Shielder seemed happy that Ayaka had returned from the church, and Saber nodded approvingly as well. When Ayaka asked Shielder if she had been concerned that the contract between them would be abolished, Shielder simply smiled gently and replied that she had faith in her Master.

Ayaka walked with Shirou and Rin for a time. When they got to an intersection, Rin started making a big deal about how it was time for them to go their separate ways, and that they would be enemies going forward, but Ayaka couldn't help but feel a sense of unease. They hadn't seen the girl in the purple coat on the way to Kotomine Church, but it was past midnight now…. And no sooner than she had thought of that, she felt killing intent from just a little further down the road. There was a small giggle as the silver-haired girl in the purple coat emerged from the fog, a lumbering dark giant behind her.

"Good evening, onii-chan. I see Sajyou is with you too. I'm pleased to see that both of you have summoned your Servants. You even have Rin." She curtseyed, and smiled innocently. "My name is Illyasviel von Einzbern. I'd say you can call me Illya, but you'll all be dead in a few minutes."

"You're going to take on three Servants at once?" Rin asked.

"That's a nice try at a bluff Rin, but even at a glance, you know they're no match for my Berserker. Besides, your Servant isn't even here right now. Perhaps your Servant is already wounded?" Rin grimaced, which was as good as a confirmation, and Illya continued talking. "I wasn't expecting Sajyou to have summoned an irregular class, but I guess she lives up to her sister's reputation."

"No- I… it was…," Ayaka tried to protest.

"Well, it makes no difference. Now, get them Berserker!"

The giant lunged forward with incredible speed, bellowing incoherently. In its hands, it held a massive stone blade, and in a moment it would….

CLANG! Shielder interposed herself between the Masters and Berserker, raising her shield to absorb the brunt of Berserker's blow. She nearly buckled under its force, and the pavement around her cratered, but she held firm, gritting her teeth with determination. Saber darted around to strike with his invisible sword, but Berserker's reflexes were just as fast, and it was Saber who had to parry.

Ayaka felt paralyzed with terror. There was no way they could beat something as strong as Berserker! But next to her, it seemed that Shirou was steeling himself to jump into the fray.

"Don't even think about it, Emiya!" Rin shouted over the din. "You can't do anything to help them! You'll get killed the moment you try!"

While Saber and Shielder's fight against Berserker was two against one, it was still going poorly. Shielder's defensive strength was incredible, and her mere presence seemed to reduce the force of Berserker's blows against Saber, but Berserker was far quicker than her. Showing unexpected acrobatic prowess, Berserker backflipped over Shielder and swung around to hit her back with the side of his blade, sending her flying.

"Shielder!"

"Hmm… seems that your Servant wasn't so tough after all, Sajyou. You disappoint me," Illya pouted.

Shielder struggled to rise, leaving Saber to fight Berserker on his own. Ayaka knew she had to do something. If she could heal her Servant while Saber kept Berserker occupied…. she wasn't the most skilled at it, but if she could do that much…. And so Ayaka began to dash toward Shielder, trying to ignore the throbbing from the wounds on her leg.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Rin called.

"Stop her, Berserker!" Illya commanded.

Berserker roared, leaping high into the air over Saber and toward Ayaka. Shielder was rising to move toward her Master's defense, but injured as she was, Shielder would never make it in time. Futilely, Ayaka spun around to fire a plume of black feathers at Berserker, but they had no effect whatsoever against the giant.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Berserker's massive blade descended toward her. This was it. She had thought she was dead before when Lancer had her at his mercy, but this time, she really was going to die! Her miserable life flashed before her eyes. If only she hadn't been so prideful, she would be safe in the church right now, no longer a Master. As much as she missed her family, she still didn't want to die! She was so stupid!

"AYAKA!"

