A subdued ringing rang out through the darkness only to be silenced by the simple click of a button. "Shirou speaking," the man who pressed the button said as he stood on a roof inspecting a skyscraper that sat across the street. It was a few hours into the night and Shirou could see perfectly under the light of the moon. He had tracked down this place by using his old reliable spell named [Poseidon's eye]. The bounded field had radiated enough prana for him to instantly zero in on its location and track it down. Eying it he was made immediately aware of the fact that it was both an immensely powerful bounded field and it had been created in an impossibly short time.

"Vampire One, I'm in position at the north side of the building," the voice of Arcueid rang out from the smartphone.

"I'm also by her side," the voice of Shiki came from beside her. "I can see the point of death of the bounded field. If you want I can destroy it."

"Let's leave it for now," Shirou replied. "Let's gather a bit more intel before we kick over the hornet's nest. And Arcueid you really don't have to do this codename business we're not secret agents and in a few moment's they will be very aware of whom we are."

"Red One here," the sound of Aoko's voice came through the smartphone as another person joined the collection. "I actually agree with Vampire One about the code names. It could help give us the element of surprise in case some vampires have managed to hack the phones."

"Firstly," Shirou said ignoring the enthusiastic agreement bestowed upon Red One by her servant Red Two. "I'm not sure it is even possible to hack a cell phone. There aren't any wires to tap. Secondly, there's only about one ancestor that has any aptitude in technology… and I've just jinxed us," he finished up looking around guiltily.

"Can we be serious," a rather annoyed voice from Shirou's phone announced the presence of Shirou's favourite twintailed magus. "I would actually prefer to survive tonight."

"Right," Shirou said abandoning his playful mode of speech. "I would estimate at least one ancestor inside the building judging by the protections that are involved. Best case scenario would be that it is the seventh master on our side. Worst case scenario is that there are all seven ancestors and the beast of Gaia in there."

"And if that happens we're all dead," Rin remarked.

"Not necessarily," Shirou countered. "They're not known for their cohesiveness I may be able to turn them against each other or create a lot of crossfire. If that happens you retreat Rin," he said.

No arguments came from the magus. The past few fights had not done wonders for her confidence and she had not fully mentally recovered from almost dying yesterday. Shirou picked up a box on the ground next to him, opened it up and unveiled his latest acquisition that he had ordered from America. It was a small helicopter drone with a video feed that would send the images wirelessly to a screen that was currently being held by Ishtar.

He sent the drone through the bounded field, the magecraft fuelled barrier doing nothing to stop the small piece of modern technology. Directing the drone through the window he stepped back and glanced over his servants shoulder and felt his breath hitch. The room that his drone had entered was full to the brim of the dead and guarded by one vampire who was staring at the mini-helicopter and in the next frame the drone was destroyed.

"Alright," Shirou said standing up straight. "That building is crawling with the dead. I spotted one vampire as well before he took offence to my spying. We're going to go in there and wipe them all out. Expect at least one Apostle Ancestor to show up. Red one and two as well as Rin and her servant will go from the top and clear the way down. Vampire One and Two head up from the bottom, get rid of the field and cut those fleeing off. Help other members of our group at your discretion."

A few words of acknowledgement later and he terminated the open call leaving the others to do their job. Already he could see Aoko and Rin on the roof with their servants and he took the time to watch as they entered the rooftop entrance.

"Do you think we're going to run into a couple servants or Ancestors," Ishtar said putting down the now defunct screen.

"Almost certainly," replied Shirou. "This base has very sophisticated boundary fields. They were almost certainly created by an ancestor and he is most likely going to be very pissed when they go down."

The two of them moved to stand at the edge of the roof and watched as the bounded field flickered out of existence.

"Well it's safe to say the hornet's nest has been kicked," Shirou remarked. "Prepare to snipe anybody leaving the…"

He was cut off as his servant in one smooth movement summoned her bow nocked an arrow and fired it destroying a projectile that approached from his blindspot. Simultaneously Shirou was just able to conjure up a wall of ice to the back of Ishtar the moment before several swords would have left her impaled.

