Chapter 3: Enemies and Allies

14 days after The Breach

Cardin gaped at the figure in front of him, incapable to say anything. The man in front of him was easily 6 feet tall, with white hair and tanned skin, and his grey eyes stared directly at Cardin's. The man's face was blank despite the fact he had just pummeled straight into someone who Cardin thought to be invincible.

Holy shit, what did I get myself into? The man broke his gaze from Cardin and turned it towards the now broken down door and to the woman in the hallway. Cardin followed his gaze to the newly formed crater in the hallway wall, caused when the new arrival had seemingly slammed into the woman. Said woman picked herself up from the crater, rubble falling clear as she did so. She looked at the man's eyes and grimaced.

"So, you're the fifth Servant? Interesting," she muttered, annoyance filling her voice. The man said nothing in return but what Cardin saw next made his mind spiral further into confusion.

He held his right arm out a ways and a sword appeared out of the air that was there. As his mind attempted to wrap itself around all of what had happened this day, he noticed that the sword was white, and appeared to give the sword a misty or hazy look to it. His amazement was interrupted by the man's voice speaking to him.

"Hey, you. Are you my Master?" The man's back was facing him, but his head was turned so that Cardin could see his eyes once more. He blinked once more before deciding to give him an answer. Taking a quick breath, he kept his gaze and replied.

"Uh...yes?" At the very least, he might live slightly longer with that answer. The man smiled slightly and gave a slight nod before turning his attention back towards his opponent. He gripped his sword tightly as she readied her lance. Before Cardin had a chance to process what occurred, both were gone in an instant, the ground beneath them cracking from the pressure. Cardin stared at the destroyed walls and floor in front of him, before peering into the hallway.

His eyes widened as he spotted a large hole in the wall at the end of the hallway, leading outside into the Beacon grounds. Gathering his courage, he slowly headed towards the hole.

What the hell are these people?


14 Days after The Breach, Beacon Grounds

The man who had been known as Shirou Emiya in his past life let out a grunt as he parried the lance strike made towards his heart, bracing his arms and watching as another copy of Bakuya broke from the strength of the spearwoman's lance. He backed up, tracing another copy and began analyzing his next move.

She was probably as strong as him, and definitely more agile. Her fighting style was aggressive, similar to Cu Chulainn's, but not as vicious. And going by her behavior in the hall, she was probably more cautious as well, not willing to risk a surprise attack and potentially be taken out. If he gave her the right opening, she would be bound to take it, and he could exploit her attack. He inhaled, and moved forward.

Their weapons moved like lightning, consecutively attacking and parrying each of their strikes. Shirou brought his weapon back to his side after a parry, intentionally leaving his left open to an attack. He watched her eyes narrow as she weighed the risks and benefits, and as they widened slightly as she thrust her spear, all happening in the timespan of less than a second. As her spear drove closer, he opened his left hand in preparation for his counter. He prepared the tracing process.

"Trace, on," he grunted, and the black blade Kanshou appeared in his left hand, almost identical to the first blade. He moved the second blade to intercept the spear, sacrificing it as the spear was moved astray from the impact. The woman made a noise of surprise, and Shirou used this moment to thrust with the copy of Bakuya in his right towards her chest.

But instead of hearing his blade slice through flesh, he watched in mild surprise as his blade bounced harmlessly off her body. Quickly regaining his composure, he followed the backwards motion of his blade and backed off from his attack. He took another breath as he traced new copies of the twin blades. The woman brought her lance back into a resting position, and addressed him.

"You have an interesting trick there, swordsman. Can't say I've seen someone copy the same weapons without Dust." She said it casually, as if it wasn't anymore important than asking for the time of day. Shirou raised an eyebrow at that.

At the very least it's a good mindset to have for a Grail War, he mused. He lowered his swords to his sides, but kept his muscles taut and ready.

