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

This Cannot End Well

Chapter 14

Rin arrived at the rendezvous point to the sound of laughter. "That was, to use a British phrase, a very good show!" Sakura cheered her sister on at her arrival. "I mean, seriously, to freeze the whole river before elevating yourself on a promontory of ice to bring yourself across? Then to shake the city itself with an earthquake, itself just a side-effect of cracking open Caster's lair, and then one-shotting an actual Servant?"

"Are you praising me or condemning me?" Rin asked with a snort and a small smile.

Sakura laughed. "I've got an x-ray laser cannon powered by the lingering echoes of a literal god of evil." She said. "In short, I've got no right to condemn you for this stunt."

Rin snorted again. "What did Gilgamesh say?" she asked instead.

"About you?" Sakura asked back, before continuing without waiting for an answer. "He was very impressed, all things considered. He said that if nothing else, we made for a better show than Tokiomi ever did or could, and that life is more interesting with us in it."

Rin raised an eyebrow. "Wow, that's…" she began. "…that's actually pretty high praise coming from Gilgamesh."

Sakura grinned. "I know, right?" she asked. "I mean, we're still just entertainment for him, but at least he isn't calling us 'mongrels' anymore. Well, he does call me an 'usurper' and a 'kinslayer', but he's not wrong, and it is true."

Rin snorted and shook her head. "Anything else?" she asked.

"A few things, yes." Sakura said, hopping off the street railing and falling into step next to Rin as they walked up the street. "Apparently, Gilgamesh knows about my being just a couple of steps away from trying to reach the Root. And he approves, strangely enough."

"Of course he does." Rin said with a roll of her eyes. "He's an ass, but Gilgamesh is…well, I guess the best way to say it would be that he's a Human Supremacist. A Human, even one born in this degenerate – as he sees it – age, daring to breach the limits of the World and steal power and knowledge from beyond? Why, that's exactly the kind of forward-thinking, can-do attitude he expects from the superior beings he wants Humans to be. And it's not like you'd be stealing from him, which is almost certainly just as important in his eyes."

"As long as I succeed at any rate." Sakura remarked. "He even told me not to disappoint him."

"True." Rin conceded. "Failure doesn't really count for much, if at all, whether in Gilgamesh's eyes or anyone else who matters."

"…there was one other thing, though."

"Oh?"

Sakura paused, and causing Rin to pause as well. "Have you noticed that things in the city are fairly normal?" she asked. "Back when we were just relaxing this afternoon and waiting for night to fall?"

"…now that you mention it, that is weird." Rin admitted after a moment's thought. "Shouldn't there have been panic or whatnot, at this entire section of the city visibly trapped in a bubble of some kind? Or people and cars vanishing – torn apart at the quantum level – as they walk into walls of distorted space-time? I mean, the local authorities – or what's left of them – could have covered it up, but there's been no sign of that. No curfews, no increased police presence, nothing at all."

"Yeah, I've been looking into it, or as much as I can before we move on." Sakura said, before pulling out a modified iPad of some kind. "Here, take a look. I'm not sure what this is, but this second field here? It's a neurogenic field of some kind, and it's affecting the perceptions of the people in this area of space-time."

Rin narrowed her eyes while analyzing the data, and slowly nodded in agreement. "That could account for why everyone's making like it's all just normal." She said before her expression turned deadpan. "I'm not surprised either that Gilgamesh isn't affected at all."

"The guy took a bath in Grail mud and only came out of it like he'd taken a dip in a hot bath." Sakura dryly remarked.

"Yeah, that's what happened to his counterpart in my timeline." Rin just as dryly said. "Though, I wonder why we aren't affected…yet."

"If I had to guess," Sakura said while tapping at her armband. "These mystic codes which make us immune to chronometric distortions and high-intensity chroniton flux could also be negating the effects of the neurogenic field."

"…possible." Rin admitted. "It'd be interesting to look into, but we don't have the time."

"Shame that."

Rin hummed while looking over the collected data about the first anomaly, the one which Sakura hadn't been able to identify. There was something familiar about it, but she could quite put a finger on what it was.

Wait a minute.

These readings…

…the way time itself seems to be…

"Oh no…" Rin breathed, Sakura blinking before her eyes widened at the sight of the blood draining from Rin's face. "…a stable, recursive, temporal loop…RUN!"

