Chapter Ten: The Princess in Another Castle

Kariya almost whirled around in time to see Marrok coming, but instead by the time he'd heard something stampeding up behind him he had already been scooped up by the horse-sized wolf much like Sakura had been many times over the past few days. Of course he yelled out in surprise, but quickly calmed himself as the wolf didn't even break stride.

"Right, fast as a horse. Do you have control of you forms back?"

The wolf shook his head.

"Crap." Kariya realized he was holding onto a t-shirt, "Well at least his grows with you for some reason?"

"Arf." It seemed like Marrok was still upset.

"Look, I'm sorry. I was angry about Sakura getting kidnapped. I shouldn't have said that."

Marrok let out a little grumble that conveyed a sort of "I'm sorry too" tone.

"Maybe I was a little jealous of Saber too. I mean, you're my servant and you pretty much run the show, then suddenly you're her lap dog and bonding with her friends. Anyway, why am I trying to talk about this now? You can't talk back and Sakura's in trouble."

"Arf!"

About an hour later, Kayneth was pacing back and forth in the living room of the condo he was renting in Fuyuki City. His hair disheveled, his face frantic. He barely even heard the nagging of his beautiful red-headed fiance Sola-Ui.

"What's become of you Kayneth, skulking about and losing Diarmuid like that? Then I don't see you for days and you come back with a hostage!" she pointed at Sakura, who was bound and gagged in the corner.

"I'm getting back in the war, Sola. This is the only way. I need a servant!"

"But kidnapping children?"

"It makes total sense. They won't risk trying to attack a magus of my level. I could have any number of traps that would kill the girl. They especially can't take chances since they were probably heavily worn down in that huge attack. I know what I'm doing! She assured me that she would help me acquire one of their servants."

"Who?"

"She called herself Viviane, she was an insanely powerful magus like I've never seen. I would have thought she was Caster if all the servants weren't accounted for."

"How do you know she isn't a master leading you to your doom?"

"All the masters are accounted for too. The last one lead the charge into their territory after Viviane disabled the barrier. Then Viviane just whisked me inside."

"Teleportation? That's..."

Kayneth walked over and grabbed his fiance's shoulders, "Actual magic, Sola, on the level of miracles. And it's on our side!"

"Kayneth, do you even understand who this child is? I did some research. She's from the Tohsaka family but they pawned her off on the Matous."

"There's only two living Matous."

"And Tokiomi might take offense to two people kidnapping his daughter! You might have just called half the war onto our heads!"

"That's the beauty of it, Sola! All I have to do is kill the masters and the servants will grab onto the nearest chance they have to win the war! The entire floor above and below this one is a labyrinth of traps and loops that nothing can escape!"

"Um... Kayneth..." She pointed at the window behind him.

"What?"

He turned around to see a giant wolf nearly the size of the room flying at the window with a very displeased expression on its face.

"Oh..."

The reinforced glass was nothing to a servant, so the wolf came crashing through spraying glass across the room, Sakura having rolled herself behind a chair. Kayneth too had time to shield Sola and himself using a mercury-like substance that was one of his more powerful mystic codes. Out of the sphere shot two tendrils of mercury that drove into the wolf, gouging deep into its flesh. However, a man that had been clutching firmly to the beast and partly concealed in the thick fur around the neck, appeared and blasted them back with an impact spell.

The wolf barked something that sounded a lot like, "Go!"

So the man, Kariya Matou, bolted over towards the tied up Sakura, Kayneth shot more tendrils from the safety of his sphere at the man, but Marrok intercepted, taking two more hits from the mystic code. With a brief flicker of blue mana around him though, all his wounds stopped bleeding and closed. With the strange effect active, the wolf blocked two more shots directed at them.

Kariya was pleased, "Quicksilver doesn't count I guess.

Sakura was quickly untied and ungagged, "Uncle Marrok, Uncle Kariya!"

Marrok barked.

"Yeah I'm fine. He put some traps on me, but I just used that spell you taught me!"

Kariya was confused, "Spell?"

Sakura smiled, proud of herself, "Yeah, the one that I healed you with. Marrok taught me how to tweak it to get rid of stuff like this too! Cool right?"

"Very cool."

Marrok would later elaborate that the spell could be tweaked to realign the magical energy in your body, purging many things that had manipulated, polluted, or intruded on it. It was pretty limited, but useful against booby traps and some simple curses. Not lycanthropy though, which of course wold come up later in talks about the fate of the infected.