"What can I say, I'm an interesting man," he spoke, arrogance and pride filling his voice. He had learned much from his time dealing with Archer, the least of which was his skills in magecraft, as his sarcasm and wit started to become the norm when dealing with opponents. Though he disagreed with the tactic somewhat, a small part of him enjoyed getting a rise out of his opponents. The woman appeared unaffected by his comment, however.

"You fight with a sword, but you seem like a Saber. Tell me, what class are you?" Shirou shrugged, his face showing disinterest.

"You'll have to find out. It shouldn't be too hard, after all, the lack of a spear eliminates one class, Lancer."

"A smartass, huh? Very well, it won't matter either way when you're dead?" With that she grabbed her spear with one hand and formed a sign with her other, a glyph appearing at her fingertips. Shirou tensed and brought his swords up to bear, before sprinting to her side.

He would have, if his legs had responded. He looked down in surprise as a large golden glyph formed at his feet. It had the appearance of a clock, with the second hand barely moving, and he braced himself as the glyph turned a dark black, and he was propelled upwards. Erasing his copies, he traced his bow and formed a quick prana-filled arrow, which he then fired from his bow. From his vantage point in the sky, he watched as the arrow split off into nine separate arrows, all heading towards Lancer.

Lancer watched as he fired the arrow, and upon seeing them break up summoned 9 separate glyphs, each of them intercepting the arrows before they hit her. A gust of wind came from the explosions as Archer fell back down towards the ground, landing with his legs braced for impact. He stood up to his full height with another arrow already nocked, but kept his bow down. Lancer smirked.

"So, an Archer who fights with swords and bow? This will be an interesting war." She let out a sigh.

"Though my Master will lecture for showing my Semblance in our first fight." She tilted her head as she looked behind Shirou.

"Oh? It looks like your master has arrived, Archer." Shirou looked behind as indeed his master had arrived, partially taking cover next to the large hole in the wall. It seemed that he had gotten somewhat used to the idea of Servants, or at the very least accepted any new variable that would happen this night, as his face wasn't as dumbstruck as before, instead only having a slightly surprised face.

"Holy shit…" his master's voice trailed off as Shirou took a moment to finally observe his surroundings. The area they were in was off to the side of a cement walkway that seemed to lead towards the front of the school, and it was covered in cracked stone and small crates. If Shirou's sense of time was correct, the entire exchange between him and Lancer had lasted just shy of under a minute for his master.

"Master, I really don't think you should be here. You'll get in the way," Shirou cautioned. His Master being here complicated things, and being taken out this early in the War wasn't an agreeable prospect for him. Before his Master could react, a new voice spoke.

"That's enough, Lancer. Cease your attack until I say otherwise." The voice spoke with confidence, and was crisp and to the point. Shirou easily managed to pinpoint the source of the voice, and as he suspected a similar looking woman stepped out from behind one of the many columns dotting the side of the walkway.

"Geez, you look like an older version of Schnee," he heard his master say. The woman looked towards him and looked him over.

"So, the fifth Master is a student here. This complicates things." She walked closer towards the battleground before stopping just behind Lancer. She looked towards the boy once more.

"You there, Master of Archer. Judging by your expression, I doubt you know the ritual you have just entered correct." He nodded his head, but otherwise stayed silent.

"As I thought. I apologize for Lancer's...aggressive behavior, but I needed to know if another Master was here at the Academy. As you were unaware of the War's existence beforehand, I'll give you a choice; Use your command seals to force Archer to make a contract with me, and I'll let you go. I'll give you safe haven for the remainder of the war, and I'll even give a command seal to my Servants to leave you unharmed." She took a breath.

"Or you can refuse, and I'll rip your command seals from your arm." His Master recoiled at the venom in her words, and rubbed his hand nervously. Shirou looked at his Master, debating whether or not to interfere. On one hand, it would remove someone from the war, and she even promised to keep him safe for the rest of the war. And two Servants would have a better chance at winning the Grail.

