Disclaimer: I own nothing in this Fanfiction.

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"Master!" Rider moved in to catch her master who collapsed again.

The room fell quiet after she had passed out, an air of clear bewilderment was shared between the servants, except that Saber knew to trust her Master and obey.

Shirou turned around to face Saber, then spoke in a warning tone:

"Do not let Illya know of what transpired just now. That's an order."

Saber could only nod affirmatively. At first she was annoyed at his tone, but deep inside, she was burning with excitement. Everything about this Holy Grail War just kept getting better and more entertaining.

"You! Just who are you?!" Saint Martha finally muttered, in a desperate attempt to get any sort of information, anything that may get her thoughts organized.

Shirou cracked a devious smile, turning his head.

"Patience, isn't it in the teachings of the Lord to have patience? You will know in due time, like all others." He talked in the same tone as before, then walked out of the room, eyes finally fading back to their normal Amber color.

Rider, after placing Sakura on her futon, stood and tried to follow after him, but found Saber blocking her way.

"Saber! Don't you see? None of our masters are in their right minds! For what reason do you stand in my way? Why still follow the orders of—" Rider pleaded, hoping that the black Saber listened to reason.

"Silence! Don't you dare speak another word, my Master is in perfect condition. Yours, however, seems in dire need of nursing." Saber roared at first, then spoke calmly pointing at Sakura.

Defeated, Rider had no choice but to close her mouth and go back to her Master's side. She needed a way out of this predicament, fast.

A few minutes passed, Saber and Shirou went to the Kitchen.

"Master, you have not rested at all this night. I commend your hard work, but even the mightiest of warriors need rest." Saber was sitting on a pillow by the table.

It was almost sunrise and Shirou was making breakfast.

"I do realize that, this matter with Sakura and Rider, however, is much more important." Shirou's voice came from the kitchen.

"Hoh. Understood, but what will Illya think of this? Won't she object to the idea of them staying here?" Saber replied unreluctantly.

The sound of something being placed down was heard, then footsteps were heard approaching. Shirou appeared shortly after and sat down next to Saber.

"Hm? Oh Illya. I wonder what she's going to say when I tell her that Sakura will live with us from now on…" Shirou said, innocently.

"Eh? that's not what I—"

"I mean, minus the fact that we incinerated their base, and that they're valuable allies and all, Sakura is a friend and a poor soul who— What am I saying… What I mean is that we have to help her, I can't help but feel indebted to her."

Silence followed after, Saber blinking once, twice and thrice in rapid succession, having no clue what she just saw and heard.

Shirou raised a hand and placed it on his chin as if contemplating something.

"Besides I don't think Illya will really object. She may pretend to be stone cold, but deep inside she's a softy."

"..."

"I—"

"Wait… Where IS Illya?" Asked Shirou, interrupting Saber:

That served to shake her up a bit, she simply forgot about what she just experienced and answered passively

"She said she needed to rest. Maybe she caught a cold."

She was clearly puzzled by Shirou's sudden change in character. But she didn't question it, nor did she let it occupy her mind.

"I see… Maybe I should check up on her before I go to bed."

Shiki and Tohsaka were making an escape through the woods, or rather, Shiki was dragged by Tohsaka across the woods, chased by crazy angry hordes of animals and mana absorbing black tendrils.

Rin checked on Archer, his injury was dangerous, the tusk would have pierced his spirit core, instantly killing him, if he hadn't managed to dodge slightly in the last moment. Sadly, right now, he was useless as he had to stay in Spirit form to heal.

"Tohsaka! Caster and Bazett are coming to support us! We'll regroup at the mountain's base! There, we can deal with all the stragglers at once!" Shiki spoke, unknowing whether she was listening or not due to the outrageous speed they were traveling with.

He didn't even know how his legs were keeping up with his body.

"Alright. Hold tight!" Rin replied after a moment's pause.

"Hold tight? What do you meaaaaaa—" Pulled with a force even stronger than before, Shiki's speech remained incomplete as his body was dragged even faster.

In a field full of black animal corpses and black mud, stood a worn out Lancer. Her purple tights dirtied and torn at the sides, driving her spear through the heart of the last beast she was standing over.

She was breathing heavily, clearly at her limit.

It had been a long two hours of fighting endlessly regenerating hordes of beasts. After taking down that hydra, she thought she could make quick work of the lesser beasts and then follow after Shiki and Tohsaka, but whenever she killed one, two would emerge from the shadows to take its place.

Taking a deep breath, she lifted her hand to cover her eyes from the invading rays of sunlight that just started to appear.

Fighting beasts wasn't a problem, the nuisance was the infinite sea of dark tendrils that just sat on a cliff nearby watching her struggle without doing anything. If it decided to attack her, she would have no way of defending herself. But strangely, it just existed there, as more and more beasts kept swarming her, but the moment the sun started to peak, the thing disappeared without a trace.

