"Where are we?" Shirou sat up groggily. He was sitting on a loading dock in a small alley, leaning against Yuno. At the end of the alley he could see numerous people walking to the shops and restaurants lining the street.
"You got pretty beat up by Gilgamesh. I managed to get you to safety, but this was as far as I could carry you without being seen." Yuno looked at her Master with concern. 'Whatever that sword was, it was tearing at the fabric of the universe! Maybe that will disguise a little divine magic?' Yuno tried to feel if an omnipotent presence was observing her. Not that she would be able to sense Deux ex MAchina - he was nigh-omnipotent! She realized she was starting to hyperventilate, and took a a deep breath, 'I don't want to be forced out of this world. I CAN'T!' She glanced at her Master. Her... boyfriend. Though if she was honest with herself (something she rarely was) she wasn't certain what their relationship was anymore "Are you ok?"
"Yeah. I'll be fine. I think I just used too much prana. You said that guy was Gilgamesh? He's obviously a Servant."
"Except that we already met all seven Servants." Yuno frowned, "He did say that this Grail war seems to be broken. Maybe that was what he was referring to?"
Shirou hopped down to the ground, "Maybe. I think we should report this to Kirei - he's the overseer, so he will know what to do."
"Not tonight - You need to get some rest" Yuno took Shirou's arm, to help support him.
"I think you're right" Shirou smiled down at the pink haired girl at his side, "Thank you for all your help." She just smiled and hugged his arm.
By the time the got home, Rin was already asleep. "You sit here, I'll make dinner." Yuno lead Shirou to the couch.
"No, I'll help." Shirou got right back up and staggered to the kitchen.
Yuno shook her head in exasperation, "You need your rest. I will tie you to your bed, if I have to!" she scolded.
Shirou glared at her, "I appreciate that you care for me, but I can't just sit back and let other people work. It's not who I am."
"Fine," Yuno grabbed a chair and dragged it into the kitchen, "You sit there and tell me what to do." She looked mildly annoyed.
"Fine," Shirou collapsed onto the chair, looking mildly annoyed.
Dinner was a quiet affair, and a little awkward. Yuno's declaration earlier in the day had changed things between them, and Shirou wasn't certain how to act. Finally, after the meal was finished he stood up and bowed formally, "Thank you for dinner." Yuno smiled happily.
Later that night, after Shirou had gone to sleep, Yuno quietly slipped out of her room and out into the yard. She made her way to an out of the way area and began to dig. Once the hole was big enough, she pulled out a cell phone and dropped it in, and then covering it with the loose dirt.
She patted the dirt down and nodded in a satisfied way.
Yuno then slipped back into the house and went to sleep.
FSD*FSD
"YEAAH!" Shirou shot up out of bed. "What are you doing in my bed?" Shirou danced over to his chair and grabbed a pair of pants to hold in front of himself.
"Sleeping" replied Yuno muzzily, sitting up. Shirou tried to ignore the rather revealing negligee she was wearing.
"But why are you sleeping in MY room?"
"I explained yesterday - I love you, and I want to be with you, always and forever."
Shirou ran a hand through his hair in exasperation, 'It's too early in the morning to deal with this'. He sighed, "We'll talk about this later." 'or maybe never, if I put a lock for my bedroom door'. Shirou wasn't good at deal with complex emotional issues, such as pretty psychos who he wasn't certain how he felt about declaring their undying love for him. And then acting on it.
Shirou backed up out of the room, holding the pants in front of him as a shield.
FSD*FSD
"Why are we here?" Shirou asked.
"Because you wanted to report the extra servant to Kirei." Yuno replied as she loosened another screw holding the window in place. The two teens were crouching behind Kotomine Church, and Yuno was removing one of the basement windows. Shirou was surreptitiously glancing at Yuno, 'She IS pretty. Almost as pretty as Rin. But she has... issues'. Shirou wasn't certain why he was even thinking about this. She was a Servant. In a few days or a few weeks at most, she would be gone from his life. But something about her... Her willingness to fight for what she thought was right, appealed to him. And he felt bad about not returning her feelings for him.
"No, I mean why are we sneaking in through the basement?"
Yuno set the window aside and handed the screwdriver back to Shirou, who let the projected tool dissolve back into nothing., "Because I checked my True Love Diary" She held up her cellphone before slipping it back into her pocket, "and it said that if we went through the front door, we would die." She slipped inside.
Shirou sighed in frustration and followed.