Sakura didn't ask. She just obeyed, following Rin as they ran like all the demons of Hell were on their tails, up the deserted street towards the glimmering boundary of the next temporal zone. Then they passed through the boundary, the ASMR produced by the act reinforcing the sense of relief that Rin felt at the realization that they'd made it.

"…okay, what the hell was that?" Sakura asked as she and Rin caught their breath in the new temporal zone. "A temporal loop? What kind?"

"Like I said, a stable and recursive temporal loop." Rin replied. "I need more data to be sure, but I'm willing to bet the day and night just loop over and over again. Together with that neurogenic field, I'd say it's what kept everyone in Warzone IV completely oblivious to their situation."

"You think Gilgamesh was unaffected?" Sakura asked.

"Mentally, at least." Rin said with a shrug, and Sakura sighed.

"Yeah, that…sounds like the King of Heroes alright." She said with a small laugh. "Want to bet he was laughing at the sight of us running like hell to get out of there before we got caught in the temporal loop?"

"…master's mystic codes could have protected us…" Rin mused before shaking her head. "…but let's not test that hypothesis. Anyway! Moving on…when are we?"

"This place doesn't seem to have the same…issues as the previous zone." Sakura said while checking her sensors. "And look there. Smoke…a lot of it…rising from many different places…I can hear sirens too, among other things. If I had to guess, this zone is in chaos over what's happened, or something else entirely."

"We tripped an alarm." Little Rin suddenly said, and her big little sisters immediately started checking their surroundings. It wasn't long before one of Rin's eyes were twitching.

"…I think I know who placed this alarm here." She said.

"Who?" Sakura asked.

"Me." Rin said with a sigh. "Or rather, a younger version of me. Here, take a look. See…?"

"Looks well-made enough to me."

"Thanks, but aside from that, it's overpowered. If I had to guess, she used multiple gemstones for this alarm. Could just have been for redundancy purposes, but still: I would have used only one gem for the same outcome. This version of me probably used at least three."

"A reasonable number, if you want the alarm to have redundancy just in case. Especially since she put it here in the expectation – also not unreasonable – that hostiles would be coming through…this. No offense, but I'd be surprised if your younger self could have recognized the kind of problem she's stuck in."

"None taken…I could have, so she could have as well…not too sure if either of us could have done anything about it, though."

"So…what do you want to do about her?"

Rin smiled mischievously, and Sakura sighed. "You know," she began. "Considering the current situation, wouldn't it be better not to…I don't know, antagonize her?"

Rin snorted. "And what do you want to do, try and reason with her?" she asked. "No, I know myself. The me back then…I was so…sure, that I could do nothing wrong, that everything I did was exactly what Tokiomi would have wanted me to, that it would be what was expected of a true and proper magus, as was only right for the heiress of the proud and noble Tohsaka lineage of magi."

Rin snorted again and spat to one side. "Gold and jade on the outside," she sneered with bitter self-loathing. "But rot and decay on the inside. I'm not saying I was completely unreasonable, but…you know my story. You know what it took for me, how long it took for me to see reason."

Sakura stared at Rin for a long moment, and then she sighed. "Okay," she said. "But must we push her buttons?"

"Think of it as buying time to keep her off our backs." Rin said with a smile.

"Um…" Little Rin chimed in. "…that alarm spell we tripped also put trackers on us, just so you know."

Rin's smile just grew wider.

It started with a fire.

Specifically, Rin set their entry point on fire, combining alchemy with elemental magecraft to make the concrete burn like it was dry wood. Then Sakura teleported them all a dozen times within the same area five hundred meters across, weaving a tangled web to confuse the other Rin's tracker. Then they set the final teleport point on fire as well.

And then they teleported again, this time to what looked like a refugee camp of sorts. Police and militia stood guard, but the sisters arrived discreetly, not that what they did next was by any means subtle.

A few explosions, loud as thunderclaps, like those used on New Year's Day, just enough to get the camp in an uproar. Then they teleported back to their starting point, where they found the fire put out. By the other Rin, no doubt, so they set it back on fire, of course.

