Howdy all. I know it's been a while but it's better late than never. A bit demoralized from the lack of reviews but oh well — the show must go on. I told you all not to worry that I wasn't abandoning this fic and I meant it. Progress might slow down due to real life but that's just how it goes. I hope everyone reading is doing well and trouble-free.

I've gotten some input on this fic from AO3 regarding Gray and Add. I like both of their characters but must admit I'm not very well versed in either. Regarding the latter, Add, I've taken some large liberties with his character but I personally feel it works much better. You're welcome to complain and leave, but one minor liberty against canon laws shouldn't destroy all that much.

Last bit! "Lovnag" I'm sorry to call you out by your review brought the most sadistic grin to my face in a long while. Don't worry, I'm not going to dump this fic into the Edge-Pit but I always enjoy playing with the idea that even the best plans can end up in despair and misery. Oh well, at least Shirou had a few moderately fun years before the War, no?

Please remember to thank Talndir, my wonderful beta, for going over this again! I'll get out of your hair now - Enjoy!


It was impossible.

Why was she in Fuyuki now of all times? Why was Reines guiding her? Had she been what Saber had sensed? What would the two say to one another? For a moment he wondered if such a thing violated some sort of paradoxical time law but then remembered he had just fought himself almost to the death the night before.

He didn't know how long the two stared at one another, but within the darkness of his own eyelids, it seemed like hours. "The Holy Grail War," came a soft, almost frightened murmur from Reines. It was a statement, an explanation for the sight before her.

Saber made an odd noise Shirou had never heard before. It was as if something had caught in her throat and she hadn't even fully formed whatever it was. "It's you, isn't it? King Arthur, wielder of Excalibur."

His servant finally found her voice. "This must be some sort of joke."

A muffled exclamation cried out from beneath Gray's arm and the girl jumped abruptly in the spot. "I know that voice!" it cried. Shirou had never heard it before, but it was obviously a man. Looking at Saber for help, he was surprised to find the normally grounded, resolute woman was stunned still and shaking.

"Sir Kay?"

"Who else could it be? Did your mind slip after you died or are you just pretending?" The scathing retort was out of nowhere, but it was spoken in a jovial manner that Shirou couldn't get upset about.

As quickly as the new voice had arrived, Gray struggled to try and silence it. Patting her hands at her side, she tried to smother the voice's origin with a look of pure panic. So much was going on and Shirou felt overloaded. Reines furrowed her brow and quickly grew annoyed. "What is going on here?"

At least he wasn't alone.

How did he even begin to deal with this situation? With Reines present, any option he could think of went out the window. Trying to talk the situation out in any capacity would just lead Reines to attack. Did he start by admitting he was alive and saying he was the Magus Killer's son? That would lead the Mage's Association to Fuyuki which meant it was more a question of how much he wanted to die or be trapped in a jar.

The one thing he did know was that Gray was on his side, more or less. She knew everything about him that Reines was trying to find, but how far did that loyalty really go? Finding the link in his mind, Shirou got to work trying to salvage the awful situation. "Saber, get it together!" He could almost feel the woman jerk to attention beside him. "This can all be explained later but right now we have a massive problem: The short blonde is from the Mage's Association and she wants me dead." As soon as the brief explanation left his mind, he could feel a draw on his mana. "Don't kill her! She might attack but our best chance right now is to get out of here as fast as possible, we can form a better strategy for a later time."

A shaky agreement was all he got before an arm wrapped itself beneath his arm. As fast as he could blink, his entire body was roughly jarred upward as the servant hauled him into the air onto the roof of the closest building.

Saber's feet found solid ground but she didn't release him. She knew as well as he did that she could move far faster than a human and by the time Shirou turned around to make sure they weren't being followed, Gray and Reines were out of sight.

"We need to tell Rin."

… … …

"The Archisortie? The head of the Archibald branch family with ties to the three main factions of the Clocktower Archisortie?" Rin was staring at him in deadly seriousness and he suddenly felt as if the weight of the world lied on his answer.

Shirou didn't entirely know whether it was true, but he did know that it had definitely been Reines and that everyone seemed to walk on their tiptoes around her - including Luvia. Shrugging passively, Shirou merely said, "I guess." Rin blinked, made a noise of anger and turned away to rub the sides of her head. After a moment of silence, Shirou decided to ask what she thought should be done.

Lowering her hands, the Tohsaka remained silent before softly murmuring, "I don't know."

"Shirou," the stiff voice of Saber gathered his attention. Face stony, she narrowed her eyes and spoke. "You claimed that you would explain things to me once we were away."

Looking between the two women, he sighed. Rin was lost in thought searching for a way out of their situation and Saber had peered into a monochrome mirror a moment ago. She might not have been able to tell when he was lying like Rin or Sakura, but what point was there in lying? He spilled the entire truth about her identity as he knew it. "That girl you saw back there is called Gray. She's Lord El Melloi the Second's apprentice and your spiritual successor."

The woman blinked, then scowled. "If this is your idea of a joke, I do not find it amusing."

Holding just short of rolling his eyes, Shirou pursed his lips and tried to convince her. "You felt the connection, both of you were sensing each other. You even said the same thing but you still don't want to believe it?" The one piece of evidence he didn't want to tell her about was Avalon. There was no telling what her reaction would be if he told her its location had been known all along.

"One may act and look similar to another but that does not mean they are the same."

This time Shirou did roll his eyes. "Then how do you explain the voice you recognized?"

The girl remained stubbornly neutral. "Another type of manipulation. Magic from my time was certainly capable of such a feat." How could one woman be so obtuse against something so obvious?

Running his nails along the side of his head to try and pry off some tension, he struggled to comprehend the line of thought. Why had Saber been so shocked at meeting her if she was going to deny any correlation later on? Then the realization hit him all at once. Glowering at Saber, he could see the glimmer of understanding within her own eyes. "You want to talk to her yourself, that's the only way you'll accept it."

It was insignificant, imperceptible but Shirou could see her shoulders and chest tighten just a hair. "Information from the source would certainly help." Shirou knew Saber's true intentions with that statement alone and to make it worse, she knew that he knew and was doing nothing to hide it.

Shirou opened his mouth to speak but another male voice cut him off. "It's not all that unlikely. Your death was mourned by many beyond those left behind at Camelot," Lancelot reminisced, though an unnaturally sadder than usual smile graced his face. "A group of people trying to revive you isn't all that unexpected."

Rin turned to face Shirou with unflinching sincerity. "There's no other option, we have to kill her." The change of topic, albeit abrupt, was welcome and Shirou latched onto it immediately.

Scowling at the prospect of another murder, Shirou tried to force another option into her mind. "Won't that bring the entire Clock Tower to Fuyuki?"

"It depends on how it's done. Obviously if she were to go missing and her death was unreported it would be a major event and an investigation would take place."

Rin trailed off, looking at Shirou to fill in the blanks as she did so often when she instructed magecraft. Shrugging, he threw out the first thought he had. "We report it ourselves and take the blame? I don't see how that would help."

Shaking her head with disappointment, Rin softly sighed and explained the correct answer. "We kill Reines and tell Gray to report back that it was accidental."

"I don't think-"

"How close are you and Gray?" Rin interrupted him before he could finish his sentence.

Back at the Clock Tower, they had more or less given up every one of their individual secrets. It hadn't been Shirou's plan or desire, but he had decided to work with Avalon to get the stubborn relic to work again. In fact, she knew more about him than anyone in the room because Gray was the only person besides Kiritsugu and Illya who knew Avalon was inside his body. "We know each other, but I don't think she would be willing to lie about something like that for me."

Rin shook her head. "Whether she does or doesn't, she is our only chance at making it out of this situation without calling in the Clock Tower. It's either that or you find a way to avoid them for the rest of the War."

The flash in Saber's eyes was enough to tell Shirou that avoiding them wasn't an option, at least not one she would stand for. "So what, I find them, kill Reines and then ask Gray nicely to go back to Britain and lie for me?"

"More or less," Rin shrugged. Seeing his obvious disagreement to the concept arise, she tried a different tactic. "If you don't do something soon, there's a chance that both of them could be killed by another master or servant. With so much stress right now, everyone is willing to kill if they're a potential threat."

As Rin's words sank into his skull, Shirou shut his eyes to focus on the ongoing inner conflict. There were two sides of him battling for supremacy. One who believed there was a possible peaceful resolution and another who understood there was no alternative besides force. He was scared. Not because he would need to kill again, not because of any possible repercussions but because he didn't feel anything against killing Reines.

She had toyed with him, she had strung him around like a puppet and almost gotten him killed by sending him against an Executioner without any preparation. He was just another plaything to her, just like Gray, Waver and everyone at the Clock Tower. As if it could get worse, she even gained a sense of sickening satisfaction from doing it all. He saw the glint in her eyes as she forced him to get his haircut. He saw how upset it made her when he went against her orders and how hard she tried to break him with greater and greater requests.

