Preparation Day

(Kojirou)

"You're back," is all the Saber said to greet his Servant-of-a-Master on her return. "I take it you also had a thrilling battle."

She looked at him in amusement, by now totally recovered from the small wound Gilgamesh had inflicted on her, which Kojirou had probably noticed when she took it. "It was more like being courted, not that you'd know about that. Was Berserker everything you hoped for?"

"I fought Lancer, and only briefly at that. But Lu Bu damaged my sword a little - what a brute." He was quite upset that, by simply smashing his God Force against the blade, Lu Bu had not only defended himself, but also reduced Kojirou's offensive ability as well. "It needs to be fixed."

"Sure, I'll take a look at it," she replied, unaware of the significance of his weapon being even a little bent near the end. "But there's a lot to do and not much time, is everyone inside?" The sun was rising, but daylight was no guarantee that someone might not try an attack if they could get away with it.

"They are." Kojirou waited until she had moved past him before adding, "Archer, Kuro might want some of your time. Oh wait, there she is now." He didn't bother to hide his smirk as Sasaku turned to frown at him moments before being grabbed from behind and spun about to face the group's smallest Servant. "..."

Given that Sasaku made no attempt to defend herself, Kuro's forceful kiss-draining was most likely the latter working out her remaining grudges. Well, he had a few grudges of his own, since the Caster had two decent duels (granted, she lost both of them, but that was to be expected) compared to the mismatched scraps he got.

"Getting welcomed back with a kiss and everything, you sure have it all," Rin grumbled as she appeared. Another girl with a grudge to nurse. Notably though, she made no attempt to stop her Servant, regardless - or rather, because of what orders Sakura had given or not given her. Letting the other magus do that was a mistake.

"Why are you enabling her?" Shirou asked. Despite only showing up after Kuro had finished and, a bit more gently than earlier, leaned Sasaku against the wall, it didn't take a genius to tell what had happened. "Sasaku, what happened with Gilgamesh?"

"Yes," Rin immediately snapped at the topic. "He's the archer from the last War, how is he here? Does he know about who killed my father?"

"Calm down," Sakura muttered from behind Shirou, her lips pressed together in annoyance, though why was a much less obvious affair. "It seems like Grandfather isn't the only one who has been messing around with the Grail system."

(Sakura)

Sasaku straightened her posture as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened, before taking out what looked like a normal pair of glasses, and handing it to her. "Apparently Gilgamesh thinks your Rider might find this useful." Sakura glanced at it, unsure what to make of the mundane-looking item. "Did he say what it does?"

"No, but my analysis suggests they are 'Mystic Eye killers' that suppress, well, Mystic Eyes." Nodding at the gift's obvious utility, she stuck it into her skirt pocket. "But I've never met Gilgamesh before?"

"He was quite insistent that I tell you -George- says hi. Does that mean anything?"

"George? The kid who lives at the church?" Sakura's train of thought about the child who ran the church's childcare along the priest was suddenly interrupted by Rin's scream of "Kotomine Kirei !"

(A little while later, in the living room)

(Shirou)

"And so, since he has been hiding my father's Servant, it all makes sense. That fucking fake priest probably spent the last decade laughing at 'our' attempts to find out what exactly had happened to all the lost spellbooks, not to mention the true killer." Rin looked a little apologetic while continuing, "We checked this estate before Shirou moved in, and of course there was nothing."

"Wait, my house?" the boy asked in confusion. "You thought Kiritsugu murdered your father while he was dying?"

"Er no, the killing happened in the middle of the War, and he was perfectly fine even when fighting Kirei just before the Fuyuki Fire occurred. Or so that backstabber told me anyway, he might have been lying all along. Regardless, all bets are off if even the supposedly neutral overseer is... oh damn, Einzbern. That girl seemed to take notice of you immediately, they must have sent her to kill you."

"I had nothing to do with the War or them, though?"

"Yes, but your father was in it because they hired him and they were apparently very angry about his failure. You're an Emiya too now, so..."

"Ok, ok, enough of that," Sasaku said, drawing everyone's attention. "Sakura, we need to talk right now. Rin after, you seem to have the best picture of what's going on of all of us."

"Are you going to fill me in on what's going on?" her Master sent over their link. "Look, I already know you've got Rin under a control geass of some sort, why did you think it necessary to keep that from me? And why have Sakura do it?"

"I'll explain, but keep that to yourself for now. Can you keep an eye on Kuro for me? I'm really don't want her wandering about unsupervised." Sasaku and Sakura began making their back towards Shirou's room, since that was the area set up as the center of her Realm.

"That I can understand, but why not Kojirou? He's a Servant and I'm not."

"Because she's less likely to misbehave if you're there and would disapprove. Go watch TV with her or something, I think Prisma Phantasm is on."