After that, they teleported on top of a hill, one that overlooked the boundary with the next temporal zone. Rin cheerfully – casually – removed her other self's tracker from all of them, placed it on a rock, and dropped it off the hilltop. They let it fall halfway to the bottom before Sakura telekinetically caught it, and then threw it against the boundary, which tore it apart at the quantum level.

"Let's see myself figure that out." Rin said with a smirk.

Then they teleported to the planned departure point. Planned, because of course there was one person simple-minded enough to figure out that instead of following a complicated scheme to trap any suspects behind this whole mess, they might as well just wait it out at the most likely place any interlopers would try to leave through.

Assuming they didn't just try to double back of course.

Or pass through the boundary at some other place.

Somehow, they managed to predict where Rin and Sakura planned to leave. That, or they just got really lucky.

More likely the latter: Shirou Emiya just had the luck of the devil.

"Halt and identify yourselves, intruders!" Saber shouted, Invisible Air pointed at the two magi.

"Milch Holstein." Rin said before Sakura could say anything. "And this is Moloko Golshtinskoy Porody."

Sakura palmed her face while Saber briefly looked surprised, only to quickly become outraged. "Milk Cow?" She echoed in rage. "Are you mocking me?"

Rin made a sound of disgust. "Now, that's just cheating." She sourly said, referring to how Servants could understand all modern languages thanks to the Grail.

"Actually, yes." Sakura chimed in with an unimpressed look at Rin. "We are mocking you."

"Insolent knaves!" Saber shouted, rushing forward in a gold and silver blur. And had things gone as she had planned, she'd have them at swordpoint before they could have done anything.

Ladies and gentlemen, here comes Shirou Emiya.

"Saber, stop!" Shirou shouted, and causing Saber to stop in surprise. She recovered in just a couple of seconds, but that was enough for Rin to blow a bubble, combining the Second Magic with wind elemental magic. The bubble grew in the blink of an eye, and in the next instant, had pulled Saber inside with a pop of displaced air.

"Why don't you time out for a bit and cool your head off, Altria Pendragon?" Rin asked with a teasing smile.

The look of shock and rage on Saber's face was comical, even as she pounded and yelled against the bubble's walls. To no effect, of course. True Magic was such a wonderful thing.

"Saber!" Shirou shouted in alarm, only to get caught in a neck lock by Sakura. "Urgh…!"

"Now, now, Mister Superhero." Sakura said, tickling his nose with a lock of her hair. "There's no need to be so violent. And now that I'm seeing you up close like this…wow, you actually were really handsome back then. In a natural way too, unlike that Casanova wannabe Shinji. I'm actually regretting letting Mitsuzuri-senpai have you."

"W-w-w-w-what?" Shirou stammered out, beet-red at feeling an older woman's breasts pressing against his back, to say nothing of her practically hugging him tight. Not to mention, that lock of hair tickling his nose meant he could only fill his nose with her scent.

"Sakura, you're going to give him a heart attack." Rin chided.

"Sakura…?" Shirou echoed in disbelief.

"Not the one you remember, no." Sakura said with a sigh. "She is me, but she is also not me. After all, she's got a pure and innocent soul, no matter how much Matou might have defiled her body. Me? I'm rich, powerful, and well-connected, but I've got a soul as black as coal."

Sakura snorted, and then letting Shirou go, pushed him away. "You're a reasonable sort, Emiya-senpai." She said.

"Unlike me," Rin bitterly added. "Who was about as reasonable as a brick wall…except that's an insult to the brick wall."

"WHAT'S GOING ON?" Shirou shouted in confusion.

"Long story short," Sakura replied. "The timeline's been fractured thanks to Matou's shenanigans. Your Matous, by the way, from your future. Technically, you and your Rin have some responsibility for it, but the fault is primarily the Matous."

"Meanwhile," Rin added. "Me and my sister here are both from two other parallel but alternate timelines, sent here with orders from the Wizard Marshals Kaleidoscope and Barthomeloi to restore order by any means necessary."

"Is that clear enough?" Sakura asked.

"…w-w-w-what?" Shirou stammered out, causing Rin and Sakura to sigh. "Wait…no. I…what do you mean by Rin and I having some responsibility?"

Rin grabbed Shirou by the collar. "Simple." She said, making sure to meet him in the eyes. "You were both too busy playing superhero overseas that you basically let Matou have a free hand to mess with the Grail, resulting in this whole nightmare we're in."