Or destroying it, he thought. And there was the other side of the arrangement. He had no clue as to what the woman's intentions for the Grail was. While the same could be said of his current Master, him being a student would lead him to believe that his intentions would be more in line with his own. The fact he was dragged into the war as well reminded him of his own experiences in the Grail War.

And for all I know, she could be lying and just waiting for a chance to kill him. Yes, if she was anything like other magus he knew, her actions would be explained by other, less noble motives. He sighed softly, before making up his mind.

"Master," he called out. The boy looked over at him, startled by the interruption of his own thoughts.

"Do you trust me?" He stared into the boy's eyes, and held his gaze. The boy held the gaze, and a few seconds later he turned his attention towards the woman.

"I refuse. I don't trust those who try to have me killed. Even if Lancer wasn't supposed to hurt me, you mentioned command seals. I assume those allow you to control these guys." Taking her silence as an affirmation, he continued.

"Then that means you could've ordered her to not harm anyone in the school." He looked once more at Shirou and then towards the woman.

"I'll take my chances with him." Smiling, Shirou dematerialized the bow, and traced two new copies of Kanshou and Bakuya. Lancer's Master said nothing, frowning at his Master. Lancer had her lance off to her side as usual, but he didn't doubt she would have it ready in an instant. Lancer's Master sighed before walking back to the pillar she came out behind from.

"Lancer, dispose of Archer, if possible. We'll leave the boy for afterwards." Lancer got her spear ready and held it in a defensive stance. Shirou raised his twin blades in response and thought out his plan of attack.

She's waiting for me to attack, and based on our earlier bout she probably has one of those glyphs prepared. One can influence time, one can repulse objects and another can act like a shield. His grip on his swords tightened.

And she has that barrier that blocks my attack. Which means I'll need a weapon that goes through defenses. His mind searched through the catalogue of weapons stored in Unlimited Blade Works.

Caladbolg would work, though I want to keep it hidden for as long as possible. Fragarach only works on the opponent's strongest attack as well. But…

Shirou grinned as the ideal weapon came to mind. He canceled the projects of Kanshou and Bakuya, and the image of the weapon came to his mind.

"Trace, on." He held out his hand as a long, red spear formed in his hands. The spear that belonged to Ireland's Cu Chulainn appeared in his hands, and a small part of him startled in fear as he laid eyes upon the weapon that had once killed him. He ignored the feeling as quickly as it had appeared, and moved into the stance his Lancer had used when using the weapon.

"As your Master gave mine a chance to escape the War, I'll give your's a chance to run away from this battle, Lancer." Lancer's eyes were staring at him and the spear with a mixture of wariness and confusion. She readied her spear.

"I'm afraid that won't happen Archer. Let's end this battle quickly," her voice remained calm and collected. Shirou channeled prana into the spear as he accessed the memories of Lancer's battles, using his knowledge to activate the spear's ability.

Gae Bolg: The Barbed Spear That Pierces With Death. An Anti-Unit Noble Phantasm that reverses the order of events leading up to the opponent's death, so that the cause of the spear thrust was the piercing of the enemy's heart. In doing so, it bypasses any and all defenses by warping space and traveling through time, if need be. The only defense being a high luck rating or divine protection.

For Shirou's purposes, it was enough. If Lancer was killed, one less Servant. If not, her Master would most surely flee at the sight of the Noble Phantasm. He prepared himself one last time before thrusting the spear.

"Gae Bolg!" The lance tip morphed into a red beam curving and twisting through the air. Lancer's eyes widened as she tried to defend herself, activating a purple glyph in front of her.

It was in vain though, as Shirou saw Gae Bolg move under the glyph and then upwards striking for her heart. The next second was tense as the bright red light of Gae Bolg lessened until it vanished. Shirou lowered the tip of the spear towards the ground, and watched as Lancer drew ragged breaths, clutching her bloodied left shoulder. Her spear was on the ground, and she was on one knee.

"Bastard," she muttered, hissing in pain as the curse of the spear interrupted whatever healing process that had begun.