There was no voice of reason. The grinding of his own teeth thrummed through his ears and the ball of anger in his stomach heated his entire torso. She needed to die and he would be the one to kill her.

His eyes snapped open just as quickly as the thought had arisen. Confusion ebbed its way into his mind as he wondered who had exactly said such a thing. Had he consciously wanted to murder Reines that badly?

Shirou peered down at his hands and flexed them reflexively. He knew he had been doing it a lot, but he just needed to make sure he was still in control of himself. It was difficult to pinpoint, but it was as if his hands were on the steering wheel but he couldn't set the speed.

A much softer voice brought his attention up into concerned azure eyes. He had peered into them many times, but recently he could see something else within: anxiety, fear, desperation. She was frayed to her last nerve but holding strong on the outside, standing strong against adversity without wavering just like she always did. "Are you alright? It looks like you just woke up from a coma."

He knew he was the cause of her stress. He would have to be stupid not to see. Rin knew him well before and she could see just like he could that something was very wrong. Unfortunately, neither of them knew what it was and he was even more clueless on how to fix it or if he even could.

Darting his eyes away from the pitiful look, the boy murmured a passing excuse before changing the subject. "If you think it's best to act quickly, we should try to settle it tonight."

The Tohsaka bit the inside of her lip at his blatant dodge of the question but neglected to pursue the point. "From what you told me, it seems that Gray and Saber have a connection that draws them to one another whether their relation is true or not."

Saber nodded, catching on immediately. "So you intend for me to act as bait to lure them out of hiding."

"Exactly, and the best staging ground for a meeting is bound to be the Central Park."

Even Shirou was catching on. "It's open, a good place for a civil meeting and it's probably close to where Reines is staying. A magus like her will want to sleep in comfort and all the luxury hotels are on the Shinto side."

Rin tucked her elbows tight and raised one hand to partly cover her mouth in thought. "But this is where things get difficult. I have no idea what sort of magecraft Reines has access to but with her status, I can imagine it's pretty powerful. Our best chance is to kill her before she gets an opportunity to defend herself. Archer can play the part of a look-alike while Shirou uses a bow and arrow from one of the skyscrapers overlooking the park."

Rin paused to take a breath but it was enough of a delay for Saber to scowl and inject her own opinion. "Killing before the opponent has a chance at fighting back is reprehensible. I have remained silent for acts less demonstrable but I will no longer if this is what we have come to."

Whether Rin was too tired to argue or whether she knew just as Shirou did that Saber wasn't likely to back down was up for debate. Regardless, the Tohsaka huffed and stared at Shirou. "Then we just have to rely on your charm and good looks."

… … …

… … …

The wind had risen since they were last outside. What had been a gentle breeze barely of note had grown to a moonlit gale that pulsed and sent salted seaside air whirling around. Without the sun, the air was chilled to an uncomfortable level though in his combat attire he hardly noticed. In fact, the cold maintained his body temperature at a comfortable level.

Despite the pleasant scent of fresh sea air, the pungent stench of curses along with decaying, burnt flesh lingered in the background. A permanent scar to the land, everything within Fuyuki Central Park brought a paling sense of nausea to Shirou. It was a painful reminder of just how many lives had perished at the end of the Fourth War and Saber's questions did little to abate the memories.

Peering at the ground, kicking the bitter, dry dirt and smelling the air, a sense of pain visibly washed over her. "Ten years ago, this was once a community. Did my actions really cause all of this? To think..." she trailed off at a low murmur.

Attempts to distance himself from the location were in vain. Whether he looked at the patchy ground trying - and failing - to grow the most meagre bits of grass and weeds, the withered, rotted trees reminiscent of the aftermath of a forest fire and even the murky, lifeless artificial pond all reminded him of that day.

Even closing his eyes brought no escape. His eyelids held only raging flame and harrowing screams of the dead and dying. "Be grateful you didn't have to walk through it."

With a simple comment, it was as if the two had been transported a thousand miles apart. Saber opened her mouth, reconsidered and closed it before turning away to hide her pity.

The two stood in silence for a short time and during that time, Shirou couldn't help but feel as if he were being watched, intently.

Like a mosquito continually trying to land upon his neck, a sense of danger and unease struck him time and time again. Peering over his shoulder into the darkness a dozen times, even Saber grew paranoid and asked what he was doing.

The boy passed it off, but couldn't shake the feeling in the slightest. Why were his senses screaming danger and ambush when nobody was around them? If a servant was nearby, Saber would have sensed them, right?

Before he could give himself a definitive answer, something white caught his eye in the night. Enhancing his eyes, the side bangs of Gray revealed themselves to him. At the same time, servant and master both claimed "she's here."

Behind her was the smaller figure of Reines just as Shirou had hoped and expected. Taking a deep breath, Shirou considered his options. The plan was to challenge her and kill her immediately but there was still a chance he could talk her down. That being said, there was also a chance lightning could strike the same place eight times.

More than a dozen feet away the two stopped and both parties stared at one another. Unsurprisingly, Reines was the first to speak. "Is it really you?"

Saber raised a hand to her chest. "I am-"

"Not you," the blonde shot back. "I already know who you are, I want to know if Blade is really still alive and standing before me."

Saber hadn't expected such a chilling response if the small recoil of her head was any indication. Shirou had been prepared and with a deep breath, he prepared for the worst. "Yes, I am Blade and I did fake my own death."

The blonde narrowed her eyes into a hateful glare. It was an odd sight considering the rest of her features were neutral and impassive. "To take such extreme measures means you must have something quite substantial to hide." Reines couldn't and didn't catch it, but Shirou could clearly see Gray stiffen.

"You're right again. I am the son of the Magus Killer." There was no point in being coy, being blunt was the best option to deal with the problem as quickly as possible.

It was Reines' turn to stiffen. Like prey before a predator, the girl that was normally so confident and unimpressed, paled visibly. A dozen emotions flickered across her face before suddenly landing on the primary one, fear. Her face betrayed her, but she was doing her best to hide it otherwise. "I don't see how such a thing could give you special privileges over any other magus."

From the reaction alone, he could tell that she knew who the Magus Killer was. Waver might have even told her about what Kiritsugu did to the other masters, specifically Lancer's master, Kayneth. Shirou narrowed his eyes. "It doesn't, but it does let you know what I'm capable of."

If he listened close enough, he could hear the girl swallow even from such a distance. It was obvious that she was planning their conversation in her head just as much as he was. "Would you like to explain yourself then?"

Borrowing coldness from his former life, the boy folded his arms over his chest. "I don't believe I have to. What I did was the easiest way to accomplish my own goals."

The comment and its coldness was so out of character that even Saber shot him a sideways glance. It was enough to keep Reines on her toes, which was all he wanted. "You understand the punishment for lying to the Mage's Association, do you not?"

It was as if he was losing traction. The point of merely pretending to be cold and actually being cold were getting difficult to differentiate. "If your goal was to scare me, you'll have to do much more than threaten to kill me." He wanted to convince her to walk away, he didn't want to kill her if he didn't have to.

But did he really?

His thoughts were so hazy and each time he tried to concentrate on his desires they grew more distant. "You could kill me now, but the entire Mage's Association would follow in my footsteps. I have a contingency-"

"Can the Mage's Association handle two servants?"

The question silenced her for several seconds as she digested his meaning. In a much more docile tone, she asked, "You have two servants?"

In reality, it could be said that he had four servants — including himself — but Archer wasn't entirely on his side so three was a more realistic number. "While the Mage's Association might know of the Grail War, I doubt you've let them know that I happen to be a master."

The small girl pursed her lips, giving him a wordless answer. She was a puppeteer, a manipulator. When he left, she was angry not because he had slighted her but because she had lost a toy. The haze in his mind had disappeared but thoughts far from their original had taken their place. There was no reason to talk, she needed to die. Her lips moved but he couldn't hear the words she was speaking.

His hands clenched into fists and a pounding struck the front of his head. In tune with the pounding, the clarity of his vision blurred partly. Her lips stopped moving and his opened to mouth "trace on" in the barest whisper. A dozen blades formed in his mind but the barest glint in the night stopped him short.

It was over in an instant, there wasn't even enough time for him to open his mouth and warn her - as if he would have anyway. The blade descended over her neck and with a quick movement, it was brought across the soft flesh. Expecting blood, he was surprised when the blade produced sparks.

Like a gush of water, silver fluid poured out from around Reines' neck past her head and onto the limb of the would-be attacker. Like the eyes of a predator in the night, two orbs of blue flame ignited a good two feet above the Archisorte and Shirou put it all together. It was the last servant in the War, Assassin. "Saber-!"

"On it!"

A splash of blue sparks to prepare her armour and his servant shot forward like a bullet. The silver fluid made detecting the enemy servant easy thanks to its reflective sheen and skin-tight grip. The enemy servant seemed to be struggling to move and it was tugging on its arm as if it were locked in place. Wasting little time, the servant withdrew another blade and sliced off its entire arm in one clean motion.