Seeing he couldn't fight the servant here, Kayneth cut a hole in the floor and escaped to the floor below. Growling and barking due to the effects of his madness enhancement and being legitimately angry, the angered Marrok dashed to the hole, but Kariya called out, "Marrok, no! Getting Sakura to safety takes prior-"

Sakura suddenly pulled Kariya over behind the couch having seen a golden man descend down to the level of the window on some sort of aircraft with wings and a throne, assess the room, and conjure strange portals with swords in them at adult height. She reacted just in time to save Kariya and cried out a warning to Marrok, but the beast was hit by at least a half dozen swords and into the hole.

Tokiomi stepped from behind the throne and off the wing of the craft into the room, "Sakura, come here. I've come to save you."

Sakura didn't poke her head out but replied, "Daddy?"

"Yes, Sakura it's me. I'm sorry the Matou house didn't work out for you, but I'm here now to take you back from this filth."

Kariya had a snarl in his voice, "You send her off to that hell hole and now you want to play the hero? Where were you when they were torturing her in their basement?"

Sakura started towards her father. When Kariya tried to go out from behind cover to stop her, Archer fired a sword at him that he barely dodged.

"You didn't know about the bugs, did you, Daddy?"

Tokiomi sighed as he walked over and placed his hands on her shoulders, "Sakura, all magical inheritance is a horrible ordeal. A magic crest burns all the nerves in the body when you use it. Mages must make sacrifices in the pursuit of knowledge."

Kariya yelled back, "They were feeding her nerves and body to fucking crest worms! You sent your daughter to be eaten alive!"

"I sent my daughter to inherit the magical line of a once great house and take it for her own, lifting it to newer, greater, less morbid heights. I have faith in my daughter's strength." Tokiomi stood and started pulling her towards the aircraft.

Sakura resisted, a betrayed look on her face, "You knew about the worms?"

Tokiomi did not understand the significance of Archer looking away from him, refusing to even have the man in the corner of his eye. As cruel he could be, even he regarded forcing something like that on a small girl as subhuman. From then on, the dirt on the ground was more worthy than his 'master'. He did not know it, but Tokiomi had long signed his death warrant, and had just dotted the last I. As Tokiomi turned from the ledge to reply to his daughter, he also didn't notice his servant move his ship slightly to the side.

"Sakura, you're special. A miraculously gifted girl like your sister. However, there can be only one heir to a house. If I had left you in our house you would never have lived up to your potential and some people would have exploited your gifts for-"

There was a scuffling from the direction of the hole, a large, groaning wolf glowing light blue climbed from the pit, contorting partway into human form, as if the form of the man Marrok was ripping itself out of the beast form in rage, "You... you could have just trained her."

"And hold back both my children?"

Mana surged around and into Marrok, Kariya fell to the ground from the sheer weight of how much was suddenly being drawn from him. He recalled, Marrok had warned him that it might be very dangerous if his origin ever required fury from him... that in that case he might go headlong with abandon into the Madness Enhancement and his origin might even strengthen it beyond reason. What would become of the Berserker if his very origin required rage? If he became the literal embodiment of righteous fury?

"YOU SENT HER TO THAT PLACE BECAUSE YOU COULDN'T BE ASSED TO BE A FUNCTIONAL HUMAN BEING? HOW SHIT OF A MAGUS ARE YOU THAT YOU CAN'T COMPETENTLY TEACH TWO PEOPLE?!" the entire floor nearly buckled as a hand-like forepaw stepped forward and clawed at it, "DON'T TOUCH HER! DON'T LOOK AT US! YOU DON'T DESERVE EITHER! YOU DON'T DESERVE TO EXIST! BURN TO NOTHING FROM THE SHEER INTENSITY OF YOUR INCOMPETENCE!"

Kariya managed to get used to the pull and sat up, "You sent her to die Tokiomi! Zouken's magic isn't the crest worms or the binding spells or any of that! He was going to steal her body!"

Tokiomi froze. That much he hadn't known, "He promised she would be heir!"

"EVEN IF HE HADN'T BEEN LYING TO YOU, YOU SENT YOUR DAUGHTER TO BE TORTURED BECAUSE YOU COULDN'T BE ASSED TO TEACH HER OR FIND A TRUSTED TEACHER! TOKIOMI!" at that last word all the windows from the five adjacent floors blew out from the howl of rage and mana.