"And here they come," Shirou said focusing on the new arrival. There was no lag between comprehensions of their new company and his name. Despite being outfitted in different clothes from any other time he had previously seen him, the presence of Gilgamesh was unmistakable. What was different was his manner of attack. Gilgamesh never struck Shirou as the sort of person to… oh wait Ishtar, he rebuked himself. When he had first learned the name of his servant he had been astounded by the fact that he had apparently managed to summon a goddess. This was quickly followed by the realization that Gilgamesh and his servant being in close proximity to on another would lead to difficulties. Now as he saw the gold-armour of his friendly acquaintance and saw the look on his face he realised that he was pissed.

But that didn't account for the other projectile. In an instant Ishtar had fired three separate arrows that exploded on a nearby rooftop before focusing on Gilgamesh again.

The golden king took one look at the Babylonian goddess before he turned his head slightly and faced his unseen opponent. "Cease your cowardly tactics and show yourself before me, before I wipe you off the face of my planet," he yelled out conveniently ignoring his own sneak attack a scant few seconds ago.

His words seemed to work as the tanned, white haired, red cloaked servant that Shirou had tangled with a couple nights ago appeared on the roof in a position equidistant between the master-servant pair of Shirou-Ishtar and Gilgamesh.

"I am here to kill the boy," the servant spoke to Gilgamesh. "You can take whatever revenge on the goddess that you want."

Gilgamesh shifted and Shirou instinctively realised that was the wrong thing to say to him. "I can take whatever revenge on the goddess I want without your permission Alaya's dog," Gilgamesh said his voice containing traces of dark amusement. "Do you even know why Alaya is so desperate to finish him off," Gilgamesh shook his head. "No you wouldn't know anything. Begone I have no more time to spend on some imbecile who sold his soul."

The servant didn't say anything and a white sword materialised in his right hand and a black sword in his left.

"So be it," Gilgamesh said to himself golden portals materialising around him. In the very next instant a mass of weapons descended on the red-cloaked servant who summoned a massive silver and blue shield that proved an impenetrable barrier to the collective weaponry.

"Prydwen," Shirou muttered to himself as he briefly used the fourth to scan the shield. "It seems my conjecture was correct he can replicate any weapon he can see." Shirou's musing was suddenly cut-off as the servant took advantage of a lull in the onslaught to change targets and charge down Shirou. His swords disappeared to be replaced by a scarlet spear that he thrust towards Shirou. Shirou immediately summoned a wall of ice in front of him to stop the spear but it was not necessary as the white-haired servant was forced to block a bolt of light from Ishtar with the shaft of his spear. The goddess followed up the attack by dashing towards him and as he readied his spear to stab Shirou's servant he suddenly found himself at the business end of a fully formed Babylonian boat that had appeared in the place of Servant Rider's Bow. The boat dashed forward at speeds exceeding that of a servant and rammed the unfortunate man off the roof and into the next building.

"Well," Shirou said blinking at the sight. "That was certainly a thing that happened just now. It seems as if she's getting quite protective of me." Gilgamesh just made a non-committal noise as he watched the boat morph back into the form of a bow and Ishtar stalk into the building after the other servant.

"Listen Gilgamesh," Shirou started with a note of hesitation in his voice. "Can we just leave her out of our fight? She's my partner for the Grail War and I'm getting a bit fond of her." Gilgamesh glared at Shirou for a moment and then he all of a sudden he exhaled wearily displaying troubling un-Gilgamesh behaviour.

"I'm pretty sure I've made it quite clear I'm not a god Shirou," Gilgamesh started giving a half-smile. "Is that not how the axiom goes? Is forgiveness not meant to be the province of the divine. He raised his hands and gold portals materialised behind him. "Come," he said inviting Shirou forward to his destruction. "Let's not spoil our battle with the likes of her." And with a gesture of his hand Shirou faced down a wall of gold.

xxx

Ishtar strode through the ruins of the floor that had taken a direct hit from her Heavenly Boat Maana. She had decided to attack the Counter Guardian on the spur of the moment but in hindsight it had been a great idea. There was no love lost between her and Gilgamesh and her presence would surely drive the King of Babylon to unleash some of his more lethal weaponry in an attempt to reduce her to dust. Both Shirou and Gilgamesh seemed to be on good terms despite their differing sentiments towards her and she was certain that their fight would not be immediately lethal.