"Using a cursed spear. Hmph. How the hell did you get the spear Archer? Only the Hound has that spear." She stared at him, rage filling her eyes. Shirou's eyes widened a little at the mention of Cu Chulainn.

"You know the Hound?"

"There are some heroes that everyone knows, regardless of the universe Archer." She stopped talking after that, continually hissing at her wounded shoulder. Shirou spotted her Master staring with open shock, before attempting to compose herself. She looked towards Shirou.

"I assume that your deal is off the table then?" Shirou shook his head.

"No, you're still free to go, if you wish. As I said, you gave my Master a fair deal and I won't forget that." She seemed surprised at that, but then turned around and started to walk off the grounds.

"Come, Lancer. I'll heal your wounds later." Lancer gave him one last dirty look, before dematerializing. Shirou watched the woman leave, and after he was sure Lancer wouldn't attack again, he turned towards his Master.

"We should get somewhere safe, away from here. DO you know any place like that?" His Master turned to him.

"Yeah, my dorm room should be good enough. My team stays in there and we all know how to fight," he pressed a hand to his shoulder as blood covered his uniform shirt. Shirou looked at the wound with concern.

"You're bleeding," he stated plainly. His Master snorted.

"You don't say, how observant. Anyways, let's go." He turned around and headed for the school.

"Name's Cardin, by the way. Yours?"

"Archer. You wouldn't know my name." Shirou dematerialized and followed Cardin.

"We should look at that wound soon, Master." Cardin jumped at the voice in his head and frantically looked around. Shirou pressed down his urge to laugh as materialized in front of him.

"Relax, it's just me. We can speak telepathically with each other." He punctuated his point by pointing a finger to his head. He then nodded towards his wound.

"Lancer gave you that?" Cardin nodded and kept his hand pressed to it.

"Yeah, I was in the library when she-" He cut himself off and his eyes widened.

"Crap, Velvet was there! Shit, shit, shit!"

"A friend?"

"Yes, we were studying and she said she would leave soon after I went to return a book. Lancer got to me a couple of minutes after." He exhaled as he ran his hands through his hair.

"If she got hurt waiting behind for me… Come on, we got to check the library!" With that, Cardin ran back through the hole and towards the library. Shirou sighed, dematerializing and following his Master.

This is an interesting War, to say the least.


14 Days after The Breach, Beacon Academy

Cardin huffed as he ran through the library, his shoulder flaring up with pain. He got to the table where he and Velvet studied, and was equal parts relieved and scared when he found no sign of her.

It seems that your friend already left. Cardin jumped slightly, unused to the new voice in his head.

But it could also mean Lancer's very thorough with witnesses, Archer continued. His words did little to soothe Cardin's mind, though he knew it was a valid possibility. He searched around the table one last time, and finding nothing, grunted.

"I want to go by her team dorm and check, just in case." Hearing no dissent from Archer, he made his way to the exits, and was surprised to see them locked. It him then that the minutes leading up to his encounter with Lancer had been shortly before the newly installed curfew imposed on the students.

"Of course I forget about the curfew," he cursed under his breath. Archer materialized next to him.

"Having trouble?" he queried, mirth filling his voice. Cardin gave him an annoyed look.

"Ha ha, funny. I forgot about the curfew, and now we're stuck in here. If I get seen by any staff they'll be bound to fry me about all the destruction you and whoever she was caused."

"Lancer. Her name's Lancer."

"Whatever. You got any ideas to get us out of here that doesn't involve breaking down the door?" Archer took a moment to think, before nodding. He grasped the handle of the door, and with ease he forced the door forward and off its hinges. Cardin sighed.

"Why is it always me?" Archer grunted before motioning with his other hand to go forward.

"Go on, I'll fix this. You have a friend to find, remember?" Cardin slumped his shoulders, before raising them and moving through the halls, careful to make note of the positions of the school cameras. It would be a two minute walk to CFVY's dorm room under normal circumstances and with Cardin trying to not be noticed, took him seven or so minutes to reach the second year's room.