Assassin darted backwards but Saber launched straight over top of Reines and collided with the servant and disappeared into the night. It was as if they had slipped beyond some sort of darkened barrier. Hadn't there been building lights in that direction? Leaving his sight, every warning sign in his mind was thrown up and his body twisted violently to focus behind himself. At one point there had been nothing but open space, a moonlit sky, distant lights and trees. Now, an impassable black barrier stood a few dozen feet away and a similarly shaded shape loomed over him with an outstretched hand.

The sharpened, elongated digits were something out of a nightmare and the boy's natural reaction was to swat the offending appendage away and distance himself. Blue flame flickered to life within the eye sockets of a half-skull mask. There was no time to question how or why, he had to focus on keeping himself alive.

Then he remembered Gray. Checking over his shoulder, he found three figures - Gray, Reines and Trimmau - standing back-to-back staring in all different directions. Focusing on his front and moving himself further away from the servant, he spared another glance to trace their eyes.

A dozen masks slowly approached with obvious murderous intent but it seemed as if they were holding short on purpose. He could see Reines and Trimmau were moving but his attention shot forward to his own personal threat. When nothing but empty space greeted him, panic set in.

"We offer a proposition." The voice whispered in his left ear. Recoiling, his reflexes sent one fist rising to strike whoever had gotten so close. When his swing had struck empty air, he was only left more confused. Whirling on the spot, he couldn't find anyone or anything in his near vicinity.

Taking short choppy breaths in preparation for some sort of blow, he could only watch the trio of girls ahead of him as the circle of servants crept closer. Reines had prepared magic circles which gently swirled in the air ominously while Trimmau monitored the closest and lashed out with her arm like a whip when they tried to take a daring step closer.

"Consider it more of an ultimatum." The voice was behind him now but Shirou understood that trying to locate the source wouldn't do him any good. "Accompany us to a safe location willingly where you will be held without harm and we will offer mercy to those three individuals and let them leave unimpeded."

One of the Assassins lunged forward from the circle and Reines unleashed a barrage of magic. Striking true, a large explosion of blue lit up the park and elicited a sharp hiss from the remaining servants. Despite the flashy show of power, the servant hardly seemed worse for wear as it rejoined the moving circle.

Was Saber dealing with the same situation? She was still absent which made him wonder just how many copies of Assassin there were. If his guess was accurate, there were thirteen not including the voice behind him.

He could handle himself against a single servant, but against such a number? Would it even be possible to handle so many even with Lancer? "What if I refuse?" Why did they want him to begin with? What possible explanation would make a servant interested in kidnapping and storing a live master?

The voice chortled as if his answer had been expected. "They will all be killed and you will be taken by force."

Shirou let his breathing calm down so he could think. If he was being given such a choice it meant that Assassin doubted their chances against him outright or maybe something else was at play. Maybe they could defeat them without Lancer.

Though maybe risking it wasn't the best decision. He couldn't lie and if Saber found out he got Gray killed before they could talk, she would never forgive him.

On the other hand, if he went with Assassin willingly, he would be unharmed and he could likely summon Saber to him with a command seal. From there, breaking out of any sort of containment would be easy. The two of them together, prepared could take on a significant force.

Two options with the risk scaled unequally. It was easier to work with Assassin. If his intentions were to kill him, it was obvious the servant could have done it far earlier in the conversation. Their intention of keeping him unharmed was true. If his capture was inevitable, he could solve another problem at the very least. "I'll go with you on one condition."

The voice hummed questioningly and two digits crept onto his shoulder. "We can be accommodating to the champion, should your request be humble of course."

"I want you to kill two of those people." Whether it was by his hand or not, he was taking lives once again. "Keep the one with white hair alive." This time was different from all the others. There was no regret, anger, sadness or sense of duty to his family.

He felt empty. The act of sentencing Reines to her death felt more like he was deciding on a soup or salad with a meal. He wasn't even killing to protect his family or another, he was killing just to make his life easier. Did his father feel the same emptiness as he pulled the trigger or stood above the corpses he made?

He didn't know either way, but the servant behind him laughed with greater amusement. "Humble indeed, but we require one more point to grant it to your satisfaction; would you prefer it to be slow or quick?"

The clawed fingers pressed into his skin through his clothing, urging him to produce an answer. Why was such a question even required? Did Assassin know how he felt about her? What he wanted to do to her for all she had done to him? "Make it quick," he murmured.

The voice produced a hollow, chittering laugh like an insect. "As you wish." Simultaneously, two separate voices began chanting. One began from the swirling circle ahead and the other from behind.

"Zabaniya," they intoned in unison.

"Dead Heartbeat Melody-!"

"-Insulating Fog!"

An arm of one of the Assassin servants within the circle fired forward like a flexible whip, aimed straight at Reines. The girl fired bolts of magic and darted back, but the arm twisted around at impossible directions and speeds toward its target.

He didn't see the hand impact. Before he could, a darkness shrouded his eyes and shut out every sense he had. It felt as if he was floating in empty space but it wasn't something he was unfamiliar with. In fact, if he thought about it, the past few days he had felt like a spectator in his own body, however slight.

Looking around the vacant expanse, the boy wondered just how many times he was going to find himself in a state of altered consciousness during the Grail War. If past experience was anything to go off of, he could expect a couple dozen more times at the very least.

"Back so soon?" A haunting feminine voice reached out to him.

He couldn't even have a moment of peace while unconscious.

… … …

It had happened so fast. She had followed her instincts to the park, Shirou and the Lady Archisortie had launched into an argument and out of nowhere all while she was too stunned by the mere presence of the person she was supposed to be.

Normally she was good at sensing the presence of threats, but in an instant they were surrounded by foes far stronger than normal humans. It had barely taken a glance for her to know they were strong, but the ease in the way they shrugged off magical attacks made it obvious.

To make matters worse, she couldn't even properly defend herself. Shirou, Blade, was nearby; the same person Teacher had told her to avoid revealing Add to. There had been so much severity laced in his words that the thought of disobeying it felt worse than committing a crime.

There was a splash of bright sparks as Trimmau slid across the ground to catch an incoming strike. One of the people from the ring surrounding them had tried to attack but Trimmau was keen on defence. Holding back one, Gray was confused when the enemy refused to back away and a second approached from the circle.

She was weaponless, and without a weapon she was absolutely useless against the threat. Even Trimmau was pulling more weight than she was, but she could keep herself out of danger by using her natural agility.

Thankfully, she wouldn't have to use any of those skills. Trimmau extended herself and caught the second attack. So she thought anyway, until a hand - like a prehensile tail - snapped through the night beyond the capabilities of her own eyes. There was no way to tell its direction, it was too sporadic and random to be tracked in any capacity. Unable to defend herself let alone others, she could only guard her own body by throwing up her hands and shutting her eyes.

There was a visceral, wet noise and a soft muffled cry from behind. Turning to make sure Reines was alright, Gray was met with a hole. It was oddly shaped, three perfect circles around a common center - like a three-point Venn diagram.

And it was positioned in the center of Reines' chest.

There was no heart, but there was an unsettling amount of blood which poured freely from the wound. Gray couldn't take her eyes off the sight, even if there were enemies on all sides.

No amount of magecraft or medical care could fix such an injury and it had all happened in an instant.

She was dead.

As if emphasizing the point, Trimmau abruptly stopped and her entire form splashed to the ground in a large silvery puddle. A leathery stretch and the appendage that had committed the deed recoiled into the darkness. It was only then, when she tried to find the perpetrator, that she realized the enemy had vanished.

Reines wavered on the spot and Gray predicted what came next. Moving behind her, she caught the smaller woman before she could collapse on the ground. Holding her small frame, Gray couldn't help but fixate on the girl's petrified stare into the sky. Her eyes flickered sporadically in search of something but each one was vacant of life.

There wasn't any shock or dread in her own body. She was far too used to handling corpses so another one with a familiar face wasn't of much concern with her. To someone else, her calm demeanour might have been somewhat morbid but Reines hadn't been extraordinarily close to her and there was no sense mourning what couldn't be helped.

Settling Reines onto the ground and standing upright, Gray was frozen in uncertainty in what to do. She hadn't known Reines as well as Teacher had and she had ordered him around but she was still important to her and it had been her job to guarantee her safety. She had failed, but was she really at fault with the odds so stacked against her?

Examining her surroundings, the situation grew stranger. Not only had the enemy left, Shirou had disappeared as well. She was alone in a park with a dead friend at her feet and no clear direction. Deciding to be safe rather than sorry, the girl reached beneath her cape and withdrew a gilded birdcage with a small cube inside.

Saying its name to give instruction, the item solemnly claimed "got it" before she could finish. There was a soft flash of purple before the cage and the cube reformed into a man-sized scythe with a soft metallic clatter. Even in the moonlight, the gold segments glimmered brightly, harkening back to the fact that it had formed from the golden cage.