"Are you kidding me? Fine, fine, I'll take time off to watch a magical girl show with someone else's Servant in the middle of a War."

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(Shirou's room)

(Sakura)

"Ok, so where is Rider, and what are you doing with all the magical energy you take in?" Sasaku got right to the point after putting up a ward to block sound.

"If she figures out you can't actually call on Rider, we're done for," the voice in her mind warned, not that she needed it.

"She's nearby, and is still healing so-" Sakura started nervously before Sasaku simply shook her head. "Ok, so you know, I can tell what happens to the magical energy in here that that's of my type and I can tell that none of yours has been leaving, and whatever goes into you just disappears somewhere."

"She knows or guessed too much, wouldn't it be best to come clean?" Sakura wondered.

"Are you kidding, that's a magus, you can't trust her," he pushed back. "You realize we're helpless, and in enemy territory? Listen to me-"

"Shirou isn't an enemy, and she's his Servant. She wouldn't do anything to us."

"And why do you trust- did he fuck your common sense away? Is that why you're determined to offer yourself up on a platter?" The outburst was a critical mistake.

"How dare you? You... wait, you're weaker somehow, is that what this is about? You're scared?" Sakura frowned, too caught up in her mental debate to realize that Sasaku had noticed the inner conflict and was also frowning while wondering what to make of it.

"That- that's it, you can't even take care of yourself. I'll handle our revenge from here."

"No you won't. What this about our? I don't trust you."

"I wasn't asking."

At this point, Sakura felt something change in the atmosphere. Abruptly the worms in her body, agitated by it or perhaps simple need to obtain prana to feed on, started to thrash about. A few of the more aggressive ones started biting away from inside her flesh.

Her well-'trained' mind automatically shut off. Which meant that the voice arguing with her was suddenly no longer a voice as his coup succeeded with no resistance.

(Sasaku)

Sasaku had noticed immediately Sakura's change in attitude upon being more closely questioned. No wonder Zouken didn't enter the War himself, he's been playing the other two Matou's like puppets. This must have been why she was almost desperate to come with us.

Perhaps, then, she was surprised to see Sakura's struggling with herself deepen after tightening the field that prevented contact with the outside world. And trying discreetly to purge various effects from the magus. I don't understand, it's like there's something else inside of her? I shouldn't underestimate Zouken just because he's a human. Not a deep-rooted command, some sort of at-distance control spell?

With some satisfaction, she pushed the strength of her isolation spell further upwards. Maybe he just couldn't risk overt action with our two Servants in his house, but you should've just let go gracefully.

As a result, Sasaku was completely taken by surprise when Sakura abruptly jumped up and started trying to strangle her.

Hold on, I can't suffocate to death, she thought calmly while trying to remove Sakura's hands from her throat. However, Sasaku found herself unable to do so despite any Servant's advantage over a human, and numerous black ribbon-like shadows started erupting around the two of them, grabbing hold and ripping magical energy out of her, naturally she began to panic.

Dropping all the wards around the room, she screamed at Shirou, "Help!" as the shadows started to break down her body into its constituent spiritons and absorb them. Did the Matou have some special magecraft that even works on Servants?!

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(Kuro)

Though Shirou-nii might think her distracted by the show in front of them, Kuro was busily trying to piece together things in her own way. It seems about six years in 'the future', though there differences besides just time. At there's another season of Prisma Phantasm, and TM finally stopped being coy about Ruby and Sapphire's attraction for one another. About time.

Maybe a little distracted.

"You know," Shirou said suddenly as the two characters fired beams from their wands, with predictable inefficacy, at the ongoing story arc's boss character. "Do you know why Sasaku doesn't use spells?"

"Huh? If you were asking why I don't use a bow I might know, but not what's up with your Servant." She shrugged off the question, remembering that Sasaku had shot a beam at her before, but it splashed harmlessly off her Magic Resistance. "Isn't it a prana efficiency thing?" Opps, that was probably not the best topic to bring up.

"Probably," he said without noticing. "I need to stop holding her back, get stronger somehow..."

"Yeah no, I'm pretty sure it's just that she's weak. Combat-wise I mean, the two of you seem to have done pretty well regardless of that though."

"Suppose so, though I wonder what she-" Shirou abruptly cut off and jumped to his feet before dashing off. What was that about? Sensing something a bit more interesting, and Shirou had a recorder on so she could watch the show later on anyway, Kuro gave chase.

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Notes:
Apparently Kojirou doesn't like women (in general) giving him orders. It's why Sasaku tried to convince him that actually Shirou was his Master though that wasn't actually true. That said though, she depends/relies on him, rather than ordering him so that might be the difference.

Or perhaps because he treats it more like indulging a child rather than obeying someone, who knows... (You know she's the kind of person who would say 'yeah, I'll take that' and roll with it, too.)