Shirou blinked, and then narrowing his eyes, opened his mouth to speak. Before he could say anything, though, Rin let him go and then slapped him. Not too hard, but enough to shock him into silence.

"Shut up and listen to me." Rin snapped. "I know this probably isn't enough to make you see reason, but as a friend I owe it to you to try. You want to be a superhero? Or even just a hero in general? Fine…be that way. But answer this: do you really think you can call yourself a hero when your future self basically abandoned the girl who loved him? Let her be raped and tortured until the day she dies?"

"N-n-n-no…I wouldn't…who?" Shirou shouted, grabbing Rin by the shoulders and shaking her while demanding answers. "WHO IS IT?"

Rin smiled bitterly. "Sakura Matou, of course." She replied, smiling wider at the disbelieving look on Shirou's face. "What, did you think she went to your house every day to cook and clean simply because? No…she did it because she thought that if she acted like a housewife around you long enough, you'd eventually make her the real deal."

Shirou spent the next few moments making his best impression of a fish, before looking at Sakura in disbelief. She gave him an unimpressed look in response. "I'm not Sakura Matou, Emiya-senpai." She said. "I'm Sakura Tohsaka. Unlike the Sakura you know, I was never sold off as a sex slave, knowing only rape, torture, and humiliation for my entire life."

"…how?" Shirou asked in a whisper.

Sakura smiled bitterly, eyes gleaming with a deadly gleam. "Before Tokiomi Tohsaka could sell me off," she answered. "I killed my sister, and took her place."

Shirou gasped in horror…

…and with a yell, was thrown to the ground by Rin. Then in one smooth motion, she drew the Jeweled Sword, and swung. At the same time, she cast a spell. "Rage," she roared. "MJOLNIR!"

A dozen monomolecular blades of wind flew out in a semicircle in front of her, but far deadlier was the shockwave of displaced air. It tore up the road, ripped walls apart, and reduced houses to rubble.

That, and set off a tornado that sucked a screaming Rin Tohsaka and her Archer Class Servant into its vortex.

"RIN!" Shirou shouted at the sight, before turning to the older Rin. "Are you crazy? You'll kill yourself!"

Rin held up a finger. "One, she's not me." She said. "Two, a multiverse exists, so even if I kill her, it probably wouldn't change much. And three, you underestimate how stubborn and hardheaded I can be, enough that even something like this can't kill me. Wait…hold that thought…"

Rin turned away, and blew out a stream of bubbles. They floated on the wind, and with a series of pops, trapped the hundreds of blades that Archer launched at them.

Them, as well as Archer himself, and Master.

"Look at you." Rin bitterly said, approaching her dumbstruck younger self. "Every mistake I ever made waiting to happen. More than that, my greatest mistakes already done. Why are you such a daddy's girl? You're throwing away your Humanity and you neither notice nor even care."

Rin paused to point her fingers at her temples. "Think, Rin, think!" she shouted. "Tokiomi Tohsaka cost you your sister! Will you do the same to your children? Sell the younger into sexual slavery while gaslighting the elder into thinking it's right and proper? Or will you just have them kill each other to decide who gets to wear the crest on their arm? Where will the family draw the line, Rin? Will you or your children or children's children even draw a line at all?"

Then she paused, and turned to Archer. "And you." She said. "Archer…Servant Archer…an amnesiac Heroic Spirit…complete and utter bullshit, as should be expected from a good-for-nothing Counter-Guardian…"

The younger Rin's mouth fell open, as did Saber's. Then with a pop, Rin released Archer and locked eyes with him. "…will you deny it, Shirou Emiya?" she finally asked.

Shirou gasped, while Archer made a disgusted noise. "I will not." He said. "Not before this version of you, Rin. After all, you understand, don't you?"

Rin sniffed. "Of course." She said.

A/N

And now we move onto the next temporal zone…

…which is a part of Fuyuki during the Fifth Holy Grail War. And somehow, Rin and Shirou are there. Not the ones who had Nagato already, but their younger selves. Rin proceeds to go Omni Man on them (complete with temple pointing action!), and drops the biggest bombshell of them all.

Well, a lot of bombshells got dropped. But from Shirou's POV, the biggest would still be that he and EMIYA are one and the same person.