Fire engulfed him, and the last thing he heard was the shattering of gems and his own gut wrenching scream. Then nothing.

There were flames as far as he could see

He took another step

Someone called for help, but their life was already burned in the fire

Shirou moved on

His feet burned and his throat choked on the fumes, but he ignored the pain and continued on

His mind was

Burning

A shell of itself

So he cast it into the fire and continued on

He was a blank sheet

White

And yet he took another step, aware that should he stop he would die

He was burning

Cursed flames ate away at him till his skin flaked away

And yet... in its place grew new skin

The world was burning

The burning settled on the smell of ash and smoke. A calmness fell over Shirou that came with a certainty of purpose. Then came clarity. The world too settled into focus until all was silent save his own rapid breath and slowing heartbeat.

He opened his eyes.

The sight that greeted him was both welcome and not. It was a familiar place at least. He was seated in the spot he and his old man used to gaze at the moon together. The darkened skies cast the world around him as shadows lit by a distant orange glow. He brought a hand up to rub his aching forehead only to see it was blackened by soot.

He stared at it in wonder, before trailing it back to its source. As his eyes adjusted to the poor lighting what he saw was hell. It was his nightmares come to life. The entire Emiya compound was a burnt out husk. Further out through one of the collapsed walls he saw the intimately familiar image of a Fuyuki swathed in flames.

The aching in his head increased in intensity. And the world went black.

Shirou awoke to the sound of rattling bones and shuffling feet. Quickly taking stock of the situation he sprung to his feet and ducked into a corner. When he activated his circuits and nearly winced at how strained they felt. Ignoring the familiar pain, he traced a nameless cleanly polished blade and used it to peer around of the dilapidated corners.

It was a familiar sight, if unwelcome sight. Dragon tooth warriors. A whole horde of them coming his direction. Fortunately, they didn't seem to know where he was yet, or they wouldn't be mindlessly ambling around so much. As discretely as possible, Shirou backed in the other direction.

A crash sounded out as the section of wall he was hiding behind gave way. On the other side a lone skeleton that had wandered away from the group and was now staring straight at him. It took a fraction of a second for his blade to make its way into the skeletons head, but even that was too late.

Its wailing death throes alerted its companions he was here. The hurried rattling and screeching from every direction was an unwelcome, but honestly expected result. Damned E-ranked luck.

xxxxxx

Shirou took deep breaths of the acrid air. If there was one thing worth cursing, it was his own E-ranked luck. Archer, that asshole, probably cursed him with his own awful luck just to spite him. Or at least that was what he was going to believe until the day he died.

As for his current situation, well, that was no doubt somehow that assholes fault too. Somehow.

Shirou cursed as he dodged another swipe of a skeletal blade from the Dragon Tooth warrior, bringing Bakuya up through its rib-cage just in time to slip inside the guard of another skeletal swordsman that came up beside it.

It was endless. From the moment he awoke to this land of flames and ruin, it was a never-ending tide of these things.

Shirou dodged back as another took a swipe at him, then turned and ran. Kanshou and Bakuya both sliding through a half destroyed wall to leave it to tumbling down on the skeletons when tried to pursue him. This wasn't getting him anywhere, so there was no point in sticking around. He was already down a quarter his reserves and couldn't afford to waste more od.

Shirou raced down empty streets and through broken buildings without stopping. He didn't slow until the residential district was far behind him and the Fuyuki bridge was coming up. Only once he reached the rivers edge did he pause to catch his breath.

Then, between one moment and the next, Harpe came screeching toward his face faster than a blink. Shirou instinctively leaned backwards and projected Kanshou, just managing to deflect the scythe but still getting propelled backwards. In order catch himself and avoid a follow up attack Shirou stabbed the blade into the ground to use it as leverage to propel himself into a quick flip. Without a moments pause his foot kicked out to impact something that hadn't been there a moment prior, but instead of pushing he found himself flying in the opposite direction again.

He landed on his back before rolling with the momentum into a standing position with Bakuya projected and ready in his other hand. A quick scan of his surroundings revealed his opponent standing unconcerned twenty feet in front of him.

It was another familiar sight. "Rider? What's going on? Why did you attack me? Shouldn't you be with Sakura right now?" Rider was merely looking at him strangely, right until he mentioned Sakura. Then her demeanor turned deadly. That couldn't be good. "What happened to Sakura? Is she alright?"

Now that he thought about it, things didn't seem to be adding up here. Rider was bound to protect him by a command seal, wasn't she? This fight shouldn't be happening. Even if it had been a significant amount of time since the order was given, a command seals power should be close to that of a true magic. Just what was going on here.

"Rider-"

"Tch. I'm not a Rider. If your going to start accusing people, get your facts straight." Rider interrupted him.

