Shirou was sitting next to Illya's bed, holding her hand as she slept. He had been telling her more stories about Kiritsugu, specifically the time he almost burnt down the house trying to make an omelette.

While it was one of the earlier memories Shirou had, he wanted to first tell Illya about what type of father Kiritsugu was, through his memories. One who would keep you company, who wouldn't treat you like you were lesser, who would worry for your safety, who would want you to enjoy your life.

Whenever Shirou spoke of his memories, he always had a fond expression on his face, which Illya soaked into her memories, along with the time Shirou spent with her father. Their father.

With one little squeeze of her delicate hand, Shirou stood up and made his way out of her 'room'. When the door clunked shut behind him, he turned to see Sakaki in his seat with Saber opposite him. They were both turned towards him, and he scratched the back of his head and chuckled nervously.

"Hehe... Am I interrupting something?"

The two continued to look at him, before looking to each other and sighing. It was Sakaki that started.

"Shirou... Why don't you take a seat before we begin?"

Shirou tilted his head in confusion, before grabbing one of the chairs against the wall and dragging it over. Plopping down in the seat, he gave an expectant look to Sakaki.

"Hah... Shirou, how is Illya?"

"She's... fine. She's asleep. I was sharing some stories of Kiritsugu."

Shirou looked between the two, before taking a serious expression and asking,

"Professor, what were you two talking about?"

"... It was... about Illya... Tell me Shirou, do you know Illya's origins?"

"Yeah. She told me about it when I woke up after fighting that Sariel, two years ago."

"Would you mind telling us what she told you? Just to make sure."

"I mean... alright."

Taking a deep breath, Shirou began to recount the conversation that took place in the Infirmary two years ago. Or at least, to the best of his ability.

"My name is Illyasviel von Einsbern. But you can call me Illya, Onii-chan."

Blinking, Shirou looked at her confused before scratching his cheek with his right hand.

"Did we wake you up? Sorry."

Illya smiled at how he seemed genuinely sorry, before straightening up and looking at him seriously.

"I will answer any questions you ask. But...," looking to Kota, she continued, "Only if it's just the two of us."

Shirou looked perplexed, while Kota looked fairly calm about it. As Shirou was preparing to pull together a case as to why Kota should be allowed to stay, Kota waved him off.

"It's fine, Shirou. You're the one who really saved her, so makes sense she would trust you," turning, he began to leave the Infirmary, tossing out, "But you're the one that'll fill out her entry in the database."

As the door shut, Shirou reached out his arm, before pulling back and looking to Illya, who had kept her serious expression, although her lips were slightly upraised. Sighing, Shirou thought on what questions he wanted to ask, before beginning.

"I guess, first... What were you doing in that building all alone? I think you mentioned a 'them'? Tell me about it."

Taking a deep breath, Illya composed herself before answering.

"I... I was running away. From my... 'family'." and when she said the word family, she made an absolutely disgusted expression.

"Family? Like your mom and dad? The Einsberns?"

Wincing, Illya answered,

"Close. My captors were the rest of my 'family'. My grandfather at the head of it. My mom is dead, and my dad... according to my grandfather, had abandoned me. They were all Einsberns, except for my dad, who kept his family name."

Shirou looked at her sadly, before stroking her head.

"That's... I'm sorry. Do you still want to continue?"

With an almost inaudible sniff, Illya shook her head.

"No... I'll be fine."

"Well, alright then. You told me who you were running away from, but I'd like to know why. Could you tell me?"

"It's simple. To him, I was nothing more than a tool. Only kept alive to further their experiments. The 'training' they gave me was nothing more than experiments to further my 'potential'. So I ran away."

Gulping, Shirou asked,

"What... What type of experiments?"

"Oh, you know... Injections, surgery, forced Oracle Cell activation, that kind of thing."

Illya had looked away as she talked about her 'training'. But she was able to hear the sound of something creaking. Turning back to Shirou, she saw him clenching his jaw and gripping the the headrest of the bed, crushing it.

"Those... bastards! How could they do something like that... to their own family!?"

His eyes had changed shade slightly, now darker, but not steel grey. Illya reached out to assure him.

"It's fine, Onii-chan. It's over. I'm here now, and I'm safe. Right?"