This animal had attacked her friend and seemed determined to cut him down and would receive no mercy from her. Her instincts blared and a moment later she dodged a beam of holy light that blazed through her previous location and impacted the building that Shirou and Gilgamesh fought upon causing a huge chunk of the building to be demolished. Ishtar was unable to look for her master as she was forced to into melee range by the red-cloaked counter guardian. She blocked the white blade with her blow and was forced to dodge the black blade. Stepping to her left she ducked and swung a low kick at the servants legs and when he stepped back she pirouetted and smashed her bow into the pair of the pair of swords the servant raised to block shattering them and sending him sliding a few feet to the side from the impact.

She quickly notched her bow and sent three bolts of light towards him that were all deflected by another set of that pair of swords. He advanced swiftly and soon Ishtar was forced to block his attacks by swinging her bow to deflect the pair of blades. Thinking swiftly she blocked the blades and then dematerialised her bow stepping in between the blades where she channelled prana to her fists and landed crushing blows to her opponent. These strikes impacted on his suddenly bare chest and then bounced off due to the armoured clothing that materialised around his form. She was annoyed to realise that the damage from each of her strikes were nullified and that he was only knocked slightly off balance by her punches. Gritting her teeth she pulled more prana away from the ocean that was her master and channelled all of that prana into her next blow that struck the green glowing sigil on his chest causing him to go catapulting backwards into the next room.

She walked forward into the next room only to resummons her bow to block the longsword that lashed out at head height. Rolling with the momentum she stepped back and was forced to block the follow-up blows coming from each direction. The swordsmanship of the man, now once again wearing his red cloak, was impeccable and she was forced to move to block every swing constantly putting her on the defensive. Backing up she felt her back touch the wall and she got an overwhelming sense of danger from all sides. Forcing her body to move in a way that no human could she flung her body to the ground a few strands of hair being cut from three simultaneous directions. Channelling prana into her hands she obliterated the floor causing both of them to fall down to the floor below.

She fired several bolts of light at the descending servant and he barely managed to block it by summoning a rose petalled shield that shattered twice before he hit the ground. Landing on the ground the two faced each other weapons drawn.

The fighters halted in their combat stances and inspected the other, looking for any sign of weakness and finding the other devoid of them.

"I don't suppose we can just leave it here," the white-haired servant suggested.

"I'm going to be leaving your corpse here," Ishtar informed the servant casually.

The tension rose between the two as they readied there weapons.

Suddenly a roar shattered the silence and the entire building quaked and began to fall sideways.

xxx

Shirou was losing. He was also having fun while doing so. Normally these two things would be impossible or at least highly unusual but as he dodged another loop of chain that threatened to ensnare him he realised that despite all the hype that Gilgamesh had stirred up about his fight during the years this battle against the golden king may live up to it. He clenched his fists and much larger fists of ice appeared around the king before he melted them into puddles using a sword of flame that he pulled from the ripples.

In the king's other hand a sword appeared and he with one slash a beam that matched the one that destroyed the skyscraper earlier appeared. The magical energy was overwhelmingly powerful so Shirou elected to dodge instead of block, teleporting away the instant before the light encompassed him and firing three shots from his Desert Eagle at the back of Gilgamesh's head.

The servant half-turned and the bullets were struck down by lightning that emanated from the numerous golden discs that surrounded Gilgamesh. In a means of reply the Golden man sent a wave of his cheaper Noble Phantasm's at the magician. However none reached as with a clap icicles intercepted each one of the treasures knocking them off course. Shirou sent forward a poisonous mist and then had to dodge again as one of the axes decided to change its course for him. A sidestep and a quick punch encased the axe in ice causing it to fall to the floor.

Shirou turned back to notice that the form of Gilgamesh was gone. He quickly used [Poseidon's Eye] and lunged to the side to avoid a sword that nearly bisected him in two. Lashing out with waves of water revealed the location of Gilgamesh who appeared moments later holding some kind of dime store wizard's hat and looking visibly ignored at being soaked. Gilgamesh clicked his fingers and lightning appeared travelling towards Shirou who redirected it back at him using water with a high saline content.

