest difference, of course, was that there were no pictures, portraits, or anything of Tokiomi or Aoi. Actually, on closer inspection, none of the family ancestors had their likeness on the walls or mantels.

Sakura, it seemed, disliked to be reminded of their existence. At least, beyond the fact that this house, the grounds it stood on, the family's control over the leylines of Fuyuki City, their wealth, and both her immense magical potential and the crest she had came from those ancestors.

But maybe that was the whole point?

As much as she'd rather not remember them, she can't ever completely escape from their shadow.

She owes as much to them as to her own choices and actions to become who and what she is today.

And…

…I guess I can't really blame her for thinking that way. Just…father, and mother alone…all the pain their choices…their mistakes…cost me…and Sakura…my Sakura…

Rin sighed, rubbing at her arm and the crest it had, before looking up as Sakura put a teacup on a saucer on the coffee table between them. A moment later, and she placed a slice of chocolate cake next to it, also on its own saucer. Then she sat down on an armchair opposite from Rin across the coffee table, Little Rin sitting on the armchair next to her, happily eating her own cake.

"Now then," Sakura began. "Shall we get down to business?"

"How very goal-oriented…" Rin teased, before taking a sip of her tea. "…well, I don't really mind. Let's stop beating around the bush for now, and get business out of the way first before wasting some time tonight, because come tomorrow, we're going to be busy."

"My thoughts exactly." Sakura said with a nod.

Rin nodded back, and then opening her carry-on bag, pulled out a file folder which she handed over the coffee table to Sakura. Sakura took it with another nod, and then opening it, quickly leafed through its contents.

"…so, we're looking for a kid between six and ten-years-old." She said after several moments. "Magical potential and other details unknown, only that they should have the former, at least enough to use the basics, to be able to use the Kaleidostick. And that they arrived in Fuyuki three nights ago."

Sakura paused, and then lifted an eyebrow. "Interesting…" she mused, taking a pencil sketch from the file and holding it in the air, that of the boy they were looking for. "…did the Wizard Marshal make this?"

"Yes." Rin replied over a mouthful of cake.

"Funny how he can pull up the picture of the kid we're looking for," Sakura dryly said. "But not their exact location at any one time."

"We do have the exact location of where he arrived." Rin pointed out. "That aside…well, the Second Magic isn't all-powerful or all-knowing. Just random chance alone can screw up scrying really badly, at least not without familiars or agents on the ground to actually maintain a lock on any subjects."

"Point," Sakura admitted. "As someone who specializes in spatial manipulation, I should have expected that. Hmm…I suppose a kid can't have gotten far, if we're lucky he might even have been picked up by the social services."

"Most likely, though," Rin sadly said. "He's hiding around somewhere in the city, scrounging for food and keeping out of trouble in the back-alleys and dumpsters."

"A chance exists he might have left the city too." Sakura said. "But, let's check the city first. It'll take some work, but I can fine-tune the monitors I have around the city to get a fix on his location. Or rather, the Kaleidostick's location."

"Huh…yeah, that should work." Rin admitted. "Hey, who knows? Maybe we might not only finish this job quickly, we could finish it without any complications."

"Don't jinx it, Rin." Sakura said, closing the file and setting it aside before taking a sip of her own tea. "Especially since the Kaleidostick's still in the picture."

Rin winced, hiding her discomfort behind cake. "I see your point." She mumbled out, Sakura just nodding before also getting started on her cake.

"Oh, hey!" Ruby greeted Sakura as the latter lifted the lead block the former was kept in, wrapped with steel chains, both the lead and the steel engraved with silver-inlaid wards. "It's been a while! How have you been?"

"Better." Sakura ground out, and Ruby made a tutting sound.

"Why so hot-tempered?" she asked, and Sakura snapped.

"You turned me into a super sentai character!" she angrily said with an accusing finger. "In public! You…you…you actually had me and…Aoi, agreeing on something! You cost me all of my friends!"

Ruby tutted again. "Isn't that a good thing?" she asked. "Getting along with your mother? And you got all your friends back in the end, right?"

Sakura snarled wordlessly, and Ruby sighed. Then noticing the other woman in the room, she scanned Rin, causing her to start and pull out the Jeweled Sword. "No funny business, or else!" she warned.

"A Jeweled Sword…hmm…scanning timelines…oh, you're that Rin." Ruby said. "Congratulations on saving your sister. Trust me, that happens so very rarely. In most timelines, she spends the rest of her life getting raped and pumping out Matou babies before she gets worn out, and fed to the worms when she can't handle being pregnant anymore. Oh, and did I mention in those timelines you usually seduce Shirou Emiya…"

Ruby trailed off as the Jeweled Sword blazed with prismatic fire, and with a single sweep, Rin cut a hole in reality which closed up just as quickly. "ENOUGH!" she roared, her face pale and her fingers holding her sword so tightly that her fingers had also turned white. "Sakura, get to it!"

Sakura tossed several bronze rings into the air, where they formed up above each other. Then they began to spin, Ruby and her prison passing through the rings and letting Sakura get her magical signature.

"Looking for another me, huh?" Ruby asked. "You really should bring me along, just in case. Then again, you do have a Jeweled Sword, but still…"

Sakura looked darkly at her. "And what?" she said. "You publicly humiliate me again? Or worse, do something that gets me and Rin worse than killed? What the hell was that just now? Do you think it's funny, taunting Rin over what mistakes she could have made?"

"Funny?" Ruby echoed in confusion. "Oh, I see! You thought I was mocking her! No, no…I wasn't mocking her at all. If anything, she's the most…respectable out of all her iterations. After all, she was the only one with the guts to do the right thing in the end, well, no, there's also your little big sister, but…out of all the versions of Rin Tohsaka to amount to anything, this Rin really was the only who actually, truly cared for her sister. The others…oh, they'll say to themselves they care, but it's all just empty words. After all, if they did care, how could they be so content playing happy family while deliberately looking away from what's happening to your counterparts?"

