Disclaimer: I own nothing in this fanfiction.
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Saber, as instructed, kept Sakura on her shoulder when she left the mansion.
She felt bad taking her all the way to the Emiya mansion naked, so she made her wear a copy of her black dress that somehow fit her, despite being tight around the chest area.
She was about to place the girl on the ground before Rider materialized in front of her.
"I would carry her if you won't, there are still insect familiars about and I doubt that Zouken would be happy about us teaming with you."
Saber simply shrugged as she handed Rider the girl.
She noticed a small two dimensional shape appear from a shadow nearby, it was… strange to say the least, but it did not rub her the wrong way so she did not put her guard up.
The comical two dimensional shadow creature jumped on Sakura and merged with the black dress, increasing the size of it and making it fit her perfectly.
Before Saber or Rider could comment on that however, the enormous magical energy that shook the mansion like an earthquake drew their attention elsewhere.
"A Noble Phantasm?! How?! Saber?"
Rider was the first to inquire of the strange phenomenon.
She was sure there was no one of the current era who was able to unleash a Noble Phantasm of this caliber.
"That is surprising to me as well, I knew Shirou was able to re-create weapons he saw before, but I didn't think he could unleash their True Name."
Saber couldn't help but let the villainous smirk draw on her face, this Holy Grail War was getting better and better.
Moments after the mansion turned to ash, Emiya Shirou emerged from the smoke coughing and swaying as if drugged.
Saber hurried up to him and offered her shoulder, which he accepted rather obediently, he overexerted his Circuits, and now was suffering from Mana deprivation.
[Tch, what a miscalculation… If only I modified the weapon to not draw the entire theater but only the flames, that would have been far easier to pull off.]
"Sorry Saber, but I'm out for the night, I'm counting on you to deliver me and our guests home."
He coughed a bit at the end of his statement, before he completely collapsed.
"Leave it to me, Shirou."
And so, the two servants ran silently with their Masters in tow, leaving behind a pillar of smoke rising to the heavens, accompanied with sounds of sirens in the distance.
What they did not expect though, was the presence waiting for them at their gates.
Saber staggered at the sight of the blond demi-god, he was leaning on the opposite wall underneath the spotlight of a light pole, red eyes staring back at her with great… passivity...
"Archer…! How… What are you doing here?!"
Saber shouted at him violently.
"Isn't it obvious? Saber, I'm here to reclaim what is rightfully mine…"
He spoke calmly, making her feel uncomfortable.
"What do you mean? What is rightfully yours Archer!?"
"The Holy Grail you lowly thieves. You stole both the vessels of MY holy grail. And without them, it cannot be complete."
At that moment, Saber's rage was rekindled, NO ONE called her a thief, not even a self proclaimed King of heroes with a quadrillion noble phantasms.
She placed the unconscious Shirou down leaning on the wall as Rider did the same with Sakura, then they both braced for battle.
"Do you think you can defeat me if you team up on me? Don't make me laugh! Mongrels!"
That was the signal, Saber took off in a burst of Mana towards the demi-god, swinging the black weapon of mass destruction in a wide arc.
Steel impacting steel was heard wide and clear, Saber found herself propelled back as she hit a hunk of golden steel, a shield that appeared from thin air blocked her strike.
Rider raised her Cross and muttered a prayer under her breath, causing a beam of light to shatter into the ground where Gilgamesh stood, or in fact, used to stand.
Taking a step forward, the golden king was clad in golden armor, tackling Saber with a sword in hand.
Saber found no issue parrying the blade away, but then a spear came, a halberd, a scythe, a staff…
One weapon at a time, Gilgamesh was increasing the pressure on her, but still unable to push her back, she held her ground and parried his strikes skillfully.
Rider's cross shone with holy light as she dashed in incredible speed towards the assaulter, swinging it to smack him square in the face, only to be swatted away with his gauntleted arm.
But it did the trick and the blond demi-god was now wide open.
Saber charged her blade with Mana as she swung, making it burn with a large dark flame.
Gilgamesh was one hair away from being split in half.
He jumped backwards to stand on top of the lamp post, as several golden distortions revealed themselves next to him, each had a Noble Phantasm come into existence before it fired it at the anti-iconic duo.
Saber and Rider dodged and parried, but the rain of Noble Phantasm did not falter, only growing in numbers.
The street became a mess, as with each Noble Phantasm hitting it, a new crater would be etched into it.
The battle got even more violent each second, as the amount of portals increased accordingly with the annoyance that was the laughter of the king of Uruk.
Rider was the first to get impaled in the left thigh, then another sword scratched her right arm.