Without Shirou to bear witness, there was no chance that he could cause any problems. She could properly defend herself even if she was still being attacked.

"Do you sense anything?" she murmured vacantly. She could secure her own safety at least and prevent a false story from making its way back to Britain.

"Just one, but it's familiar. We should be safe, but I thought the same thing just a moment ago." Uncharacteristic to Add, his voice was stoic and unflinching. Was he feeling as out of place as she was?

Gray didn't know how he could be sure, but she had no reason not to trust him. A streak of blue and silver at the edge of her vision was all the warning she got before a woman stood peering around the park. She was dressed in rather effeminate silver and blue armour which was strangely intriguing and unique.

Any sense of intrigue vanished the moment she looked at the woman's face. Their features were identical, it was like looking in a mirror. Same eyes, same nose, same mouth.

At least their hair was different. Where she had shimmering silver, the woman ahead had glimmering gold. The two stared at another for some time before Gray opened her mouth to speak first.

Before she could, the scythe within her hands began speaking through a voice that hovered above her like a neutral spectator. "Do you have time to stay and talk tonight or are you too busy to hold a decent conversation, Arthur?" There was an odd coyness in his voice like he was specifically trying to tease her.

The woman's face shifted from analyzing to angry in an instant and Gray jumped reflexively. "Add, why would you-?"

"A talking weapon that knows my true name. I take it by its rambling mouth and your expression that it gets you into trouble quite often?" The woman nodded her head upwards toward Gray, speaking to her instead of the weapon. It was only then that Gray realized the woman was holding something. Clenched in both hands, the shaft of an invisible object sat pointed in her direction. If the two were almost identical, did she also have a weapon like Add that could become invisible? But then why would she seem taken aback by the fact that he could speak?

Gray opened her mouth but once again Add spoke on her behalf. "It's more like she gets us into trouble and I help her talk her way out." She was growing sick of being spoken over and the insult against her wasn't helping. Pursing her lips as Add hummed thoughtfully, she clenched her hands around the shaft of her weapon. "Come to think, that may sound rather familiar to you."

With a frustrated noise, Gray closed her magic circuits and watched as Add was forcefully converted back to his caged-cube form. Grabbing the top handle roughly, she shook him around wildly.

Ignoring his nauseous grunts and requests to stop, the girl composed herself once she felt her point had been made and inhaled deeply as her eyes landed on an identical pair. Where did she start? Was that who she was supposed to be? Could she see that they were the same person? There were so many questions and the longer she waited the harder it got to decide which to ask. Maybe it was best to start small. "My name is Gray and you must be King Arthur, is that right?"

The blonde blinked slowly before shaking her head. It seemed like just as many questions were swirling around her head as in Gray's own. Scrunching her face in mild agitation, the blonde lowered her hands and looked around. "My intention isn't to be rude, but where is my master? He appears to be here but I cannot see him."

Gray deflated. She wasn't even interested in her, all she could think about was her master. Considering the thought again, her head perked up to say, "Master?"

The woman nodded slowly as if dealing with a child. "A boy with white hair and tan skin, did you see where he went?"

Gray shook her head and unconsciously peered down at the dead form of Reines. "There was a lot going on, I didn't happen to see."

The blonde seemed to notice the body for the first time or she connected the dots at the very least. Her tone vastly shifted to be much softer. "I see," after taking a full breath she continued. "I'm sorry for your loss and I wish I could do or say more but I have a grave problem of my own to handle."

Turning, the blonde approached the spot Shirou had been standing a moment ago with haste. It was difficult, but Gray swore she heard her murmur something about a signal being at that exact spot. Caught in indecision, a soft "psst" made her look at the recently rattled cage within her own grasp.

"I hate to say it so recently, but you aren't being guided by the hand anymore. Without Reines, you're going to have to start taking some initiative without waiting for other people to tell you." Gray's face relaxed as the crude words of wisdom sank into her mind. "I think the first step you should take is to help that woman and get close to her."

It was crass and quite possibly ill-timed, but the advice was solid regardless. She momentarily wondered why Add was so obstinate in getting them to talk. Then again, she was just as curious and interested as well. The new, inspired confidence squashed the hesitation given by the woman herself and Gray found herself walking toward the blonde with a question on the tip of her tongue.

"Can I help you in any way?" The blonde woman spared a glance in her direction before resuming her search of empty grass ahead of her.

"That depends. Do you have an understanding of magecraft?" When the girl nodded ecstatically, King Arthur knelt and touched the grass. "Is there a spell which has the ability to hide or alter the location of a magus?" From what she was able to eavesdrop earlier, the miniature king seemed to sense a signal from Shirou.

Gray took a moment to reflect on her classes with Lord El Melloi. There were many spells she knew of, but couldn't cast. Several she had only garnered glimpses of that were beyond comprehension, but nothing she could think of had an effect like the one King Arthur suggested. The only spell close was one used to disguise and mask the outward signal produced by a magus' circuitry, though it was usually used to conceal a magus' workshop and it couldn't replicate a signal in another area.

Shaking her head softly, Gray responded in the negative and continued with an explanation. "There are spells which hide but no spell can replicate a signal without some sort of transmitter."

The blonde hummed and spoke to herself aloud. "There is nothing out of the ordinary here." Sighing in mild frustration, the woman murmured almost under her breath. "Where are you, Shirou?"

"Arthur," a voice grunted from below.

The blonde's head snapped around to look at Gray like she had just insulted her family. Recoiling, Gray reflexively brought up the cage to eye-level, using it as a shield to deflect the king's ire. "You may call me Saber," was all she responded with.

"Fine, fine, Saber then. Obviously you don't recognize me, otherwise you'd be a lot more cordial."

Judging by the way the self-identified Saber scrunched her face, she was more likely to crush Add than be friendly with him. "This conversation would be far less frustrating if you were outright with your relation."

The cube in the cage jumped which made a soft metal noise. "Have I stumped the great King of Knights in dialogue already?"

Anger was clearly sprawled across Saber's face. Gray could say that if she were the focus of such rage she wouldn't be as calm or laughing as Add was. "If you do not produce your na-" In a flash, the anger on Saber's face shifted from anger to a questioning stare. "It cannot be. That voice, such irritating teasing." Understanding bloomed on her features. "Sir Kay?"

"In the cage!"

Gray's reactions didn't even have the time to activate before the cage was ripped from her grasp. Blinking in surprise, she watched as the blonde beamed at the trapped object like a child would a toy. "How can this be?"

"It is a long story, one I've been hoping to tell to another for a long time. Perhaps it's best we talk about it later, once whatever matter you're focused on is resolved." With a sharp, short nod of the head, she was set on the right path, just as Gray always was. It made the girl wonder just how similar the two were if Add could guide and direct them both with such ease.

It seemed as if that moment seemed to be when Saber actually examined the object within her hands and the look of familiarity deepened. "Something else about you is familiar, though I cannot put my finger on it."

Gray felt a pang of worry strike her chest and she reached out to reclaim the cage for herself. Realizing how rude she had been to take it in the first place, Saber relinquished Add without another word. "S-so what is it that we need to do?" Nervously, the girl replaced the cage beneath her cloak, much to the object's dismay.

Saber spoke, but Gray was much more focused on her own personal questions than the voice of another. The genuine King Arthur really stood before her, didn't she? If she had any doubt before, she had none any longer. The recognition of Add's personality and the fact she could recognize her own former weapon within him proved it.

Saber moved out of her sight and Gray snapped from her own thoughts back to reality. Keeping pace behind the short woman, she wondered where they were heading despite not listening a moment prior. There was a soft murmur she did catch at least. "Rin can decide what to do with you." Gray didn't know who 'Rin' was, but something else caught her attention before she could ask.

The tips of her bangs had changed from silver to gold.

… … …

… … …

It was like he had been dropped out of a sack. One moment there had been darkness and taunting from the ghost haunting his mind and the next there was soft light and damp coldness. The entire situation was odd. He couldn't have awoken from unconsciousness otherwise he would have been groggy and disoriented, which he wasn't. He was alert and his eyes didn't even need adjusting to the change in light. It was as if he had been transported to a new location without his brain being aware of the movement.

Hardwood flooring, cloth walls, a missing ceiling and expensive-looking wooden furniture? Just where was he? Turning, he spotted a plush-looking bed but that wasn't the only thing.

A set of arms were being thrown in his direction and something violet obscured his view. The weight sent him stumbling backwards but an outstretched hand caught the dresser's edge behind him and kept him upright.

A head pressed against his chest and two arms wrapped around to squeeze tight. The contact activated his flight or fight senses and his body autonomously traced the attached body to reveal a woman in a flowing white dress. She was warm, and the warmth and her scent brought a sense of calming familiarity. Peering down he spotted bright violet hair. It was-

"Sakura!" Throwing one arm around the girl, he pressed her tight. He would have used both had he not quickly remembered that one of his arms was holding them both up. "Where are we?" Not bothering to wait for an answer, the boy took a risk and sent a tracing pulse through the dresser into the floor to gather a layout of their surroundings.