The lightning impacted Gilgamesh's armour doing nothing to the magic resistant material. The servant shook his head and smiled breaking up the fight. "Come on Shirou," he said goading the magician. "Is there nothing more you can show me?"

"Not even close," Shirou replied smiling. "In fact you're making me want to go all out." He held up his hand. "Witness now Gilgamesh; behold my new spell with power on par with that of a Noble Phantasm." While normally Shirou would not be so dramatic he was immensely proud of this spell that he had only managed to create by combining his immense power and understanding over water and ice with the knowledge of magecraft he obtained from the Matou, the Einzbern and Sumire and his abilities as a magician.

"[Nidhoggr]," he said as he cut deep into his hand letting the blood drip down into the water of the ground. For a moment nothing happened and the night was still and silent but in the next moment the collective water of the erupted and coalesced taking the form of a massive fifteen metre tall dragon with two forearms and a long tail.

Water cooled and formed into scales and teeth and claws while the joints and muscles operated using hydraulic power. Poison dripped from its fangs and it turned two empty sockets towards the King of Heroes who stood there in silence.

His silence didn't last long as the King of Heroes clapped at the display. "It was okay," he said. "You can do better."

"Okay," Shirou spluttered visibly shuddering with rage. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to create even a semblance of life?"

"You would know better than me," Gilgamesh said smiling as if he had just heard a funny joke.

"Nidhoggr," Shirou said voice steady and calm. "Let's go beat some sense into Gilgamesh."

The dragon growled and crouched but their plan of regicide was put to a momentary halt as the stillness of the night was broken by a familiar roar that reverberated through Shirou's bones.

"Round two," Shirou said with determination turning to face the source that was busy extracting itself from the wreckage of a nearby building.

xxx

Arcueid and Shiki casually strolled into the atrium of the building. Two dead apostles stood guard but they were easily dispatched with a single thrust of the hand and a single stab. Shiki, now with his eyes fully on display then killed the elevator with a single stab and the two proceeded to go up to the first floor.

It was a massacre; countless vampires were cut down before they could speak. Shiki went ahead dispatching legions of vampires by with a single well placed thrust and any Dead Apostle that managed to dodge was immediately torn apart by Arcueid in the next instant.

Already the floor was covered in ash as Shiki and Arcueid continued there one sided massacre. Every door was filled with the dead or one or two vampires that were quickly dispatched. This pattern continued until they came to the fourth floor. The first door that they entered on the fourth floor was what seemed to be an empty salon. The next was an entertainment room with a home theatre that Arcueid briefly fussed over. The following was an arcade and the pattern continued.

Each room they came to was empty and some form of luxury entertainment and the pattern continued until the end. Shiki was about to open the door when Arcueid stopped him.

"Something is behind that door," she whispered in Shiki's ear. Without looking at her he nodded to show that he understood. He raised his knife and very carefully killed the lock.

Entering quickly into the room both of them took in the image of a room bare of human habitation. Then they both simultaneously spotted the cute white critter that lay in doggy basket watching cartoons. The big eared creature turned towards the two of them and started growling. The growl sounded cute rather than intimidating coming from the small dog shaped creature. This cuteness proved to be only temporary as the creature's body morphed doubling in size, its body packed on muscle and its eyes gained a vicious glint. The transformation was suddenly cut short as Arcueid strode forward and kicked the thing launching it through the window and down to the street below its eyes displaying a look of utter shock as it vanished from the room.

"Well that's cleared," Arcueid said making a motion of washing her hands.

"Do you think that was the correct thing to do?" Shiki questioned his master.

"Come on," Arcueid said. "The creature was obviously evil. It also had terrible taste in anime as well. Who even likes this stuff?"

Shiki shook his head and opened his mouth to respond only to be cut off by the sound of a roar from the street below. Shooting her a withering look he noticed Arcueid flush in embarrassment.

"My declaration of victory," she said looking a bit guilty. "It may have been a tad premature."

Author Note: Can you recognize all the Noble Phantasm's in this chapter. I hope the fight's didn't disappoint. I just realized that Arcueid literally kicked the dog this chapter.:)

Next chapter should be up soon. Consider it part two of this chapter.

Please read and review.