She barely jumped back as a whole bunch of other weapons hit the spot where she was just standing.
It was at that moment, everyone felt something was wrong.
Rider turned to see the Masters…
Gone were any signs of Sakura. A shiver ran down her spine as she heard a familiar voice laughing in the back of her head.
The portals stopped, vanishing one after the other.
The weapons faded, banished back to the King's treasury.
And Gilgamesh was raising a hand, a drill-like sword that radiated pure magical energy simply by existing.
A Divine Mystery that was split into three sections, rotating in different directions.
[His real Noble Phantasm!]
Saber thought as she took the stance, reverse gripping her sword.
"Vortigern, hammer of the Vile King…"
The dark sword erupted into a black, crimson-tainted flame triple its original size.
"Reverse the rising sun! Devour the light!"
Gilgamesh was silent, looking at the black existence with eyes of pity while the sword in his hand whirled the wind with its speed, sending waves of pure magical energy rippling in the night sky.
He opened his mouth and spoke after a moment's pause.
"Enuma Elish."
He spoke, not one mark of enmity in his voice.
To him, it was putting a wounded animal to rest.
Nothing more.
"Excalibur…! MORGAN!"
The black dragon howled, the flames raged towards the golden king, as the weapon of mass destruction was swung upwards.
And then they were no more.
Gone, simply extinguished.
The blast of the black dragon was a flickering candle compared to the swirling drill-sword's rupture, the star of creation that split the heavens and the earth raged towards the black Saber.
The dust was stirred high, and as it settled, the splatter of blood was heard.
Saber was thrown away by a force unknown, the blast of the spiral sword missed her by a margin.
But Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk, was no longer in one piece.
His interior organs and blood spilled into the ground.
The right half of his body, gone, reduced to Mana particles.
A white smirk was drawn on the darkness behind him.
The modified black dress of Saber fluttered in the wind as Sakura appeared, face covered in blood, and opened her mouth…
In Ryuudou temple, things were just as disturbing.
Zouken shook his head in consent, as his latest experiments came to a crushing success.
Right in front of him stood an abomination;
A humanoid figure curved into the limit of a spinal cord, only half its head had hair, blue colored.
The face was covered with a skull mask, although it was obviously charred. The right arm was wrapped with a thick bandage and the skin was black as the night.
Those were Zouken's results of years of tampering with the Grail's system.
The latter taught him more than he needed to know, not to mention he was one of the creators of the system itself, and when Kiritsugu Emiya destroyed the Grail, he knew that the failsafe system would not be able to handle recovery without dropping the security system…
But it was strange, he found himself unable to draw enough magical energy to summon a full assassin. Was it because of Emiya Kiritsugu?
Bah, no matter, life was kind enough to provide him a fix.
Shinji was now a vessel for the assassin class pseudo-servant, Hassan-I-Sabbah.
"Go assassin, do what we previously discussed."
The humanoid figure's head bobbed up and down, then it disappeared from existence with a flash of darkness blazing out of the window.
The dark figure that was Assassin ran down the steps of the Ryuudou temple like a lightning bolt, then he made Shinto his destination.
His mind was clouded, the summoning was imperfect, but his speed was thankfully unaffected, as an Assassin, all he knew was that he must Kill.
Sakura closed her mouth and Gilgamesh was no more, the sword of rupture fell to the ground causing a sound to echo, before it vanished into golden particles.
But then as if turned off with a switch, Sakura collapsed into the ground unconscious.
Saber and Rider had no comments, how could they? The latter was injured and the first was supposed to be dead.
The sound of the gate opening alerted them of their shock.
Illyasviel was standing by the gateway, eyes wide of shock as she noticed her brother laying on the ground.
"SHIROU!"
She hurried to his side and examined him in a panic, her state calmed down shortly after when she was sure he was okay and only exhausted.
Then she noticed the girl clad in the black dress laying down on the street with Rider casting a healing miracle on her.
"Saber, report."
She spoke with a tone of order.
"We convinced the Matou Servant Rider to join our side until Sakura, her real Master, wakes up. She was being harassed by her Grandfather who may or may not be Zolgen Makiri, who was one of the founding members of the Holy Grail War, so Shirou was kind enough to rescue her. When we came back- Wait, you must have sensed the outrageous presence outside, why didn't you escape?"
Saber explained, paused, then asked with a passive tone.
"I have no chance of outrunning a servant, and besides, they were not here for me were they?"
Illya replied.
"... Perhaps, who knows. But I certainly know that without… whatever Sakura did… I would have vanished."
To be continued...