"What's that smell?" the basement was dank, which was not unexpected, but there was also a sickly sweet smell. The building was on a slight incline, so while the back of the basement was above ground, most of it wasn't. In the resulting gloom, Shirou couldn't make out the source of the smell, or much of anything else. He tried to breath shallowly - the smell made him want to gag. "This place is a lot bigger than I would have expected!" it was more of a catacomb than a basement. But it was also being used for storage. Shirou bit off an exclamation as he barked his shin on an emergency generator that sat abandoned in the middle of the floor.
"There's something over there" Yuno pointed at a side chamber, using her cell phone as a flashlight. Shirou swore under his breath as he pushed cans of gasoline out of his way to join Yuno. The two teens carefully crept into the room. It was apparently intended as a crypt - there were stone slabs to support a dozen coffins. But instead, they each had on them a cot, with a desiccated body strapped on, with an IV dripping fluids into it.
Shirou approached cautiously, overcoming his revulsion, "I think some of them are still alive!"
"Yeah, they are." Lancer stepped out from an adjoining chamber.
Yuno dropped into a fighting stance. Shirou stepped away from the body to get more room to maneuver, "If we fight in here, we're going to end up killing them!"
"That would probably be for the best, their souls are dead already." Replied Lancer, looking tired, "Though I'm not here to fight you."
"You're not?" Asked Shirou at the same time as Yuno asked, "Then why ARE you here?"
"My master - that's that bastard Kotomine, if you want to know - told me to kill anybody who came into the church. So don't go upstairs, ok?" he smiled wanly, "He has gone to the von Einzbern estate to activate the Grail."
"I thought that you couldn't do that until all other Servants were defeated." Shirou said, glancing at Yuno.
"That crazy bastard said something about only needing all seven servant so reach Akasha, but that the Grail doesn't need as much energy to destroy the world, because that's what it is designed for."
"Wait – I thought it granted wishes?" Asked a surprised Shirou.
"Apparently not," Lancer scowled.
"Why would he want to go to Akasha?" demanded Yuno, "There's nothing there, at least, nothing that a human can see."
"Weren't you listening? Lancer said he's not looking for Akasha - he plans to destroy the world!" Shirou turned to the Servant, "Is that why you are telling us all this?"
"Yeah, pretty much. You seem like a good guy, and I would enjoy fighting you, but this situation... It's pretty fucked up. I didn't sign up to destroy the fucking world. I'm a hero. I spent my life protecting my clan and my queen. There's no way I'm going to go along with this shit." Lancer was getting more and more worked up as he spoke. One eye closed into a narrow slit, while the other opened all the way, showing red around it, giving him a mad, lopsided look.
"Uhm, yeah." Shirou said, "we're going to go stop him. Are you coming?"
"I have to stay and guard the church" growled the Servant of the spear.
Yuno nodded, and walked back to the generator. She picked up a can of gasoline and smiled, "I can help with that."
FSD*FSD
Shirou stood watching from the woods behind the church as flames flickered throughout the old building, greedily devouring the house of horrors. "I'm not certain if we did the right thing." He muttered.
Yuno stood up on tip toe and kissed Shirou on the cheek, "That's why I love you." She turned cheerfully to the blue garbed Servant, "So, you coming with us? We have a priest to kill."
"Fuck, yeah!"
FSD*FSD
Shirou and the two servants were approaching the ruins of the Von Einzbern mansion. Purple light emanated from it, and there were periodic rumbles and flashes of light.
"There's definitely something going on there."
"We can go through here" Yuno lead the other two along a hedgerow that she had scouted out last time. It would provide some cover.
The glow was coming from the body of Illya, which was hanging, supine, in the air. The body turned slowly, pulsing with the purple light. As they looked on, a mocking voice called out "And what have we here? It seems our lost lambs have all arrived at the same time" Gilgamesh materialized off to one side.
As the three heroes spread out around the golden King, Kotomine stepped out from behind some rubble, "Lancer, I am disappointed in you, my Servant. Now DIE" and a command seal glowed on his arm.
Lancer's eyes got big. In a swift motion, he flipped his lance around, braced it against the ground and lunged onto it. His body twitched once, before breaking up into sparkles of light.
"That's five" said Kirei happily. Illya's body gave a flash of light and stretched, slowly reforming itself into a human sized goblet.
"Why are you doing this?" demanded Shirou.
"Why? Because I'm evil" replied Kirei with a smile, "I'm the sort of evil that I used to hunt down and kill. I deserve to die." Shirou looked puzzled as Kotomine explained, "The reason is that I am planning to exterminate the human race. That way, another abomination like me will never be born."
"But then nobody will be born. Not even good people like, like Gandhi or Mother Teressa or..."