No. That's right. Now that he was looking more closely, she was a bit different. She looked older. Her usual outfit replaced by robes that reminded him more of Casters outfit than anything he had seen Rider wear. And her eyes were-

The predatory sensation he had been feeling washed over him tenfold, freezing him on the spot. The sense of dread increased further when she began to stepping closer to him. Two snakelike eyes met his, transfixing him and terrifying him in equal measure.

This... wasn't good.

"You're a curious creature, aren't you?" The servant who wasn't Rider said with interest. "Normally a human would be instantly turned to stone by my eyes. What makes you different?" She stopped in front of him, her gaze still locked with his, as she contemplated the situation.

"Hmm. Rider. Was it?" Her hand reached forward and caressed his face. The touch felt muted somehow, like his skin was numb and his nerves were failing. "Perhaps... you met another incarnation of myself. Yes, that would explain it. If you knew of my eyes, if you experienced them, the effects might be dulled for a time. Enough for that weak magic resistance of yours to resist the worst of it. Not that that's going to save you."

And she was right. Even now he could feel the mystic eyes of petrification slowly turning his body to stone. This whole situation was strange. Why was Rider different? What happened to Fuyuki? How were Dragon Tooth Warriors still around without Medea? A lot of things were happening and he didn't know where to start. But there was one thing he was certain of, allowing himself to be turned to stone wouldn't solve any problems. So it couldn't be allowed to happen.

The image of a gun went off in his head, flaring his circuits to life. 'Trace on!' Swords appeared in the air surrounding both of them, all pointed toward the Servant in front of him. The moment they launched themselves at her, the Servants eyes were drawn to them, breaking the mystic stare she had on him. Which gave him a moment to act.

Normally challenging a Servant was a fools errand. He was a fool, but in this case... despite being a Servant she seemed lesser. Like she was only a shadow of a Servant, or she was somehow barely existing without a mana supply that normally kept Servants in existence.

The retaliatory swipe of Harpe missing was all the proof he had needed. Rider had been so much more than this. She was faster than a the eye could follow, so quick with her weapons they could kill him ten times over before he could blink, and if that failed her monstrous strength or noble phantasm would easily overwhelm him and shatter his weapons. None of that had happened here.

She was Rider, and at the same time, she was not. Without a doubt the one before him was known as Medusa the Gorgon, but... she wasn't who he had come to know and love. Rider, who he had fought life and death battles with, saved, and was in turn saved by.

She wasn't Rider. Yet, at the same time, she was still Medusa. The same that he had enjoyed spending silent afternoons reading with, going on picnics with Sakura, or surviving her recklessly driving her motorcycle. He could clearly see it, a path where he had fought side by side with with the Gorgon in front of him instead the Medusa he knew. Lancer in place of Rider.

Yet, she was trying to kill him.

'...I want to live...I want to save her...'

The thought came to him unbidden, unable to stop itself. An echo of his past, his resolve making itself known. And he recognized his own selfishness. When fighting you fought to kill, when cutting you tried to cut. To do anything less was arrogance of the highest order.

Bakuya appeared in his grasp, allowing him to take on Archers stance he used when facing superior opponents. How far was he willing to go? How much would he sacrifice to meet his goals when someone he wished to save wished with all their might to end him. What was the right course of action?

'Hypothesizing basic structure. Recreating existence.' Over his eyes Shirou projected a pink blindfold. Normally something like this would be impossible to project but... well, Tohsaka had gone on about the ins and outs of bounded fields for years now. Rider had been very eager to show off her own bounded field whenever the subject came up and he had developed an intricate understanding of the Noble Phantasm first hand.

It was far from perfect, a mere hollow copy without its own inner world like the original had. But there was one property of Breaker Gorgon in particular he needed. It sealed away mystic eyes. Meaning...

Shirou dashed forward, to Medusa's surprise, and managed to slice into her forearms before she came to her senses and forced him away. She glared at him hatefully. "You. Where did you get that?"

He answered her scorn with a smile. The blindfold hampered his vision, but at the same time reassured him. He couldn't fight a Servant on his own. But he wasn't alone, at least not completely. It was that simple, wasn't it? With only his meager power, he couldn't fight to save her. But...

He threw another copy of Kanshou and Bakuya straight at Riders neck, nearly severing it if it wasn't for her mystic eyes petrifying them and leaving them to shatter against her skin.

With a little help he could fight... to giver her a chance.

A wave of pressure washed over him, but he ignored it and let Breaker Gorgon prevent the worst of the Mystic Eyes effects. Fighting without sight would be supremely difficult, but he couldn't afford his eyes. Medusa's Mystic Eyes of Petrification could outright immobilize him even if they didn't turn him to stone. No, he couldn't afford to use his eyes here. But he could cheat enough to make it seem like he could still see.