The room they were in was solitary and singular, one unit set amidst an expansive cave below Fuyuki's surface. Immediately his eyes snapped open, but not because of the odd location. Surrounding the room were dozens of servants, ambling about within the dark expanse.

His eyes focused forward as a soft thump on wood sounded through the room. Two orbs of blue fire stared back at him set into the eyeholes of a half-skull mask. "You are located within a safe place away from the War."

Sakura twisted against him to look back at the servant. The shift in her weight meant he could move his hand off the dresser and stand upright. Moving to his side, Sakura left one arm on his back and slipped under his arm to use him as protection. Taking the role willingly, Shirou narrowed his eyes and started to prepare himself for a fight before remembering something crucial.

Sakura was a master and Assassin was her servant.

The servant must have been able to read his thoughts through his face because he laughed sickeningly. "Indeed, both of your conclusions are correct. I do not comprehend why you two appear frightened, however." The servant creaked forward and a sudden dizziness struck Shirou out of nowhere. It felt as if his entire sense of balance had been disturbed, almost as if they were on a ship. "With you together, the risk of catastrophe is at its lowest. You should both be grateful."

"Apologies if I don't express my gratitude for being kidnapped." There wasn't even a chance he could win a fight in these conditions. Outnumbered, outclassed, outsmarted, he was at the servant's mercy for now. Something that did come to him rather late was an odd numbness in his nose. He couldn't smell the dampness of the cave anymore and the prickling reminded him of the time he caught a whiff of powdered ginger.

The servant straightened but the numbness persisted. Examining their body was an effort of futility. Their entire form was inky black, detail-less despite having some light and his enhanced eyes. Even their overall physique was a mystery due to the odd shape of their body. It was like they were wearing a cloak but a visual trace informed him absolutely nothing as if it didn't exist. The only thing that gave him results was the mask on their face, genuine human bone several centuries old and enchanted with magecraft he couldn't comprehend.

The flame in the Assassin's eyes flickered almost like it could tell and was agitated with the tracing. "Regardless, you will be cared for until the War's end. Exercise common sense and you will be unharmed. You may speak with your servant and do as you wish, however, attempts to summon them using your command seals will prove," the servant trailed off and a sickly shadow seemed to extend from the edges of their body, blocking out the light until all he could focus on were the two orbs of flame that formed its eyes. "Less than beneficial to your health."

Just as quickly as the shadows had appeared, they returned into Assassin's body. With a soft bow, they faded into a shadow and disappeared from the room.

He was trapped. He could talk to Saber, but bringing her to him would be sentencing both of them to death. Fighting their way out with such a disadvantage was foolish, impossible. How could he have been so stupid to get himself in such a situation? He was reunited with Sakura, sure, but his chance at ending the War peacefully or on his own terms was gone. Why had he ignored his senses in the park? He knew he was being watched but he had only been focused on dealing with Reines and Gray.

Was Gray safe?

Was Saber still alive?

How was he supposed to escape?

Had they already found Kiritsugu's hideout and Illya?

"Senpai, that hurts." A mewl of pain shook him from his questions and made him look downward. Unconsciously, he had gripped Sakura's shoulder to pull her tight and he had been squeezing her far too tight.

Releasing the girl, he apologized and mentally kicked himself. If nothing else, he had met with Sakura as he wanted to. "Are you alright?"

She tilted her head and offered an odd look before nodding sheepishly. "Assassin treats me very well. You should really worry about yourself, Senpai."

Peering up at him with shimmering purple eyes, he couldn't tell whether she was happy or upset that he was with her. Both emotions had their reasonings. "Do you know where we are?" She shook her head. Uncoiling his arm from around her, the boy took a step away toward the door. "I'm going to try and contact Saber." Clasping both hands over her heart, she gave another quick nod.

Turning the knob and opening the door he was met with a wall of darkness. Mildly unsettled, he took a cautious step through and fell off the landing to the stone floor below. Immediately he felt a dozen sets of eyes bore through his skull.

Flinching at the sensation, he took a few steps away and inhaled deeply to try and shake the stinging in his nose from earlier. Closing his eyes he found Avalon shimmering away and from it, the thin lines of mana binding him and the relic through contract to Saber. Focusing on it intently, he began to project his voice. "Saber, can you hear me?"

A few seconds passed where all he could hear was the soft patter of water drops surrounding him. He tried again and received an immediate answer with concern in every syllable. "Shirou, where are you?"

He scrunched up his face subconsciously. "I'm in a cave somewhere, are you still at the park?"

"No, we returned to the Tohsaka manor a few moments ago. You've been gone for twenty minutes." Taking a deep breath, he was relieved that it hadn't been hours.

"Wait, what do you mean we?"

"Reines was killed by Assassin, something rather fortunate to our plan. Gray decided to accompany me and assist in finding you."

Shirou breathed out a deep sigh. She was safe, the two could talk and Saber wouldn't take off his head. "If you're at Rin's, could you ask her to talk to Archer for me? See if he knows if there are any caves near Fuyuki. I could figure out my location but it'll be easier through him because you'll need to find the entrance."

"Would it not be easier to summon me via command seal?"

The boy shook his head. "You might survive against a dozen servants but there's no way I would."

Saber agreed and the boy was stuck waiting in the damp cave until she returned. No matter how hard he tried to force the feeling down, he couldn't stop his senses from telling him he was being watched. No matter where he looked, another set of eyes bored into the back of his skull. He was a rabbit before wolves and he hated the feeling every second it lasted.

"There is a cave, beneath Ryuudou Temple. Archer claims the entrance lies on Mount Enzou. Lancer and I can mount an assault but it won't be today. Dawn is around the corner and we need to plan our attack." So at the very least, he would need to wait a full day.

Even then, Archer was wounded and he was the only one with any real chance at taking Assassin at their combined might. Almost conveniently for the servant, he was injured and wouldn't be able to use his reality marble. It was as if everything was preordained and Assassin had known from the beginning.

Keeping his eyes closed and taking deep breaths to relax himself, Shirou tried to think of any possible way he could get himself out of Assassin's hands. Archer was wounded, Saber and Lancer wouldn't have enough strength to get them out without blowing the entire cave and everyone inside apart.

If he could only activate his own reality marble. Then he could help Saber and Lancer and end a servant all at once.

Reciting the incantation Archer used again for good measure got him nowhere. Nothing happened beyond the first two lines. It meant nothing to him, there was no meaning to the words he was speaking. The only way he could summon his reality marble was to forge an entire aria on his own.

If the aria was meant to capture his inner world, what did he really believe in? What actions and words could he make that would define his life and who he was as a person inside?

With a scoff, he eventually gave up.

He couldn't think of anything that defined him that was even remotely similar to Archer's incantation.

Turning, the boy opened his eyes to a marginally brighter darkness that led to the open door of Sakura's solitary room. Stepping inside and closing the door, a sudden realization came to him.

There was only one room, one bed and he was expected to stay the night. It might have been frivolous to wonder where he would be sleeping when he was a prisoner to a servant, but he couldn't help himself. Sleeping in the same bed was taking things a little far when the most he and Sakura had ever done was kiss.

"Senpai?" Lifting his head to look into Sakura's eyes as she sat on the bed he found something odd within. It was almost as if she had the same thought and had enjoyed the implications. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

The boy scratched the back of his neck. "I was thinking about some stuff." Scanning the room for an excuse, he came up empty. "It's pretty late, so I guess we should go to sleep." It only took a simple thought to dispel the armour covering his casual attire. "Is there an extra blanket?"

Repeating the end of his question, the Matou girl looked around her and the queen-sized bed and its single comforter. "Why can't you sleep on the bed? It should be big enough for the both of us." Patting the surface invitingly, Shirou wondered if it would be excessively rude to sleep on the floor anyway.

Slowly inhaling, he came to the conclusion that he wasn't going to be able to avoid her hospitality. Still, he couldn't shake the nagging thought that she was maliciously manipulating him for her own reasons.

"Alright, fine," he grumbled, while removing his shirt and shoes. He was used to being shirtless around people. Whether he was training or sleeping, people often saw him so it wasn't all that great a deal. However, with Sakura and him alone, there was a strange lechery in her gaze that made him feel awkward as he approached the bed.

As if in a stupor, the girl blinked rapidly and lifted a hand to gently rest on his bare chest. Trailing her fingertips on his skin, she abruptly focused on the scar and half-decayed flesh joining his left arm to his shoulder. While she moved to touch the discoloured skin, he murmured an excuse about not being careless.

Sakura was strange in how she reacted to him getting hurt. It was as if she took each injury personally and suffered alongside him - while also reprimanding him heavily for carelessness in the process.