Kariya stumbled. God, it was like a black hole had stabbed him in the chest. If Tokiomi made Marrok totally flip in this situation... Kariya might actually pass out or die. The wolf advanced, barely maintaining his reason. His fury seemed so intense that any more would start ripping the room apart by itself. The swords in him ere pushed out by the intensified healing of the werewolf legend being called upon with abandon.

"Archer, remember my command seal!"

Archer pelted the Berserker with a new set of blades, driving at least five halfway into he back and dropping him.

"Marrok!" Sakura cried out in fear for her friend and savior.

Tokiomi pulled at his daughter's arm, "Sakura, I'm sorry. I'll do a better job next time. We'll find you a lesser mage family that isn't made of lunatics to lead."

"I DON'T WANT TO!" Sakura yelled back and wrestled her arm free. She was fed up.

"Come on now. Listen to your father. You don't understand what the mage world is like."

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" She yelled, shoving him with all her strength, "YOU BITCH!"

Tokiomi stumbled from the shove just barely a half step. That was all it took. The next few moments as Tokiomi fell backwards out of the window seemed almost to go in slow motion. Tokiomi realized that he was about to die and his daughter had killed him. Sakura realized that she had just killed her father. The rage suddenly dropped out of Marrok like a bucket with no bottom as he saw the pain Sakura was about to suffer, the kind of trauma you could never get rid of even if he deserved to die. He knew that pain. He'd killed his own father for the good of his people. His very nature demanded he ran for the ledge, using the curse of lycanthropy to heal as much as he could and empower him to close the distance even if Archer shot him more. It demanded he lessen that pain for her.

Marrok caught Tokiomi's shirt in his teeth but could not kill his speed or keep his balance, so he fell. Even then, his nature required he turn so that he would take the bulk of the fall for the man he hate so gravely. Even if it killed him, Tokiomi would surely at least barely live. Marrok preferred that to Sakura becoming a killer. Him sacrificing himself instead of her killing her father would certainly hurt less?

Sakura saw this, and somehow her child mind understood the intention. She also understood something else as she called out at the top of her lungs, her eyes filled with tears, "DADDY!"

Not quite understanding, Marrok's heart hurt a little at the thought she had not called out for him. Moments later, Marrok hit the ground, the blades in him being driven nearly clean through him. Tokiomi was sent rolling away, his shoulder broken. Otherwise he was fine even after falling from a skyscraper. A fall that only a servant could have lived through after taking. Tokiomi was too angry to be grateful though.

"You ingrate! You dare take my daughter from me!" he fired a gandyr bullet into the side of the servant to no effect. So instead he blasted the wolf with fire, which worked far better, "You presume to know what's best for her!"

He blasted the servant again, more intensely.

"You don't know the first thing about her gift! She has a rare element! In the right hands both her and her sister could be the strongest mages this world has seen in decades!"

He blasted Marrok again. Even though he was blasting a servant and Marrok's lycanthropy was cutting the damage drastically through regeneration, that servant had just fallen nearly two dozen stories and been impaled by seven noble phantasms. None of their names had been invoked, but still. Marrok was so injured, all the magus would need to do to kill him was keep his healing ability busy a few more minutes.

Up in the condo above, Archer had watched the events playing out. He understood them. He knew Marrok's intentions and respected them. That fact enraged him. For a literal mongrel to thwart his clever circumvention of the degrading command seals and avert the killing of his repulsive master... while making him respect his intentions? How dare that trash play the hero. How dare he make him a villain! Him, the King of Heroes!

He turned to Kariya, who had scrambled towards Marrok right before the fall, and was out in the open, "Interesting. The hound leaves his master in enemy hands to save that enemy."

Archer smirked and walked straight over to Sakura, picking her up by her collar.

"Let her go, Archer!"

"I do not take orders from you, or anyone." he smirked, ignoring Sakura's protests and calling him a bitch as well, instead strolling back to his ship with her, "But I must say, such an honorable action from a servant surprised me. It makes me intrigued at what his master must be made of. You must be a far more worthy master than my own."

And with that, he simply descended on his ship to the scene below.

"Master," he said, using the term for the first time and lowering the girl to the ground, "I have brought your daughter as your command seal bid me."

Tokiomi whirled around, "Why didn't you catch me?"

Archer smirked, "You didn't ask."