He knocked hard with the bottom of his fist, the door shaking slightly. Seconds went by with no answer, and he started to get impatient. He slapped the door with his palm a few more times, putting in the same amount of force, and heard movement coming from behind the door.

"Fine, fine! I'm coming," a female voice shouted irritably. The door opened not to Velvet, but to her team member Coco, in a simple shirt and pants pajamas. Although it was well past curfew for the school, CFVY's room didn't show any sign of slowing down from what Cardin could see.

The big guy, Yatsuhashi, was focusing intently on the team's television and the other one, was it Fox? He was busy playing a card game with a simple gaming program. Coco stared at him.

"Cardin? The hell are you doing here? You should be in your room freshie." Cardin ignored her and instead used his superior height to peer into the room. No sign of Velvet.

"What are you doing?"

"Is Velvet here? Please, I need to know." She narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

"Why? I'm not letting you mess with her here. You still have a quite a ways to-"

"Is she here? Yes or no, I need to know!" Cardin became increasingly exasperated, his voicing slowly raising. Yatsuhashi turned from his tv, and Fox tilted his head towards the door at the sudden noise. Coco took it all in stride.

"Hey, keep your voice down. And you still haven't answered my- What the hell happened to your shoulder?" The previous suspicion and annoyance in her voice vanished. Cardin stared her in the eyes.

"Please I need to know if she's here," he was pleading now, his voice much quieter than his previous outburst. Before she could answer, Velvet rounded the corner, dressed in similar pajamas to Coco. Cardin relaxed, his shoulders slumping in relief.

"Good, you're here." Velvet's face morphed into a look of confusion.

"Why wouldn't I be here? I left a minute after you went to return the book." She gave Cocoa look and motioned her head back towards the room, and Coco hesitantly left the two of them, but not before taking another look at Cardin's shoulder. Yatsuhashi and Fox looked at one another and shrugged, and turned their attention towards their previous endeavours.

Velvet looked at him once again.

"What are you doing here Cardin? You should be with your team." Her eyes caught sight of his shoulder and concern filled her face.

"What happened to your shoulder? What did you get up to after I left?" Her voice had a slight accusatory tone at the last bit. Cardin clutched his shoulder, but felt it to be noticeably less pained than before.

"It's an accident, I swear. Listen, you need to stay in the room for the night, alright? You'll probably want to get me to the infirmary, but I'll be fine. Lock the doors and keep an ear out for anything that sounds suspicious." He looked around the hallway nervously.

"Archer, do you know if anyone's here?"

No, Master, we're alone for the time being.

"Who're you talking to?" Velvet looked into the direction Cardin had spoke and found no one. He turned his attention towards her and started to back away from the door.

"Just do what I said, alright? Just for tonight, and I'll explain later, ok?" Not waiting for a response he moved back through the hallway and towards his dorm room, where he opened the door and entered the room.

Shutting the door, he sighed and sat next to the wall of his room.

This is going to be a tough one to explain.

14 Days after The Breach, Citadel Hotel, Vale

Winter scrunched her eyes as she reviewed the what had happened during the course of the night. She and Lancer had come up with a plan to root out the other Masters, starting by searching parts of Vale and then moving on to Beacon, with Lancer being in spiritual form and scouting the area. Lancer would draw out any Servants at the school and Winter would approach their master should they be a student.

But Archer had upset their plans. Lancer had discovered a student who might've been a master and had followed him, determined to pressure him to reveal his Servant.

"We'll have to be more careful around that Archer next time, Lancer," she said, feeling a headache starting to form. Lancer materialized in a chair near her.

"He's definitely an interesting Servant. An Archer who fights with the bow, sword and spear? You…huntsmen might value your odd weapons and styles, but they're usually combined into one weapon. His are separate." She scowled.

"And that spear…"

"I found it odd that you couldn't block it, given your skill with your Semblance. Any ideas why it didn't work?" Lancer's scowl disappeared, and her face remained neutral.