Taking in a deep breath, Shirou focused on Illya's hand on his shoulder and let go of the headrest. His anger subsided, and his eyes returned to their normal gold.

"Yeah. You're safe. I promised to protect you, remember?"

She smiled at him and nodded, causing him to lightly smile as well. Then, he retook his serious expression.

"Sorry, but I'd like to ask a little more. Are you fine with that?"

Seeing her nod, he took another breath and compiled his thoughts, before continuing the line of questioning.

"Do you know why? Why they would do that to you? Why they would even have you born, if all they were going to do was make you suffer?"

"I'm not absolutely certain, but I'm pretty sure the old man mentioned at some points something about regaining the family glory? I didn't really listen. He was really boring."

Shirou looked at her blankly. Where was the crying, broken child, or even the silent, serious one, of a moment ago? All that was there was an energetic girl that had no time for lengthy monologuing. Truly baffling.

"But as for why they let me be born... My mom and dad had fallen in love. While dad was an outsider that was hired by the Einsberns, my mother was another experiment, a man-made being."

"A man-made being? What?"

"Have you ever heard of a Humanoid Aragami? It's the idea that Aragami, a constantly evolving species, will eventually become like man. My mom was one of their experiments into this idea, taking Oracle Cells to try and create an artificial Humanoid Aragami. And then she and dad fell in love."

"That's... Just who are the Einsberns?"

"From the history lessons I did listen to, apparently the Einsberns are an unknown benefactor for Fenrir, and one of the biggest too. Their conditions for continued patronage was privacy, and any interesting research they have on Oracle Cells and Aragami."

"Unknown benefactors? What is this, a book?"

Illya began to pat Shirou's shoulder, saying "there, there" and projecting a feeling of smug superiority. Sighing, Shirou gave Illya another blank look, before asking another question.

"So, if your mother was an artificial Humanoid Aragami, and your father was a normal guy, then that makes you half-human, half-Oracle, right?"

"I suppose. But I'm more Oracle than human because of the experiments. And my dad wasn't any normal guy. He was a God Eater. A strong one, apparently."

"This might be a bit personal, but... what were their names?"

Illya's face went from cheerful to slightly sad. Talking about her parents seems to bring her down.

"My mom was named Irisviel. Daddy used to call her Iri. Daddy's name was Kiritsugu. Kiritsugu Emiya."

Hearing that, Shirou went stiff. He looked at Illya in bewilderment. There's no way she's talking about his Dad. Stuttering, he asked to make sure,

"W-What did he look like? Did he have spiky black hair, and tired black eyes? And some stubble on his chin?"

Illya looked at him in surprise.

"Y-Yeah. How did you know that? Have you met him before?"

Shirou was breathing heavily, looking almost terrified at the truth he was stumbling upon. But he needed to make sure. No matter how clear it looked, this would make or break it.

"D-Did he... Did he ever talk about his dream?"

"Um... Oh! I remember I was up late, later than I was allowed, and I was looking for Mommy. So I went to her's and Daddy's room. When I went there, I heard them talking about something. I couldn't understand most of it, but they sounded sad. Then Daddy mentioned something about his dream, and being a hero. A Hero of something. A Hero of..."

"Justice. His dream was to become a Hero of Justice. To one day save people."

Illya looked at him in surprise and confusion, clearly wondering how he knew that.

"How... Just who are you, Onii-chan?"

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Shirou answered.

"I... I'm Shirou. Shirou Emiya. Adopted son of Kiritsugu Emiya. The boy that inherited his dream. Nice to meet you, my sister."

Shirou tried to slightly smile, but couldn't help how his face crumpled with guilt when he saw Illya's shocked expression begin to form tears. He reached out to comfort her, but drew back when he saw her face.

For Illya, she was breaking down. The boy that saved her claimed that his father was Kiritsugu. Her father. But he's probably younger than her. In that case, where did Kiritsugu go? Why didn't he come for her? Did he like Shirou more than her? All she could speak out, however, was,

"Why?"

"Illya?"

Suddenly, Illya had regained her tongue and couldn't prevent what she said.

"Why? Why!? Why you!? Why did he stay with you, instead of coming back to get me!? Why did he raise you, and leave me to suffer!? Why!?"

Shirou couldn't react. Seeing this girl like this, in this broken state, hurt. But because of him?