In his rage, Tokiomi did the dumbest thing he had ever done. Which is saying something. He struck Archer across the face. The servant let Sakura go in shock. The girl of course ran right to Marrok's side.

"Daddy, no!" Sakura pleaded, not caring that she was quickly covered in blood, "Don't die! You can't die! Please! DADDY!"

Marrok, corrected, was taken aback... and he was worried as he was happy about the sentiment.

Tokiomi turned slowly, eyes wide, "Daddy? Sakura, I'm your father! That thing is just a weapon of war summoned to sacrifice for magical power!"

"Shut up!"

Tokiomi turned to Archer, who had still not moved after being slapped, just from the sheer shock that he had dared strike him, "Archer, kill that servant and bring me my daughter!"

Archer glared, "No."

"Archer, you will listen to me! I am your master!"

"No."

Tokiomi raised his command seals, there only being one left. He'd used the first to call Archer from the shipyard and the second had been needed to get his help saving Sakura. Archer had never forgiven him for the first and never given him an inch.

"Archer, by the power of my command seal I order you to bring me my daughter this instant!"

Archer walked over, lifted the girl up (her sleeve ripping off as Marrok barely managed the strength to try and fight it a little), and then walked her over to Tokiomi, deliberately setting her down as far from him as would qualify as bringing her. Tokiomi couldn't grab her in time and she ran right back to Marrok.

"ARCHER!"

Archer simply walked away.

"ARCHER!"

He was gone.

Tokiomi looked at his now empty hand, not a single seal remained. Desperate, he looked to his daughter, "You're really choosing him over me? He's some meaningless werewolf servant! He's a plague not a father!"

"He's more of a father than you! He saved me, helped teach me magecraft! You just want to throw me away again!"

"Sakura, you don't understand! I'm trying to do what's best for you! You can use Imaginary Numbers! You won't be safe outside of a family of magus. Listen to your father!"

"You're not my father!"

"My blood flows through your veins! I-"

Sakura immediately licked up as much of Marrok's blood as she could and swallowed, "NOW HIS DOES TOO!"

Tokiomi was stunned, "Sakura... do you even know what you've just done? He's a werewolf... you've just cursed yourself."

"It's not your problem!"

"You've doomed him! It's against the rules to infect people with such a thing. You and everyone around you will be hunted down like the monsters you've made yourself into!"

"LEAVE US ALONE!"

Tokiomi stumbled back, a broken look on his face. He briefly thought to try and slay the beast and save his daughter, but if that didn't cure her? He had to think logically... he had to protect his family. The magus pulled a knife he'd intended to give Kirei out of his pocket and walked slowly forward, shaking... nothing left of true reason left of him. In his mind, the right course of action was to make sure the Mage's Association never found out that there was a werewolf in his family. If he cleaned up the mess, they wouldn't come after his family too.

Tokiomi reached down.

"I won't let you hurt him"

And grabbed her by the hair, confusing her.

He moved the knife closer, "I have to protect my family. You've brought the Mage's Association down on us, Sakura."

"What? Why... stop you're-" she stopped mid sentence and screamed, blood flying everywhere.

Tokiomi dropped her... as his skin hung there from an outstretched hand bearing command seals. A hand attached to a familiar person that shouldn't be surrounded by the aura of a command seal in effect as he was. It also shouldn't have a blade his other arm. Regardless of reason and logic though, Kayneth was standing there, a crazed look in his eyes.

He raised his hand that somehow still bore all its command seals even though he seemed to be under the effect of one. The magus then invoked his first command seal, "Take everything from Arthur Pendragon, her life last."

The glass shattered out from every floor as flesh familiars poured from every room.

Avenger grinned with the face of Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald, burning his second command seal, "BURN THIS NEW CAMELOT TO THE GROUND WITH ARTHUR INSIDE!"

Next Chapter: Among the Ruins

Author's Note: You have no idea how tempting it was to end the chapter on the part where Marrok falls and Sakura calls him her father as he plummets. Also werewolf Sakura?! What's with Marrok getting members for a pack in back to back chapters? The hype train rolls along as we reach the climax of Avenger's arc and we move towards endgame. There's no predicting the exact count for how many chapters are left, but it probably won't hit twenty. We are just a few chapters away from the final act of the Holy Grail War folks. Next Chapter we'll back track to show how Avenger stole Kayneth's body and where Saber and the others are.