"It was the spear belonging to the Hound of Ireland, a hero you'll never know. What interests me is how he got it." Winter gave her a questioning look.

"How so?"

"The Hound isn't from our world; He exists in a separate reality to our own. Because all Servants come from the Throne of Heroes, time and space are meaningless, so theoretically a Servant can end up in a universe different from their own."

"So if he's from a different universe…"

"Then our efforts would be wasted trying to look for his identity. He could have any variety of noble phantasms at his disposal."

"And he would be able to look for yours," Winter finished. Lancer nodded, and rolled her shoulder. Winter examined the wound, and her mood was lifted slightly to see it begin to heal.

"Your wound is looking better already," she remarked. Lancer made a noise of affirmation, before speaking.

"Yes, it seems that his weapon has been destroyed given that the curse is gone. Although, his multiple copies of those swords suggests he can create more." Winter didn't say anything, deciding to review what she saw. One moment in particular caught her attention.

"That you glyph you prepared. What would it have done?" Lancer looked over at Winter.

"It's a defense against curses and adverse effects from Dust and Aura. Though it seems that curse can negate that defense." Lancer paused, and once she was satisfied with the condition of her shoulder, hopped up from the chair and walked over to Winter.

"I thought you would have mastered that already, given that you can already summon."

"Not every Schnee is as good as you were at this age, Lancer." Lancer scoffed, her hands on her hips.

"They should. My children were already summoning before your age. What has my line become?" As she was saying this, she dematerialized and Winter was left alone in her room.

All Schnees seem to prideful in their abilities, doesn't it? Winter sighed, and prepared to go to bed for the night and renew her search in the morning.


14 Days after The Breach, RWBY dorm room, Beacon

Weiss looked over the room as she went through her mental checklist one last time. In front of her was a circle of red dust, forming a design exactly like that she had taken pictures of at the Schnee Estate. She had memorized the words of the chant Winter had said, and she had poked her finger with a needle multiple times over the past hour to get her Aura ready from the jet lag she and her team were experiencing. She was ready.

And the pendant she had grabbed in that room was safely on her person, in a pocket on her bolero jacket. She still didn't know why she had grabbed it, but she kept it on her person, feeling a strange desire to keep it with her at all times. Weiss cleared her head of all other thoughts and held out her hand.

She said the words, and the ritual began.


A/N: Hello there people, and this is the new chapter to Fate of Remnants Past. Sorry I took longer than last time to update the story, but I've been focused on other things and generally wasting time I probably shouldn't. But, anyway I'm glad for all the reviews and views so far, and all the insight it has given me. You can ignore Truecrusher, VKJack and MrSteamingEye, they're all friends of mine and they don't mean anything by what they said.

Williamaesop: Thanks for the feedback, I'll try and make the chapters longer if I can, but at the least I'll try and keep them around the 12 page mark, so every chapter's consistent. I'll err on the side of caution as well unless proven otherwise that it isn't correct and thanks for giving feedback.

SanShine: Thanks for the review, and I agree that those ideas would provide a lot of potential, but unfortunately I don't have anything like that planned in the future, sorry.

Papa Wolfstar: Reading your comment almost made me wish I had thought of adding Brynhild, but I don't know much when it comes to Germanic mythology and Lancer is based on a fictional character. But thanks for giving me the idea, it seems to be a really good one.

Below will be the Stat sheets of the Servants that we've met so far, and any unknown information will be filled in as we go. For now I'll stick to the basic info and stats, and then add skills and so on later.

True Name: Shirou Emiya

Class: Archer

Alignment: Neutral Good

Stats:

STR: B MGC: B

END: C LCK: D

AGI: C N.P.: B

True Name: Edelweiss Schnee

Class: Lancer

Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Stats:

STR: B MGC: A

END: C LCK: B

AGI: B N.P.: B

As always, please leave a review, I really enjoy knowing what you guys think and expect, and it gives a way to improve my story that I may not see.

Thank you, Collaredblock4.

Words: 4,698

Pages: 12