As her hand traced, he saw her eyes grow watery but no tears escaped. Unsure of what to do or say but unwilling to sit idle and watch her cry over something in the past, he used one hand to guide her chin so she was focused on his face. "I'm fine, nothing happened, see?" Assuring her, he lifted his left hand and manipulated each of his fingers. "You don't need to worry about me so much."

The sentence left his mouth but he didn't even believe it himself. He knew as well as she did that he was on the edge of losing his life at every turn in the Grail War. It wasn't just physically anymore, not since that night at the Einzbern castle. Shirou didn't know whether to feel grateful or guilty that she was unaware of how close he was to slipping away mentally.

Staring like a lost child into his eyes, she blinked and the moisture caught within finally dripped free down her cheek. "You're all I can care about," she murmured. "You're here because I wanted you to be close."

Breathing deeply, his head grew heavy with the gentle scent of Sakura's perfume mingled with the chilled damp smell of the cave. Feeling the beat of his own heartbeat in the still room, his eyes unconsciously flickered from Sakura's own to her slightly parted lips. He was familiar with the feeling but it had never been so unignorable before. It was as if she had caught him in a web and escaping from her embrace was impossible. Still, it felt odd to try and calm her down by giving in to his own urges.

But he was already moving closer. Guided on autopilot, his body had already leaned forward and his hand had lifted her face just enough to grant access. Was it wrong to relinquish control? There was a chance this was the last time he could ever see or touch Sakura, would it be best to make the most out of the opportunity?

His eyes shut and a soft pressure landed against his lips.

Could he really let himself indulge in a moment of respite?

… … …

Moonlight from a clear night sky streamed through the large windows of the sitting room. Coupled with the ambient soft flickering of a sparse handful of candles, the light was just enough for everyone present to gather a reasonable silhouette of the other. The lights had been left off for a small litany of reasons, with the foremost being that it reduced overall visibility to the enemy and the most inconsequential being that dawn was about to break.

Rin gently settled a cup of tea upon a matching plate on the coffee table. "If someone had told me I would meet two people with matching servant clones a year ago I think I would have laughed." There wasn't so much as a chuckle toward her attempt at a joke. "Now that I'm here and I have to deal with it, it's really not that funny."

Nobody laughed, but Saber did take a soft breath and break the silence with conversation. "Your name is Gray, correct?" The hooded girl nodded softly. "I suppose it would be best if you told me your story. I must admit that I am rather interested to hear how and why you came about."

The girl named Gray shuffled in her seat and reached up to tug the edges of her hood so it could better conceal her face. She struggled to form a string of words that was coherent enough to understand before a muffled voice from her hip spoke on her behalf.

"She might not want to talk, but that doesn't mean I can't!" There was a large metal crash as a small blue and gold cube exploded out from beneath Gray's cloak and onto the floor. Hopping along, it spoke with some haste as Gray leapt from her seat to try and silence it.

The cube explained Gray's early life on her behalf all while jumping around the room avoiding Gray's attempts at catching it. It told of a remote village hidden from civilization with the ultimate goal of resurrecting King Arthur for them to serve under once more. After decades of eugenics and planning, Gray came to be the culmination of their efforts. With her body a perfect match, all that was left was to replace her mind. Before such a thing could even take place she was taken away by Lord El Melloi the Second and tutored within the Clock Tower.

"While the transition between girl and reincarnated king might have been stopped, I will say that the difference in how you both appear to me is closing rather fast now that you're in the same room." Abruptly, the cube stopped hopping around the room and turned to face Gray. Making a desperate lunge, the girl slammed both hands over it and released a soft huff in her victory. Albeit muffled, the cube clearly stated a smug "I'm done now, she can probably stumble through the rest."

Judging by the small upward curl of Saber's lips, she was doing her best to hide her amusement. Just as quickly as the emotion had appeared, it vanished into neutrality. "I apologize for what you have gone through and I am glad to hear it was stopped." The hands settled upon her knees gradually tightened. "Had I the time, I would visit and offer this village a piece of my mind."

"I tried to tell them you wouldn't agree with it but no, don't listen to the cube which houses an esteemed knight from the Round Table, what would he know?" Despite Gray's muffling hands the cube continued speaking defiantly.

Ignoring the cube's retort, Saber focused on Gray herself. "Where does the cube fit into all of this?"

Realizing she was being spoken to directly, the silver-haired girl reeled back her hands and stuffed the cube somewhere beneath her cloak. With an odd momentary pause before resuming, she seemed nonchalant in saying, "Add is just a mystic code."

Ignoring a barely audible scoff, Saber continued unflinchingly. "How is it that one of my knights came to be trapped within a magical cube?"

Gray shuffled nervously on the spot. "It's not Sir Kay exactly. Add was based off his personality and took some of his memories but they aren't the same."

From his leaned spot against the wall, Lancer produced a soft hum. "While I am not as familiar with Sir Kay as with the King, I had wondered why he seemed brasher than I recalled."

An irate tone from beneath Gray's cloak interjected itself once again. "You try being patient and pleasant after being trapped in a birdcage for more than a thousand years!"

Rin audibly cleared her throat. "While it might be rude, I can see that this conversation is going to get you nowhere with so many interruptions. If you're interested, you two can speak in private in one of the guest rooms but the cube, Add, will have to stay behind." The near-twin girls shot Rin and then one another a look in silence. "While you're busy, the rest of us will form a plan to rescue Shirou."

Add spouted his objections to the plan, obviously, but after being deposited on the floor and threatened with being covered with pillows, he agreed to watch in - relative - silence.

"Regarding Shirou's rescue," Archer began as the two made their way out of the room. "I have a distinct feeling that's going to be harder than we expect. Saber and I were able to hold Assassin off in the backyard but that was all we could do. They left, not because they were outnumbered or outgunned, but because they wanted to."

Twisting her head over her shoulder to look at her servant, Rin asked the first question on her mind. "Do you think they could handle four servants?"

"It's situational but in this specific situation, it's almost certain they would win, even against four or five coordinated servants. Typically, Assassin has to make hit and run strikes on their target because they are unable to handle a direct confrontation. This Assassin has only fought directly and they've stopped themselves before finishing the job every time."

Rin placed her chin within a thoughtful hand. "They have to have a weakness of some sort. Do you have a clue on what their true name is?"

The servant shook his head and opened his mouth to speak but Lancer beat him to the punch. "You should know everything there is to know about the War, considering your identity. How did you defeat Assassin in your War?"

Archer shook his head and crossed both arms over his chest. One of them had nearly been taken off the night prior but had healed to appear unharmed. "We aren't the same person, despite sharing a name and a face. Everything in this War has been new to me and none of the knowledge I have could help, especially in this case."

Lancer pursed his lips. "Do you have any idea on how to win?"

The man closed his eyes and made a deep exhale. "I'm still wounded from the other night but my noble phantasm would be enough to handle Assassin. In order to kill them, you would need access to unstoppable amounts of firepower or be brutal enough to take them all on at once - phantasms and all."

"So you can do it then?"

The servant shook his head. "I might not look it but I'm still recuperating from my earlier battle. If I went now, a single attack would be enough to destabilize my hold in this world."

Rin shot her servant a scrutinizing glare. "Do you think it's such a good idea to tell them something so sensitive?"

The man shrugged. "We are supposed to be working as allies. It's crucial for them to know that I'm incapable of assault in my current state otherwise they might put too much faith in my abilities."

The Tohsaka offered a long look at her servant before she faced forward to release a sigh. "I suppose you're right. So what do you think our chances of recovering Shirou are?"

"In all honesty, pretty low. Assassin isn't likely to go easy on their own turf and considering the location itself, we're at an extreme disadvantage." Realizing that nobody knew what he was thinking, the servant explained further. "It's a cave with no natural lighting. While servants can see far better than humans in the dark, we still have a limit." Closing his eyes softly, the servant continued. "As if being sightless isn't bad enough, Assassin has the innate ability of presence concealment. All of that means we won't know where, when or how they might strike until they already have."

"So you're saying it's hopeless," Lancer surmised.

"More or less, but if you're determined regardless of the chances, we have options."

Lancer tilted his head and donned a questioning look which clashed with his perpetual, sad smile. "From having no chance to having options. You are certainly an interesting tactician."

Avoiding commentating on the minor insult but narrowing his eyes regardless, Archer continued. "While I was fighting, Assassin seemed to be injured by the light produced by some of my weaponry. It's not a guarantee but there is a chance they're weak to light itself." Without letting anyone else jump in with snide commentary, he pressed on. "Our other option lies with Shirou."

Rin stood upright and made a noise of comprehension. "Of course, if Shirou could activate his reality marble, he would be able to fight his own way out!"

Archer shrugged but a disgusted grimace remained on his face. "It's certainly an option, albeit far from the best."

Rin turned to face her servant. "Why would you say it like that? Not only would Shirou be stronger, he'll be safe!"