It was like being torn apart over, and over, and over, but it never gets better. Like abandoning all those people in the fire.

"I'm sorry..."

All he could do was say that. How could he possibly repent for this innocent sin? What could he do as an eternal punishment? Seeing this girl cry felt like enough, but he knew he deserved more.

So all he did, all he could do, was wrap his arms around Illya and apologize over and over.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."

Illya was still shattered, but was together enough to feel some regret for what she said to Shirou, and to return the hug. With so much less energy than she had, she muttered again,

"Why...?"

Hearing that, Shirou interrupted his stream of constant apologies to stutter out,

"K-Kiritsugu was sick. D-Dying. It affected him, e-ever since the day he saved me. S-Sometimes, he would go out for w-weeks at a time. When I a-asked, he said he was looking for something. Something i-important."

Getting that out, he continued apologizing. All the while, Illya looked at him with an unknown emotion in her eyes, as the gears in her mind worked to answer her questions. This continued on until they both fell asleep.

"And... that's it."

Sakaki and Saber were looking at him in surprise. They never expected seeing another's suffering would break him so... much. They had seen him comfort the grieving, but they had never seen him talk to someone suffering because of him.

It was intriguing, but Sakaki quickly brought the conversation back to its roots.

"Right. That's basically what we knew. But, I'd like to focus on her unique make-up."

"You mean, how she's half-human, half-Oracle?"

"Yes. As you know, a year ago, she collapsed and became bed-ridden. It was because of her make-up that that happened. The Oracle Cells within her had begun eating away at the human cells. Or at least, they had eaten away at them to the point that she was forced to become bedridden."

Shirou nodded, not liking the grim look on Sakaki's and Saber's faces.

"And?"

"Well... the medical tests we have received... They say that her Oracle Cells have been consuming her human ones at a steady rate. By next year, they would have completely consumed her human cells. And when that happens..."

Taking a deep breath filled with dread, Shirou asked,

"And when that happens?"

"She'll... die."

At that, everything seemed to stop. Shirou's perception of time fizzled into nothing. She'll die? She, the person he promised would be safe and that he would protect her, would die? If that's the case, then he would've failed to make true on his promise. He wouldn't be able to save her. But how can he save her from her own biology? The one constant in her life.

"No... No, that can't be... There has to be some way... There has to be something I can do... right? Right, Professor Sakaki?"

Sakaki just sadly shook his head, not being able to look at Shirou. Saber just hung her head. Shirou stood up in anger.

"Come on! There has to be a way! She can't die just yet! There's still so much for her to do! Like see the ocean! Or fall in love! I won't stand for her just dying like this! And I know that Berserker wouldn't either!"

Despite saying that, he still knew deep down he couldn't truly do anything. He wasn't a miracle worker. The best he could do would be to give her his blood, but that would probably cause more problems than it will solve.

Gritting his teeth, Shirou turned on his heel, leaving Sakaki's Lab. Neither of the other occupants rose to stop him. As he slammed the door behind him, he made his way for his room.

The next minute passed by in a blur, until he was on his bed, in his room. He cursed and cursed, before eventually succumbing to sleep.

That night, he dreamt of the little snow fairy, and her onyx protector.

Thank you for reading. This is Cee And, sorry I'm late. Yesterday, I was too distracted to write much, and what I did write, sucked. It was meant to be the aftermath of Shirou and Lancer fighting against that horse. I made a small summary at the end of last chapter instead. So now we have this. Better now than never, right? My God, I have made the timeline all over the damn place...

Second, I lied. More backstory paralleling Fate/Stay Night's plot! Hooray!

Third, yes, that's a Persona 2 reference.

Fourth, I gotta eat my words. I said, in another AN, that Resonance isn't used as an actual plot point in any of the games aside from 1. I proved myself wrong by playing 3's 2.0 update. Shit's crazy, but Resonance is important again. In fact, shit pertains to basically Reality Marbles. Sure wish I played it before writing all that stuff.

Fifth, more a continuation if the previous point. Anyone that played 3's update would've seen what's happening to Ein at the end of the plot. It's basically what I'm making happen to Illya. But I'll probably finish this before we get the whole story.

Thank you to trgtboyz for favouriting.

Goodbye.

Word count: 2325