With Elric being able to recreate most of the alchemy books he the "original" had read (though he had quickly figured out that it was only with Truth's permission), Rin quickly advanced as an "alchemist". So much so that she was making some rather strong strides towards manipulating jewels directly, as opposed to just charging them with prana and hoping for the best.

It had gotten to the point where she could recreate a minor ruby or sapphire nine times out of ten, which didn't cause nearly as much damage as buying the jewels outright, even from second-hand shops had.

She was confident she could learn how to make diamonds before the war was over.

It was ironic, but learning alchemy had made it much easier to make some major progress in her own magecraft research.


Nine days later...

"LISTEN TO ME DAMMIT! Get your nose out of that blasted book!" roared an enraged Rin.

"What happened this time?" said Elric, giving her his full undivided attention. When faced with his golden eyes, she blushed momentarily before giving him a detailed report of what happened.

"So Illya's gotten tired of the lack of action and whoever has Assassin has been targeting those that attend the Church at night?" said Elric, baffled. That hadn't happened the first time, but then again he had already screwed up the timeline.

"Witnesses have reported someone speaking Arabic, or something from the Middle East," said Emiya.

"Makes you wonder how Kirei's been handling this nonsense," said Elric, looking at Archer. He snorted.

"He's been nursing a broken arm for the past week. I checked, and apparently it really is broken. Assassin made a point to target him first and he was lucky to get away with only that," said Rin.

"Doesn't he have accelerated healing or some other bullshit like that?"

Rin gritted her teeth.

"It was broken in FIVE places. They had to put pins in his arm so it would heal right! It's going to take at least two weeks for his arm to heal enough to use it in a fight!"

"Oh dear...it's seems I've triggered the legendary Tsundere Rage Attack," said Elric, grinning mischievously at her.

"QUIT CALLING ME A TSUNDERE!"

Sakura hid a smile, because her sister was a tsundere...and it was clear she liked Shirou Elric. Besides, Emiya-sempai didn't want to date a girl that had made an honest effort to kill him for no good reason. Especially with her personality.

It was best for all involved that they steer her towards Shirou Elric, rather than Shirou Emiya.

Honestly the twin-tailed magus might actually settle down if she got laid.

Sakura decided to redouble her efforts in locking Rin and Elric in a closet for an undetermined amount of time and making it impossible for them to get out until they had resolved Rin's anger issues.

Because while she tolerated Rin's presence at the table, she sure as hell wasn't going to accept her as a romantic rival when she had been trying to get into Emiya-sempai's pants for well over a year.

"So...we either deal with Assassin ourselves, or we lay a trap for them involving a third party that will most certainly show up and deal with it for us," said Elric.

"How are you planning to trap Assassin? Or hell, Berserker?" demanded Rin.

"With Lancer. If I use him without having him hide his face and presence, then a certain someone will show up, or appear before us."

Everyone took it to mean that an outside party associated with the war had a massive grudge against Lancer for some reason they had yet to fathom (he was like Shirou...too nice to hate that much).

Lancer and Elric knew the truth. If he let Lancer show his face once, or let his true voice be heard, Gilgamesh would show up without fail and start making a nuisance of himself. Hence why he had told Lancer not to let his face or presence be detected when he fought, at least not at the moment. So far he had been successful with Elric's polite request not to be detected by his old friend.

Then again, he had only gone alone with it for one simple reason. Elric wanted to surprise Gilgamesh in a way that would amuse them both. And Enkidu didn't mind surprising him...so long as he wasn't obligated to kill his friend.

Seeing the way Rin acted around Elric, Sakura mentally decided that perhaps it was time to call in reinforcements.

In short, she was enlisting the aid of Saber, Rider and Archer... and possibly Lancer if he was willing.


Explain to me how we ended up trapped in what appears to be a coat closet that barely has room for two people," said Rin furious.

"Sakura. With copious aid from both our Servants, Rider and Saber," said Elric, shifting and trying not to brush up against anything that would get him killed. Or worse, gelded by the irate Magus.

"I know that! I meant why did she do this!"

"From what I heard from your snickering Archer, she wants you to 'get laid' by someone other than Emiya so that she doesn't have to worry about having her sister try and steal her boyfriend."

"Really? I don't even like Emiya. The only hesitation I had when I tried to kill him was because she liked him and he made her happy! Hell, you have a higher chance of actually being my boyfriend than than idiot!"

Elric gave her a pointed look.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me."

"She's doing her job annoying her older sister by pointing you in the general direction of someone who could get you to 'loosen up' without having to worry about you targeting the boy she happens to like. The fact she managed to rope the other Servants into this was probably bonus, as does the fact that if she succeeds she probably consider this payment for the circle I gave her to rid herself of Zouken and the worms," said Elric flatly.

"And what's in it for me?"

"Once you master the Kaleidoscope enough to travel into Amestris, I'll introduce you to a woman who terrifies her superior and pet into behaving using copious amounts of violence and gunfire."

"Tempting," said Rin.

"I know the basics of guns, and I would be more than happy to teach you how to use one to shoot that fake priest in the ass for all the migraines he gave you over the years."

Kirei deserved it. He was a bastard like that.

Rin decided that she might as well humor her sister and snogged Elric senseless for the idea. Only time would tell if he was worthy of being labeled her boyfriend/stress release.

And that would only happen if Sakura was really freed from those damn worms and the monster that controlled them.


In the deeper parts of the Matou mansion...

After the 'discovery' of Shinji and being informed he would never contribute to the gene pool ever thanks to the extent of the injuries to his balls, Zouken had been in a foul mood. He was also unaware of what Sakura had been learning while in Emiya's mansion.