Archer slowly shook his head. "If that is what you believe, you lack a crucial point in understanding what it means to be Shirou Emiya." When Rin questioned what such a comment meant, he carried on as if she never had. "If you chose the superior option, we have three people who possess weapons or items which produce light, two of which can duplicate them for others to use."

"You must be talking about Shirou and yourself. Does that mean you've already shown him all the weapons you have during your fight?"

The servant shrugged passively again. "Technically," was all he said.

Clenching her jaw, it was obvious to see Rin's growing dissatisfaction with a servant who refused to answer her questions clearly. Angrily, the girl thrust up her right hand so the back was facing Archer. "I thought you would start being more cooperative once you found out this Shirou wasn't the one you were thinking of. Then when you said he was worse, I figured you were going to try to help him. Instead, all you're doing is giving cryptic answers that don't explain anything!"

The command seals on her hand began to glow a bright crimson and the servant stiffened as the power held within threatened to activate. "Now just wait-"

"I'm not waiting anymore goddamnit! You've been trying to keep me complacent for long enough and it's time I start being the master!"

Archer actually seemed hesitant. "Be reasonable, Rin; I know what you're thinking of doing. A command seal cannot enforce absolute subservience in all things."

"He's right, such a request would be practically useless. Do not waste a command seal," Lancer chimed in.

Rin's face split into an evil grin. "It's almost funny that you think you know me. It just sets you apart from Shirou even more. You might know the Rin from your time well, but you don't know me at all." Lifting her hand higher and speaking with newfound authority, she chanted her command to the crystalized mana. "You will answer all of my questions with the greatest clarity and accuracy that you possibly can." A flash of crimson light pulsed through the room and the servant of the bow grimaced with one closed eye as if in pain. Huffing angrily and crossing her arms, she asked, with more than a touch of smugness, "What do you think about that?"

Archer's mouth shifted several times as if he were trying to speak but was held short. "I didn't expect it," was what he claimed in the end.

"Now tell me again why unlocking Shirou's reality marble isn't the best idea."

It was like Archer had turned into a machine. His body stiffened and his mouth began speaking a monotonous, stiff sentence. "To unlock the reality marble means to suffer untold amounts of pain."

Squinting one eye and looking downward as if at his own mouth, Archer seemed incredibly annoyed with the development. Conversely, Rin had softened as the servant's true intentions were revealed. "So you were trying to protect him without being obvious." Murmuring to herself, the girl's shoulders relaxed and the room settled into an awkward silence.

Eventually, Lancer cleared his throat. "So what sort of light-based weapon did you have in mind for me?"

… … …

… … …

The air in the cave was chilled and damp. It smelt of mould and if he focused hard enough, something evil. Whatever it was, it was eerily familiar to Fuyuki Central Park, but why it was he could only guess.

None of those thoughts reached him in the small room. It was small and under the blankets, comfortingly warm. The only thing he could concern himself with was the soft hair and small hands resting on his chest moving ever so slightly with Sakura's peaceful rhythmic breathing.

She had never been a particularly strong woman. She was quiet, reserved and desperate to maintain an image of innocence despite the opposite. Now, sleeping on top of him and wrapped in his arms, she felt incredibly weak.

There was so much frailty in her body and her movements, even her voice made it sound as if she was on the edge of shattering like porcelain. In a way, that made the two very similar. Both of them were steadily bringing themselves to their own demise.

As if a reminder, a part of his own mind told him how easy it would be to kill her, to eliminate a master in the Grail War and a potential hazard to the world itself.

Thankfully the part of him that knew Sakura as his girlfriend, a woman who merely wanted out of an unfortunate life she had been cast in, was louder.

There had been a plan. Between himself, Kiritsugu and Caren, there had been a plan to rescue Sakura from the Matou clan as his father had years ago. It had to be done during the Grail War, when Zouken was distracted and unwilling to stick his head out on account of the servants.

Their plan had been established around the fact that Sakura would be a master, that she would leave her home to watch over her servant in battle as most other masters did. The fact that she didn't leave her house was a complication, but it didn't prevent their plan entirely. It merely needed reworking.

What halted all progress was Caren's own servant. Berserker. There was no chance for contact with Caren so long as he was alive. All he was concerned with was finding victory in the Grail War, either by killing the servants, their masters or both. Whether he could get Sakura or not didn't matter because an integral component, Caren herself, was trapped behind another servant.

Until she was free and able to help in purging the worms from Sakura's body, there was no chance of a successful rescue. If Zouken believed there was the barest possibility of losing control, he would kill her.

Moving his hand to run his fingers through the girl's hair, these thoughts drifted from his mind and the current moment took their place. The conflicting sides of his mind stopped battling for supremacy and he could refocus on what he felt was important. Lifting his hand off her head to peer at the skin in the darkness, he questioned why he was at odds with himself.

It had started after the fight with Berserker and it had only gotten worse as the days passed by. Initially a whisper, the dark thoughts had grown to the point where they were almost overtaking the rational, good part of him. Bringing the same hand to his forehead, he whispered two soft words to begin tracing his own body. He needed to go deeper than skin, as deep as his magecraft would allow to see what sort of alteration, if any, had taken place.

He had hypothesized that his reality marble had afflicted his body in some way, but he had always been hesitant to find out for sure. Being honest, he was scared of what he might find and the longer he went without checking, the greater his fear became.

Shutting his eyes, the trace created an image of his skull and brain. He didn't get beyond the front half before something extremely wrong slapped him in the face. There was metal inside his brain.

It wasn't as if he had been a victim of shrapnel or something had been projected in the wrong place. The metal was microscopic in scale and it dominated a portion of his frontal lobe. It was no different from the fragments that circulated with his blood while under the effects of his internalized reality marble.

What was different was that it remained so long after the last activation and it was spreading like some sort of cancer. It wasn't moving far or fast, but it was steadily marching from the front of his brain toward the back.

He didn't have a comparison to determine the rate of expansion and it was slow enough to be impossible to gauge just by watching and observing. Reeling back to reality from his self x-ray, a pressure edged its way into his chest. It was bad, it was really bad. There was no telling just how much damage something like that could or would do and it was undoubtedly going to get worse. How would he start to fix it?

He had deactivated his incompleted reality marble days ago, what else was he supposed to do? That was the only possible cause, was it not?

The questions swirled like a tropical storm. His thoughts had changed, but how deep did the changes really go? Had aspects of himself been altered that he didn't even know? It was easy to pass it off and claim that he could keep the dark thoughts away, but what if his entire personality was being overwritten without him even knowing?

He felt lost, empty as if everything was crushing him and he didn't know what to do or where to even start. It was choking, overwhelming and his breath began to catch in his throat. Was this what Archer had warned him of?

Who was he?

A whisper as silent as a breeze tickled his right ear. "Your mind is as a brewing storm." Opening his eyes and shifting his gaze to the right, he found a skull mask staring back at him with unlit eyes. Slowly a single clawed digit was raised over where the being's lips would be. Pensive, but without reason to disobey, the boy held his tongue.

The servant continued. "Whether you continue to deceive yourself or not is moot, you have started a timer and without proper care, the you as you know yourself to be will cease." The voice was barely audible in the room but Shirou could hear every word with clarity. The servant's finger moved out to touch one sharp tip against his forehead. "Salvation from your plight lies within. You already have parts to the key."

Suddenly the mask turned and looked in a seemingly random direction. After a moment of looking in silence, it returned its gaze to him but flickers of blue flame began to stir in the eye sockets. "A matter requires our immediate attention. Rest assured you will remain protected."

Without another word or moment wasted, the servant disappeared in a wispy cloud of smoke. In the servant's absence, Shirou wondered why he would say such a thing. Wouldn't that just give him the idea to escape?

"Be careful, Assassin."

The soft murmur from his chest and the hands wrapping tighter around his body explained it.

How long had Sakura been awake?

… … …

"I don't know if your masters filled you in on the rules, but we aren't supposed to be here." With an aggravated tone, the half-dressed man lazily sauntered down the cobblestone path, using his staff as a walking aid.

Ahead, illuminated by dim moonlight, sat the solemn stonework of Fuyuki Church. Being neutral ground for the war, servants were forbidden from entering their grounds unless under special request by the mediator themselves.

"I know the rules, but I'm telling you this is where Berserker's master is." Regardless, some didn't seem to abide by rules. Considering who it was, such a thing didn't come as a surprise to him.

With a soft shake of the head and resigned sigh, Caster peered over his shoulder at the three women walking behind. "Every word I hear from this woman's mouth makes me want to impale myself on the nearest sharp object."

In his mind, he could hear his master snort in laughter. "It can't honestly be that bad. At least you don't have to deal with children who think they're more experienced than you."

Facing the church once more, Caster spared a look at his supposed partner. "You didn't fight this woman and her army for most of your life to save your country's people. It's like you trying to work together with someone who's killed your entire family."

Rider spoke at his side but Caster cared too little for the content to reach his ears. "I wasn't aware it was that serious for you. If that's the case, why were you so willing when I brought it up with you?"