"What a waste of time…"

Suddenly, a shadow formed under Scáthach, and before she could react, black tendrils emerged, wrapping around her legs, then her arms and middle. She could not struggle as hard as she would under normal circumstances as her body was injured and worn out. She slowly felt devoured by the muddy substance, as if being dragged down to hell. In a last moment effort; She sent off a telepathic message…

Shiki and Tohsaka stood by the bottom of the stairs leading up to Ryuudou temple, or rather sat down looking rather exhausted. The beasts and the tendrils seemingly gave up upon Rin's terrifying display of speed and Shiki's unbeatable ability to cope with such monstrous change in velocity.

The only audible sound was their panting, before Shiki spiked up in one quick move towards Tohsaka who was still down on her knees. He raised an arm high up in the sky and gave her a strong punch to the back of the head.

"DON'T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN!" was all she heard before receiving the blow.

"OWOWOWOW— HOW DARE YOU! I KNEW I SHOULD'VE JUST LEFT YOU BACK THERE!" Rin retaliated, forming a strong fist and punching him straight in the gut.

Shiki felt the air leave his lungs as he staggered backwards, but he recovered almost immediately. He was about to fight back, but was interrupted by Caster's voice ringing in his head all of a sudden.

"Master! Master! Are you alright? We lost contact with Lancer, get out of there immediately!"

And then footsteps were heard descending the stairs.

"No way…" Tohsaka facepalmed as she saw who.

"Good morning. Tohsaka Rin…"

One step after the other, the small figure descended.

"You are… Illyasviel! What are you doing here? Unless…" Tohsaka addressed the homunculus, as the small figure in casual clothes approached them one step at a time.

"No worries, Shirou and Saber are not here, they also have no knowledge of me being here." The little girl talked, both Rin and a confused Shiki keeping their guards up.

Though the latter tensed upon hearing of Shirou.

"Tohsaka, who's this little girl?" Asked Shiki.

"She's—"

"My name is Emiya Illya, Shirou's older sister." Illya interrupted Tohsaka, seemingly taking interest in Shiki and bowing respectfully.

Shiki picked up on the air, and introduced himself.

"Er— My name is Shiki, Tohno Shiki…"

Then he slightly bowed back.

"Wha— What are you doing you idiot! She's an enemy!" An irritated Tohsaka fired at him.

"Am I? I am not a Master in this Holy Grail War, nor do I have any interest in becoming one. If anything you're the ones who should be killing each other." Chimed Illya in response to Tohsaka's irritation.

"I understand that, but me and Tohsaka are under a pact of alliance, and we just had a horrible night. Why are you here?" Spoke Shiki, taking on the conversation.

"An alliance, in a Holy Grail War? I never heard of such a thing before…" Illya said, followed by some silence. "A horrible night, you said? Well, you can say that I had a horrible night myself…"

Visibly confused, both Tohsaka and Shiki stared at the albino girl.

"Hm, Oh? Didn't you feel it? The Matou mansion is gone. Reduced to cinders." Illya said nonchalantly, cracking a smile simultaneously.

"Tohsaka, what is she talking about? Aren't the Matous from the founding families?" Asked Shiki, but to his surprise, no answer came. "Tohsaka?"

She simply stood there, mind blank as a white page.

"Oi— Tohsaka! Are you okay? Keep it together!"

"Oops, I shouldn't have said that so casually." Illya commented on the situation while fiddling with her hair.

Shiki shook the seemingly empty headed Tohsaka, trying to snap her out of it, but nothing happens. Then he turns towards the little girl: "What do you mean? Why is she acting up about the Matous?"

"Who knows? You're better off asking her yourself. Look, she'll recover right away, after all no one was killed in that incident."

And just like that, the black haired girl with red top and black skirt had tears run down her face.

Illya and Shiki were both speechless, the first even feeling bad for what she just did.

"You… You're simply the worst, you and your brother… I swear I'll make you pay for this… You'll REGRET THIS!" Muffled at first, Rin Tohsaka broke, and suddenly tried lashing out at the small girl, but found herself stopped by Shiki who restrained her with a hug.

"Stop it… Don't get in my way… Please… Let me—" Crying even louder, Rin started struggling against Shiki's grasp.

He knew she could easily escape him if she used magecraft, she was leagues above him in terms of raw strength but… Right now, in his arms, she was as weak as a child.

"Shhh— It's okay. I don't know anything about what's going on, I have no clue about anything anymore. But I know you're not thinking straight at the moment, and thus it's my duty as your ally to stop you from doing something stupid." Shiki spoke, hesitant at first, but he saw his little sister in her eyes. He couldn't help but feel sympathy for this girl.

The struggling of Tohsaka grew weaker and weaker, until her strength finally gave out, going unconscious.

"Oi—"

He caught her from collapsing to the floor and struggled to keep her up, but was surprised to find Illya of all people helping him.

"Thank you."

"You have yet to thank me for anything, as of now, I still have many things to share."

Shiki nodded in response, then they started walking back towards Bazett's base.

On the way, they met Bazett and Caster, who helped them carry the unconscious Rin back to the base after a minor objection to Illya's presence. Something that was quickly decided once Shiki defended her to the best of his ability.

To be continued...

Author's Note:

Oh boy, it had been such a stupidly busy year. A very hard one at that. Nevertheless I don't think many of you guys missed me, so here's another chapter. Have fun!