He completely missed the circle in the middle of the room due to the fact Sakura had the foresight to use a darker chalk, which wouldn't be seen as easily on the already gloomy floor. She had drawn the circle so often at Emiya's that she was able to recreate it purely from memory. She had even mixed some of the circle with her own blood, to make sure it worked.

She didn't care about magecraft, or continuing the family line. Magic had done nothing but made her life a living hell.

Zouken was there. He sneered at her, as the worms began to collect around her.

"Rider, NOW!"

Medusa pushed Zouken into the worm pit, and he landed inside the circle.

"You stupid girl. Did you really think I would be killed by my own familiars?" sneered Zouken.

"Of course not, grandfather. I just had to make sure you were in position," said Sakura with a terrifyingly empty smile. She 'collapsed' onto both knees, making sure her bloodied palms touched the circle.

Zouken realized his error far too late. There was a massive surge of energy from the Matou mansion, as his very soul was ripped apart and fed into some thing which had no mercy or pity. It was merely using him as the 'fee' for Sakura to touch upon that realm.

It took Sakura a few moments to orient herself, and when she did she barely kept back a gasp.

'Sitting' on the empty expanse was a copy of herself.

What is it that you sought to accomplish? That foul creature is barely worth the price of entry into the Gate.

"I want to be free. Magecraft has made my life hell, and if it means paying in blood, I'll do it."

Truth said nothing for a moment, but then something happened. Sakura could feel something being ripped from her very being, and then being replaced.

Her circuits were completely destroyed, but her contract with Rider was still present. All the worms inside her body were ripped apart and replaced with healthy organs.

The price has been paid. Go through the gate, young alchemist, and receive your reward. But be warned...to return to the Gate will require a higher sacrifice than just your circuits or your shame.

And with that, the massive Gate opened wide like the maw of hell, and Sakura found herself flung into it. An awful lot of information about healing was promptly shoved into her head, as well as ways to bypass the whole "no using human transmutation" issue while still using alchemy to heal others.

When she came out, she had a massive migraine and a cryptic word from Truth about using her newly gained knowledge to "keep the sword-wielding idiot from dying before he got the missing parts back".

She took that to meant that Truth wanted her to keep Emiya-sempai alive until it fixed whatever was wrong with him. So long as it meant keeping her Sempai happy and alive, she was fine with being an alchemist as opposed to a magus, even if she had suddenly gained a few added quirks to make up for the lack of circuits Dark Sakura needed to survive.

Rider was waiting in the now defunct worm pit.

"Rider," said Sakura, her voice stronger than before.

"Yes, Master?"

"We're looting this place and then burning everything to the ground. Not a single beam left behind," said Sakura, her voice dead.

Zouken was destroyed, Shinji wouldn't come near her anytime soon. It was time to put her personal hell behind and move forward. She still had two good legs...there was no reason for what was past to stop her anymore.

Move on. Stand up and walk. After all, you have two perfect legs to stand on...

Those words kept reverberating in her mind.


A short time later...

"Wow Sakura, you're lucky you weren't caught up in that gas explosion!" said Taiga.

Sakura had spent the past hour and a half lying to the cops claiming she had noticed a hissing sound an hour before she went to getting groceries but thought nothing of it. By all accounts (and the fact that the fire department found one of the gas lamps with a busted pipe) meant that the official record was that the Matou mansion suffered an unfortunate accident due to outdated gas lines.

The fact that there had been a bad wire close to said busted pipe meant that the entire thing was chalked up to poor maintenance. With that, Sakura was able to collect on the insurance that came standard for old houses.

She had no intention of rebuilding that place, and had already placed most of the things she stole into the Tohsaka mansion with Rin's permission.

In reality she broke the pipe with Rider's help, and then had Rider cut through the wire so that it would ignite on it's own with no help from them.

Zouken was listed as an 'unfortunate' casualty due to age and the fact that he rarely left the house to begin with.

"Yeah, lucky," said Sakura blandly.

Taiga blinked, before she gave the girl an odd look.

"You didn't destroy your house in an attempt to collect on the insurance, did you?"

"Of course not. I did it to cover up the evidence of how I killed grandfather. He's had it coming for a long time," said Sakura insulted.

Taiga blinked. Then she remembered what Elric had mentioned about Sakura's home life, and when she added up the little details found it explained far too much.

Taiga was the heiress to a Yakuza clan, but mostly focused on her teaching career. So the fact Sakura had used a gas explosion to cover up the fact she had murdered the man who had made her home life a living hell didn't bother her so much as make her blink a bit.

"You're not going to do it again, are you?"

"Oh no, I plan to live with sempai until graduation, seeing as how I'm now the sole inheritor of the family fortune and have no intention of going back. Besides, I gave all the books and research from the family to Rin. She can put them to more use than I can," said Sakura.

If anyone asked, Sakura gave the Matou books to her sister as payment for being brought back into the family. Not that anyone would bother asking, since Sakura had no intention of continuing the path of a magus.

So now she was free to pursue her love interest without a certain creature that had the vaguest notion of a soul interfering. And if Shinji tried to make a fuss...well, she was sure Rider would be more than happy to turn him into a particularly ugly statue.

"As a teacher I shouldn't condone the idea of a girl your age staying with a boy."

"But?" continued Elric.

"But I've been waiting for you to jump Shirou for so long that it's probably pointless to care. And I know that Shirou is too responsible to leave you hanging should you get pregnant. Just wait until after you graduate before you start a family, okay?" said Taiga.

"I think we can manage that, Fujimura-sensei," said Sakura cryptically. Emiya gulped.

Well, at least he had some forewarning about what he was about to get in to. Elric, the bastard, just started laughing his ass off while Archer watched the entire thing smugly.