In the lull of the battle, as Medusa was focused on the new addition to his eyes, he kicked off his shoes. Structural Analysis, was one of his best, and only, skills. And he trained it religiously. From the soles of his feet, he cast the spell, getting a feel for the landscape with his unique form of psychometry. And through the spell, the world opened up around him in his minds eye.

So when Medusa moved he saw it. What's more, he had seen Harpe. How it moved, how Medusa used it, its special effects, Shirou had seen it all. He knew how the blade was used better than Medusa herself. Which meant, "Trace on," Kanshou was in his hand slicing upwards and hitting the blade with a resounding clang.

He knew Medusa. Maybe not this one before him, but he knew her, had fought her, and had fought with her. He knew how she fought. And he knew how her weapon fought. So that was how he knew the moment she was surprised she would back up to try to gain space.

He couldn't allow her to escape. He couldn't allow her to recompose. If he let this chance go the element of surprise would not be his again. Immediately Kanshou was sent flying towards her face, followed swiftly by Bakuya. He heard the sounds of both being deflected and whirling off into the distance but another pair of the blades were already in his hands as he charged forward.

Just as he was about to reach her he shifted to the side, just avoiding being speared in the chest by the scythes end, and slashed at her leg. He felt the jump through his feet, immediately switching to a defensive stance as Harpe hammered down on upon him. Both his blades cracked under the assault, so he cast them away and moved to avoid being pummeled into the ground.

Before she could gain ground another pair of of the blades were in his hands, but he didn't bother trying to defend with them, instead tracing a large sword polished to a mirror like surface.

"Kgh!" Medusa flinched at the sight of herself. That pause was all he needed. The large blade between them shattered into motes of light and from them came Shirou.

"Trace Overedge!" The two blades in his hands fractured and grew into a pair of winglike blades ready to sever Medusa in two.

Medusa's eyes widened at the blades and she prepared to block them with Harpe, only to have to use the scythe to block empty air. She then tried to shift backwards again, only to feel two impacts slam into her back pushing her forward. Right into wicked jagged dagger. She closed her eyes and waited to endure the impact. An impact that never came. Instead all she felt was a small prick on her forehead.

When she reopened her eyes it was to see the boy once again some distance away from her, waiting for her reaction. And when she examined herself it was indeed an interesting position to be in.

Their entire exchange had lasted mere seconds, but already Shirou's burning muscles and circuits were running dry. Shirou let out a breath he had been holding but didn't relax, not quite yet. It had been a gamble whether she would fall for his trap, but his efforts bore fruit. Rule Breaker fell to the floor and shattered after being spent. But it was enough.

Medusa lowered Harpe. "You... What have you done?" She said slowly and moved about uncertainly.

Servant contracts were an intimate bond, allowing the Servant and Master insights into each other that they themselves might not even be aware of. Even if the master or Servant weren't actively using this familiar bond, there was a connection there. That Shirou had just shattered this connection was immediately obvious.

"Hehe. Hahaha. Mwahahahaaaa." Medusa's body bent over, then swiveled around to face the sky as she laughed uproariously. "With this, I'll get another shot at that bitch." Her eyes swiveled back to him, and he instinctively looked away. Even under Medusa Breaker, her predatory gaze unsettled him. "I don't know how you did it, but thank you."

She slithered, or sauntered, closer to him. "I think this... gift, deserves a turn of good faith, don't you?"

Emiya swallowed nervously, her proximity spiking his adrenaline to new heights. But he forced himself to remain. If there was any chance of him and Medusa somehow reconciling it would be now.

"Perhaps," Harpe appeared in her hands, the tip behind his neck. "A quick end should suffice."

Without any time to move or to think, he reacted. "Trace on!" The Azoth blade appeared just above his neck, preventing a quick decapitation but still nearly concussing him from the force of the blow. With vision swimming, he rolled to the right, immediately tracing a volley of blades that fell toward Medusa.

"Tch." The barrage was hardly enough to make Medusa so much as flinch. However, it did break her line of sight enough to allow him to slip behind some intact buildings and make his escape. Without a contract, she would most likely eventually disappear if he could just avoid her long enough, so he considered this a win regardless.

Even if... No, it was best to not dwell on the possibilities. What's done is done. She had made it clear. Shirou Emiya and Medusa are enemies.

He tried to ignore how much the thought hurt.

Shirou ducked into an alley and let his breath slow down. His circuits burned from the strain he had placed them under. He had pushed out too many projections too quickly, and he was feeling it.

To be honest he was out of practice. Not with his magecraft, which he still practiced every night religiously, but with combat. It was rare for him to be in real life or death combat. Fuyuki was a peaceful place, generally. It was only the occasional job Rin sent his way, or Karen requesting his help with with a nearby Executor containment mission that let him grind away the rust.

He had only come out of that exchange as well as he had by recklessly projecting as quickly as he had. He knew for a fact Archer could have done much better with less, even with Shirou's own parameters. And something told him he would have to shake that rust off sooner rather than later.