"Huh?" A voice was calling out to her, and a shape was flying at her from the corner of her vision. It slammed into her, pushing her out of harm's way. She landed on the pavement, scraping her arms and knees, but it didn't seem that she'd broken anything. Her vision was blurry, both from the shock of it all and because her glasses had fallen off. Instinctively, she quickly reached for glasses and put them back on, but the lenses were cracked from the impact. Still, she could make out the scene before her clearly at this distance.

Blood splattered everywhere as Berserker landed, but Ayaka felt no pain. Instead, she saw Emiya Shirou collapsing to the ground, a massive wound in his back. He had nearly been cut in two.

There was no way anyone could survive that.

Emiya Shirou had just given his life for her.

He had given his life for useless Sajyou Ayaka, who had spent ten years hating him.

For what? She couldn't outrun Berserker. In another few moments, the giant would kill her anyway, and Shirou's sacrifice would be for naught. She felt white-hot anger at the injustice of it all.

Suddenly, Berserker howled in pain as Saber's sword impaled him in the side. Ayaka's mouth hung wide. Had Saber just managed to kill Berserker? If so, it was a pyrrhic victory. Without his Master, Saber would no longer be able to sustain his existence in the world. Saber had to know this, but he seemed relieved that he had at least been able to protect her after all, if not his Master.

Curiously, Illya didn't seem perturbed by the fact that her Servant had sustained a fatal injury. Rather, she seemed more in shock that Shirou had thrown himself into the path of Berserker's attack.

"Why did he do that?" Illya gasped.

Berserker groaned. His wound seemed to be closing up, and a deranged light was returning to his eyes.

Illya's expression turned to one of annoyance. "Hmph! While I wasn't expecting you to be able to take one of Berserker's lives, I'm not in the mood for fighting anymore. I'll consider it a fair trade, considering that Saber will disappear soon. But if you follow us, or we meet again, you're dead. Come, Berserker!"

The giant shimmered and dematerialized. Ayaka's hand with the ring trembled as Illya turned around, her rage not yet fully subsided, but she knew better than to attempt a sneak attack that would only serve to bring Berserker back upon them.

Soon, Illya had vanished into the misty night. Rin was busy berating Shirou's lifeless body, and Saber looked on gravely. In spite of his earlier relief at saving Ayaka from Berserker, another failure at protecting his Master had to be weighing on him heavily. He hadn't started to fade yet, but there was no doubt that it would be soon. Shielder had managed to limp over to them, still battered from the fight with Berserker, and seemed at a loss for words.

Ayaka knelt by Shirou. His eyes were still wide open with pain. Trying to fight off tears and failing, she reached out a hand to close Shirou's eyes, and… wait? What was that she felt? Something was tickling her hand. Shirou was still breathing!

"He… he… he's still alive!" Ayaka practically choked on the words.

"Wait, no way!" Rin said in utter disbelief. "But he'll die from loss of blood! Even if I had a large enough jewel, I couldn't heal a wound that big!"

"Rin! You have to do something! I can't do this on my own!" She was frantically trying to do anything that could help stabilize Shirou, but if Rin was overwhelmed by the scope of the injury, then her own efforts truly were futile.

"Stop that! You don't know what you're doing! It won't work, and you'll just burn yourself out! Besides… he's supposed to be an enemy, right?"

"He… he… saved my life…" But Rin was right that she couldn't keep it up for long, and soon Ayaka's feeble attempts at healing spells petered out.

"I'm sorry…" she managed weakly. How utterly inadequate her words were. Shirou was still going to die because of her. And yet…

What happened next was incredible. Shirou's wound began to close, all on its own, slowly regenerating organs, bone, muscle, and skin, and judging from how he was starting to regain color, his blood was regenerating as well.

"What's going on?" Ayaka asked. "I… I didn't do that, did I?"

"I don't know, but don't just kneel there gawking!" Rin yelled, assuming command of the situation. "We'll carry Emiya-kun to somewhere safe, and then we'll see what else we can do about those wounds!"