Kotomine smiled, "Oh, don't bother. I have thought of all those arguments. The other reason I'm doing this is because it's going to be FUN. I will get to watch the human race struggle against it's inevitable doom. Some people will rise to the greatest plateaus of heroism while others will plunge into the depths of villainy, but in the end, it will avail them naught!" he walked over the the floating goblet that was once Illya and patted it affectionately. "After all, if one does not strive to achieve one's potential, then one's existence is wasted. And since killing people is all the Grail is good for, so why deny it a meaningful existence?"
Yuno looked at Shirou in shock, "He's crazy!"
"But you have to admit, he's not boring" added Gilgamesh. The Gates of Babylon began to open, "And this will work better with you added to the Grail"
Yuno leaped aside as a sword shot out at her, "Shirou - take out the priest, I'll handle Gilgamesh!"
Shirou nodded, "got it!" He charged Kotomine, a pair of falchions materializing in his hands. As he approached, Kirei made a gesture, and black mud erupted from the Grail's mouth, aimed at Shirou.
The teen hero jumped aside. The next stream of mud he blocked with a falchion. But as soon as it touched it, the falchion dissolved, and Shirou had to project a replacement.
Gilgamesh lackadaisically fired off swords at Yuno, "A servant Assassin is no match for me. Not only was I summoned as an Archer class, but I am the King of Heroes. I was the first true hero. And you? You don't even have a legend to draw strength from."
Yuno dodged another pair of swords, but a third one ripped through her leg. She grimaced and kept moving.
"YEAAH!" Shirou screamed in pain as mud splattered onto him. The mud was filled with all the dark energy that humans have: hate and fear and anger and more hate. He tried to close to melee range with Kotomine, but the former Executer of the Church was too fast and too skilled. And he had another advantage - He didn't care if he died.
'Why do I care if I live or not?' Shirou wondered at his new state of mind.
Another sword grazed Yuno's arm as Shiro'us pained scream echoed through the air 'If I don't do something, Shirou is going to get killed! Maybe Deux ex Machina will destroy me for this, or maybe not, but Shirou will have a chance' Yuno smiled as her True Love Diary told her how to avoid another barrage of swords, 'That was a very Shirou thought. He will be proud of me.' In the blink of an eye, a large sphere swallowed up both Yuno and Gilgamesh.
Another ball of mud splashed into Shirou's leg. He staggered as the immense pain of all that was wrong in the world slammed into him. Kirei smiled "Go ahead and scream. It's ok. Your shouldering all of the Earth's ills, after all" He sent another blast of mud at the teen.
Shirou collapsed in agony. Jealousy, impotent rage, hatred, gnawing anger. All of these ate away at Shirou's consciousness. 'I can't... I can't die. Not until everybody is safe. I am responsible. For Rin. For Yuno. For Sakura.'
Kirei paced around the prone teen, looking to get a better angle for a finishing blow "This whole Grail War has been a mess, with one of the Servants disappearing off the face of the earth instead of filling the grail, and the Grail's homunculus getting killed. That's why I decided to rush things a little before anything else went wrong." the priest tutted at the sloppiness of it all. "But to my great surprise I recently discovered that some kind soul thoughtfully put a spare Servant in the Grail. I think he wants to be named Avenger, but I'll just call him Toast. And with your servant here, I won't even have to make use of good old Gil," Kirei appeared ambivalent, as if he wasn't certain that not betraying his best friend was a good thing. "Now I'll have more than enough power to get my wish."
'This hurts like the Fire.' Shirou tried to stand, 'It's just like the Fire.'
He collapsed, muttering "All the world's ills.." He had a thought.
"I am the bone of my sword.
Steel is my body, and fire is my blood.
I have created over a thousand blades.
aware of love, and aware of loss
Having withstood pain to create many weapons,
I have no regrets. This is the only path
So as I pray, "Unlimited Blade Works."
The red World of Swords bloomed around Shirou and Kotomine
FSD*FSD
"A Reality Marble?" Gilgamesh looked around him in bemusement. He was standing on the roof of a ruined middle school. The sky was dark, with clouds roiling. Rubble was strewn everywhere. "You think that will help you?" Gilgamesh withdrew Ea from the Gate of Babylon, "I will simply annihilate your little world." The sword began to spin, giving off flashes of red light. 'This will be no different than the fight against Rider in the Fourth war. What a pathetic buffoon.'
Yuno floated up into the air, smiling, "Yes, it will help. For here, I am god." a blast of pure energy smashed into Gilgamesh, throwing him off his feet.