"…you're just trying to get me to loosen your chains, aren't you?" Sakura hissed after a moment.

Ruby sighed. "Fine, fine, so paranoid…" she said. "…then again, I can hardly blame you, considering all your experiences under Tokiomi and Kirei Kotomine. Anyway, go ahead and use my magical signature for…whatever it is you're after. And good luck, I get the feeling you're going to need it."

Sakura stayed silent, putting Ruby and her prison back in the chest, and closed it before heading to the ritual circle. She did pause next to Rin, though. "Are you alright?" she asked.

"No, I'm not!" Rin snapped, before blinking. "That was…I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry."

Little Rin took Rin's free hand, and squeezed wordlessly. Sakura nodded, before heading to and stepping inside the ritual circle. Her Azoth Dagger flashed as she cut her wrist, allowing blood to flow onto the circle, which began to glow under and around her.

"Blood is the stuff of souls." She said her aria, and began her work.

"What happened to them?" Rin asked later, as she and Sakura were busy preparing dinner. Well, Sakura had tried to insist on preparing dinner herself, only for Rin to just stroll into the kitchen, and pull out knives and chopping boards, causing Sakura to drop her protests.

Besides, it helped keep her mind off Ruby's backhanded compliments…

…up to a point, at least.

"The Matous…?" Sakura asked back.

"Yes."

"U…Kariya and Aoi Matou are living in Osaka." Sakura replied. "Kariya works for a local newspaper last I heard, while Aoi's a housewife, though I hear she might be a part-time nursery teacher."

Rin snorted. "…that woman shouldn't be trusted with children…" she muttered before raising her voice. "…do they have any children?"

"…two." Sakura replied coldly. "A boy and a girl…basically our replacements. I…never bothered to learn their names."

"I don't blame you." Rin said. "What about the vampire?"

"No clue." Sakura admitted. "Before the war, he was head of the PTA, and was known to be involved in various charitable organizations…"

"…all a smokescreen to hide its true nature…" Rin muttered.

"…but after the war," Sakura continued. "He just…faded, out of the public view. I guess…the end of his line with Shinji Matou's death broke him. These days, the Matou property's a dilapidated mess, and the house looks like it ought to be condemned. Assuming Zouken's officially dead, I guess that makes Kariya the inheritor, but if so, he hasn't done anything with it."

"Who killed Shinji?" Rin asked. "And how…?"

"Illyasviel von Einzbern…" Sakura said. "…from what I remember, all that was left of him was a pile of mushed flesh, broken bone, and blood all over a room."

Rin smiled with cruel satisfaction. "…he deserved a more lingering death." She said.

"Well, no disagreement there." Sakura agreed, causing Rin to look at her curiously. "Obviously, he never raped me, but he was as much of a Casanova and a bully here as he apparently was in your timeline. Maybe even more so, seeing as he didn't have a submissive little sister to take out his frustrations on at home. By the time the war started, there were…rumors, that he'd forced more than a few of his ex-girlfriends to have abortions."

"Sick bastard…" Rin growled.

Sakura shrugged. "Zouken apparently paid a lot of money to keep the rumors, well, just rumors." She said. "But he didn't seem to care enough to pick a fight with the yakuza over it."

"Oh?"

"Fujimura-sensei pulled strings behind the scenes." She said. "Most abortion clinics in the city, and usually the more discreet ones at that, refused to serve anyone known to be associated with Shinji. Granted, I don't think he actually had any bastards, but I'm sure he found it more than a bit…inconvenient."

"Considering how he was little more than a dog constantly in heat…" Rin spat while viciously cutting the radish.

"Please don't ruin the radish, Rin." Sakura chided.

"Right, sorry…" Rin said with a deep breath.

Sakura shrugged. "Anyway," she said. "Back to his family…yeah, Zouken might still be around, but I'm in no hurry to go poking around in that little hellhole that's the Matou mansion. At least, not without a few enforcers behind me. That, or I'll have little big sister go wild."

"Point, I suppose." Rin admitted.

"…is there a point to all this?" Sakura asked after a moment. "Because no, I'm not going to let you go on a rampage, for all that I understand how…wounded, you are, by Ruby's tactless comments."

"Do you?"

"Have you forgotten who I am? I'm Murderer Blue."

"…sorry."

Sakura sighed. "Look at it this way." She said. "After everything he did and sacrificed for centuries, to be reduced to an…ironic hell, of his own making…why, I'd say that's poetic justice for Zouken, isn't it?"

"…his family's magic has completely withered away," Rin said, starting to brighten up. "The Holy Grail has completely failed, and his soul won't last for another decade at most…huh, now that you mention it…'

"See?" Sakura said. "Now, enough about this depressing topic. Have I ever told you about Emiya-senpai and Mitsuzuri-senpai's wedding?"

"No, but go ahead."

Sakura smiled, and began telling Rin all about it, dispelling the dark mood that had hung in the air ever since their brief encounter with Ruby earlier.

A/N

As much as she wants to, Sakura can never truly escape Tokiomi and the other Tohsaka ancestors' shadows. At the end of the day, she remains the sum and product of their cumulative efforts to reach the Root…as well as of their sins.

She can remove all visible memory of them, though.

Yeah, this Ruby's more than a bit spiteful, complimenting Rin all the while slapping her in the face with the fact that more often than not, she'd end up enabling Sakura's lifelong abuse. More than that, Rin would also end up stealing Shirou, leaving Sakura with nothing.