"You were the one calling him an enemy just a minute ago!"

"You're really one to talk about treating Emiya as an enemy, Sajyou! Besides, I don't like being indebted to others. He did get Illya to call off Berserker, and I owe him for that too. I don't know how, but it looks like he can actually be saved, so, I'll settle that debt now, and then we can go back to being enemies."

XxX

Miraculously, the most serious damage had already healed by the time they got Shirou back to his residence in Miyama Town, at least as far as they could tell from the outside, so there was little to do but to bandage him up and set him down to rest in his bedroom. Though they couldn't help but worry for him, Saber's continued existence was testament to the fact that Shirou was definitely still alive for now, somehow.

"We were completely outmatched by Berserker," Rin said angrily. She frowned at Saber. "If you hadn't seriously injured my Archer, we'd have had a better chance!"

"I am sorry for the misunderstanding. I thought your Servant was a threat to my Master, so I responded accordingly."

"He's a danger to himself!" Rin snapped. "He should have known how lucky he was to be alive after the first time he got killed tonight! Then he gets himself killed a second time in one night, for another Master no less, and doesn't die? It makes no sense!" She shook her head in frustration. "So how's your Servant, Sajyou?"

"Shielder's in spirit form right now," Ayaka replied, feeling drained by the events of the night, holding the frame of her broken glasses in her hands. She had been trying to repair them, but exhausted as she was she could barely manage such a simple task for a Magus. "She's resting and recuperating. She says my supply of mana is adequate, and that her wounds are not severe. She should be fully recovered and ready to fight at her peak performance again in a day or two."

"So only Emiya's Servant emerges from this mess mostly unscathed! And speaking of which, do you know why Emiya can heal like that, Saber?"

Saber shrugged. "I could hazard a guess that it's related to the circumstances under which I was summoned, but I do not think it prudent to say more at this time, lest I am wrong or an enemy be eavesdropping upon us."

"Some knight you are," Ayaka said grumpily. "You look the part, but you failed my sister and you almost failed Shirou!"

"Of course, you are correct," Saber said, his tone self-deprecating. "Your sister was one of my greatest failures as a knight, if not the greatest. And both you and Shirou were caught up in that madness at the end of the last war." He looked up, smiling gently. "That is why I will definitely protect both of you this time. And as I said before, even if Shirou is my own Master this time, I rest easier knowing that Shielder is your Servant, Ayaka."

"You're not fighting for anything else?" Ayaka asked suspiciously. "As a Servant, you must have a wish for the Grail."

"I did, once. But someone helped me realize that it's much more important to protect the world that and those in it, so they can move on to a brighter future, than vainly seeking to change it through a miracle. In this sense, the whole war is an impossibly stupid thing."

"But that itself is stupid, fighting for others!" Ayaka retorted. "It almost got your Master killed! I didn't ask him to be saved from Berserker!"

"And yet he did it anyways, without a thought of reward."

"More like without thinking at all!" Ayaka huffed.

"But what are you fighting for then, Ayaka?" Saber asked. She opened her mouth to answer, but Saber held up a finger. "Don't answer that now, Ayaka. You surely have a lot on your mind now, and there must be questions you want to ask me as well. But like my Master, you need rest. It's very late, and the days ahead will not be easy. And even if you don't know now, I'm sure you will find something worth fighting for."

Saber was right of course. It was past one in the morning. Fortunately, tomorrow was a Sunday, which meant there was no school.

"We should just crash here for the night," Rin said.

"We can't just stay at his house uninvited!" Ayaka protested.

"I'd say he owes both of us one after we lugged him all the way here. Besides, you don't want to have to head back out there tonight, do you? It should be safe in the morning though. Masters and Servants generally don't attack then; there are too many potential witnesses around during the daytime."

"I suppose you're right," Ayaka conceded.

Author's Note:

Shirou's rule for being a hero of justice #2: Always save the girl. She's probably the heroine for the current route.