FSD*FSD
"This will help" Shirou staggered up as Kirei realized that the Grail was not at his side anymore - he was now cut off from the source of the black mud. He held his hands out, and materialized a set of Black Keys. "Very well" he said, "We we will have to do this the hard way" Kirei took a fighting stance.
Shirou reinforced his muscles to full capacity and surged forward, meeting the priest, sword against sword.
Kire sprang back and threw a Black Key. Shirou deflected it and flung a falchion at the priest. They circled each other throwing weapons and darting in to exchange blows.
FSD*FSD
Gilgamesh tried to find a moment to charge up Ea, but Yuno kept pressing him, sending blasts of concussive force and odd balls that grew from marble size to as big as a house. Gilgamesh managed to deflect most of them, but he was still battered from side to side, giving him little time to counter attack.
"I am the first hero! the greatest hero of all!" Gilgamesh shot out out an unending stream of swords at Yuno, who was forced onto the defensive, destroying the swords with a fusillade of ornately patterned marbles. "I will not be defeated by some no-name upstart."
Yuno flew up and above the Gates of Babylon, "I already told you my name. I AM GOD!" and released a fearsome barrage of giant spheres that smashed down, one after the next, crushing everything below her into tiny shards.
The gate of Babylon ripped and tore. Gilgamesh raised Ea, shattering sphere after sphere with its fearsome might, but there were too many - he staggered back as one clipped him in the side. He twisted to regain his footing, but another concussive sphere smashed into his sword hand, leaving him unable to deflect the next. Or the next. Or the one after that.
FSD*FSD
Kirei was fast, and more skilled that Shirou, but the very world around them was fighting on Shirou's side. As Shirou leaped aside from a blow that would have decapitated him, Kirei's foot slipped on something, plunging him down to the ground. The former Executor landed hard on a shard of Clarent, a broken sword that had jutted up from the ground, as if reaching for the fallen priest.
Kirei staggered up, a hand to his stomach, as blood gushed from his wound. "Heh. That's amusing" He swayed and fell to his knees. Shirou watched cautiously. Blood continued to leak from between Kotominei's fingers. "You win. Good game" and collapsed.
Shirou released his Reality Marble.
As he looked around, Yuno stumbled out of this air, looking exhausted. Suddenly, she dropped to her knees as pain twisted through her, a burning agony that spasmed through her body. Shirou ran to her as she convulsed and gently held her as she screamed in agony.
She twisted and smashed against him for unending minutes.
Yuno vomited as the pain receded. "I don't think I can do that again." For a moment, it had felt as if her body was going to tear itself apart into a thousand pieces.
Shirou helped her stand. "Sorry," she smiled up at him, as she used her sleeve to wipe her face, "That wasn't very romantic."
Shirou surveyed the carnage, "I guess we saved the world". He had to cover his eyes as the remains of the Grail dissolved in a flash of light.
"See, you kept your promise to prevent innocent bystanders from getting hurt."
Shirou nodded. "Yeah. But what I'm really glad about is that you're ok. I am sorry that you don't get to make your wish though."
Yuno smiled and cocked her head to one side, "It's ok, I decided that I didn't want that wish anyway." 'I have a different wish now.'
Shirou stood in front of Yuno, for a long moment 'It's the least I can do'. He took a deep breath and breathed it out slowly to calm himself, and began "You asked me if I loved you.. And I think I do. You're not what I expected. You disagree with a lot of my ideals, but you understand why they are important to me. I don't think anybody except maybe Saber has before."
Yuno's stepped in and gave Shirou a gentle kiss before stepping back to look at him with a radiant smile, and Shirou gently put his arms around her. The two stood looking at each other, smiling.
Then a puzzled frown crossed Shirou's face, "I thought that as a Servant of the Grail, you would have to go back to the Throne of Heroes once the Grail was gone..."
"I am not a hero. I was physically present in Akasha when the Grail pulled me to your world, so this is the real, live me." Yuno smiled up at Shirou, "And wherever in the world you go, I will go with you, forever and ever, in this life and the next."
GOOD END?
One note: several people commented that Gilgamesh pulled out Ea for no good reason. My reply was that Gilgamesh was having a bad day: The woman he had decided would be his trophy wife (-of-the-day) had apparently disappeared, or possibly never even been there (apparantly he, much like Caster from ther fourth war, has trouble telling Joan and Arturia apart). Kirei, his main source of amusement, is all in a panic about the missing Servant and being BORING. And this little upstart is STEALING his treasures. Or at least copying them, which really is the same thing.
So Gilgamesh felt the need to assert his masculinity and smash Shirou like a bug.
And in this chapter he had a premonition that something wasn't right (it wasn't - he got curb stomped by Assassin)