Rolling his eyes, the two servants passed the perimeter gates of the church. "I wasn't in a position to argue with it at the time. It was either work together or die pitifully because I was caught off guard."

"Maybe if you had used your noble phantasm..." she trailed on. It wasn't a very subtle jab at her words that night, but it was quite effective all the same.

Something irritating pulled at his ear and with a violent slap of the hand it ceased. "You weren't listening so I wanted to make sure you could hear," a grating voice said.

"Yeah, yeah, I was listening." Shutting an eye and rubbing his ear, he prepared his mind to deal with Medb's ramblings. "Just for kicks though, summarize whatever it was you said so it's as short as possible and run it by me again. I've gotta hear things twice so it can stick."

Despite his guidance, Medb seemed to miss the "simplify" part of his request. At the very least she softened her voice so it wasn't as painful on the ears. "I was just wondering if we can really beat Berserker. He handled Saber and Lancer on his own without breaking a sweat." To say he was surprised was a vast understatement. There was no way Berserker could handle two of the knight-class servants and live, let alone beat them away...right?

"Without breaking a sweat, huh?"

"Yeah but then their master sent him packing once his servants couldn't. That made me wonder. Maybe Berserker isn't powerful, maybe Saber and Lancer are just weak. After we deal with Berserker, we could take those two out and then Assassin is the last one left." Beaming brightly, the girl tried to wrap her arms around his but the servant planned ahead and stumbled to prevent her from ever grabbing hold.

She was definitely stretching her idea of them working together to its limits. There was no possible way he was working with Medb any longer after tonight. Bazett had told him it would only be until the hardest servant was defeated, but even if they failed tonight he'd had enough of her for a lifetime - as if he hadn't already in the last.

"Caster, Rider," an Irish voice stopped them short a few feet from the front door. "Let's not go in weapons drawn. If we're wrong, there's no telling what sort of punishment that would get us."

Rider huffed audibly and landed both hands on her hips. "I take that as an insult. There's no way I could mistake that man's scent and it definitely led back to this church."

Rolling his eyes again, Caster leaned most of his weight on his staff. "Big surprise, you see a powerful warrior and latch onto his scent like a bloodhound."

"That's enough out of you two." With a corrective swat to both of their heads, Bazett strode past and wrapped a gloved hand around an oversized brass handle. "You should focus more on the common enemy and not the rivalry between yourselves."

"I'd have to agree. You two are far more focused on each other than what might lie behind that door." A significantly more pompous voice squeezed its way between Caster and Rider, grabbing hold of the handle on the other door. "If you aren't one hundred percent ready, this might be where we all die."

Caster opened his mouth to speak as the two women pushed open the heavy doors. Before he could utter a syllable, a flash of blue light from the door crack and around its edge caught his eye. There wasn't time to do much, but he could do enough to save the three masters around him.

A quick toss and jab forward with his hand pressed the head of his staff against the wooden door, slamming it closed. Unable to move the staff itself to create runes, the man stretched his free hand forward and drew on the wooden surface to scrawl characters with mana.

Caster was a certified expert in rune magecraft. His speed and prowess were only outmatched by Scáthach herself and even then it was almost neck-and-neck. Regardless, he was only able to successfully form two characters for defence and bonding before the entire door was struck with unimaginable force.

The applied runes had bonded the two halves of the door together but there was no strengthening directed to the hinges. The force easily blasted the doors from its frame and sent the combined doorway. With the door colliding against the sides of their bodies, the two servants and their respective masters were blown back but unharmed by the wave of energy that swirled around them.

While being sent back from the Church, a realization struck Caster. A large stone statue sat directly behind the door; in other words, directly within their line of travel. If it wasn't removed — and quickly — they would all be crushed against it. Twisting his head, he momentarily stopped reinforcing the door to fire an explosive magic projectile at the statue.

The noise of the explosion was nothing compared to the deafening drone of the beam surrounding them. Likewise, the pebbles and ambient debris from the statue were incomparable to the wave of heat surrounding them trying to breach their door-based barrier.

They were in the midst of some sort of beam attack, a likely attempt by the servant within to kill them off quickly before they could even see one another. Resuming his reinforcement of the door via runes, Caster noted cracks that already formed throughout the entire door's structure. Chunks of wood flew off wildly as the energy stripped away their only barrier between life and death

Bazett, formerly trying to open the left door, had been sent sprawling to the far side and was struggling to keep herself against the door. Just under her arm was a crack deeper than the rest which threatened to break off at any moment. As precaution, Caster reared himself forward to haul Bazett closer toward the center by the shoulder. In the middle of moving her, a large chunk of the door split off and disintegrated. Searing pain ran up the length of his arm as the beam bathed his flesh before he could react fast enough to snatch his hand out of harm's way. Tucking his body tighter to stay protected behind the barrier, the torrent of energy ended abruptly and the door slid underneath his feet as it was no longer forced upright by the beam. The three masters, reactions too slow to adjust, all fell to the ground on top of the door. Both servants had the reflexes to leap forward over the obstacle and prepare for another attack.

It came faster than they could expect and both servants lifted their weapons to intercept a blur of black and crimson. Too fast, way too fast. He was a servant, superior to any human, but even Caster's senses couldn't keep up.

It was only at the moment of contact that Caster could see a solid glimpse of a translucent crimson blade. In the span of a blink, a rattling wave of recoil coursed through every fibre of Caster's body, travelling through his feet into the pavement. Even with Rider assisting in holding the servant back, the two were launched backwards off their feet and sent skidding along the floor past their masters.

Moving backwards he could at least get a full view of their attacker. The crimson sword was attached to a man wearing odd, modern-looking armour which featured metal spikes and armour plating at critical points. The mask they wore was the heaviest looking component of their outfit. Made entirely of metal, the two glowing blue circles for eyes offered a sinister component.

While neither of them had anything threatening in terms of strength, two servants - even weaker ones - could hold back a single weapon of another much stronger one. Against Berserker, even the two of them hadn't been enough to hold him that wasn't surprising enough, all of that power had come from a servant swinging his sword with one hand.

Landing on the ground, his mind snapped back to reality. The system-wide shake brought a flare of pain from his left arm. Sparing one glance down at himself before refocusing on his enemy, Caster saw burnt flesh from where his limb had contacted the energy.

He couldn't spare enough time to assess the damage fully but it wasn't detrimental regardless. He only needed one hand to cast spells, the damage didn't affect functionality and pain was something he could easily deal with. If he could get a moment to breathe, he could heal himself, though it didn't seem as if he would ever get a chance based on the first strike.

"Don't you two know it's a punishable offence to attack the church during a Grail War?" Drawing his sword back from the initial strike, the servant prepared to advance with his gaze pointed at the three masters on the door.

Caster blinked and the man had already moved. His arm was raised but his attack wasn't directed at either servant. It was aimed to slice through the easiest target, their masters.

The first blow had already proved there was no stopping him with strength. Any sort of rune he used had a chance of harming Rider's or his own master. Judging by the agape expression on Rider's face, she was just as stumped as he was.

There was a dull flicker of light easily caught in the darkness. Rising from the door like a desperate, wounded warrior, Bazett moved to intercept with her own, faintly shimmering hands.

The blade was swung, he reached out to do something but by the time his staff was extended the two had already made contact. He had expected the noise of mutilated flesh but instead, he heard an ear-piercing clang.

The blade had been stopped in Bazett's palms and although Berserker hadn't moved backwards, he had been matched in brute force.

The woman made a sharp yell and pushed his blade aside, throwing a lightning-fast jab at the servant's chin. In order to avoid the attack, Berserker decided to take a calm step backwards.

"How peculiar, a human able to block one of my attacks?" Being a druid, Caster was gifted with ears that could pick out the most insignificant noises. It was that gift that allowed him to hear the drops of blood falling from Bazett's hands.

It had been impressive but there was no chance of her keeping it up. "We've got one chance but I'll need some time to prepare my strongest attack."

"You're not so bad yourself. If you want some advice: Just because you're a servant doesn't mean you can stop your exercise routine." Bazett lifted both hands into a fighting stance. "My hands won't handle another direct strike and this enhancement only lasts for ten minutes. Get it done by then or before I die - whichever comes earlier."

With a soft chuckle, the servant slowly wrapped a second hand around his blade. "Let's see if you fare better than two knights. You may have greater numbers, but your overall combined experience is still lesser."

So everything about Berserker was true. Maybe they had bitten off more than they could chew.


I was sort of off writing the first half of this chapter and Talndir noticed the same. I hope he made up for my mistakes, but my writing has gotten back in shape recently so there shouldn't be any more problems next chapter.. (Or so I hope.)

Not that I want to uplift anyone's hopes or anything, but I'm 1/3rd of the way through the next chapter and I have some good ideas so it should come quickly. Famous last words from me though, but I'll try to get more content out to you guys :)

As usual, remember to follow, favourite and leave a review!