Black and White

The streetlights of Miyama City flickered to life as the sky turned a solid navy blue. The highly suspicious group of teenagers were marching towards the side of Miyama City with Japanese-style houses in silence. The girl with violet hair led the dark-haired teen carrying a bloodied girl.

Sakura walked a few feet ahead of Rin. She looked back at him momentarily. Almost ten minutes of complete silence followed the incident, and Rin only recently seemed to come out of the reverie.

Sakura kept silent and looked forward, feeling relatively safe in the presence of Rin and the white-haired woman, who, at the moment, was invisible.

Another minute of deafening silence followed. Sakura internally struggled to decide whether she should say something. Rin was obviously distressed, but one wouldn't notice if they didn't pay close attention.

Indeed, he seemed completely stoic, but the brief crack that appeared in his stern and cool mask made Sakura realize that he cared a great deal more than he let on about her.

"Emiya-san, Sakura!?"

"A-Are you okay, Sakura?"

These two sentences still rang faintly in her ears.

How many years has it been since he called her by her first name? Since her first year of middle school to this day, she'd only been "Matou" or, more recently, "Matou-chan"… Yet, in the fit of panic, he called her by her first name.

All these years, she thought that Tohsaka Rin resented her for that day…

It was another normal day for Sakura.

She had locked herself in her room, and like always was ignored by the rest of the residence of the dark mansion.

Of course she was ignored… She was more of a tool than a genuine family member, and the only time she was ever called for when some chore needed to be done or when the Old Man called her—

Sakura pushed those thoughts out of her head and curled into a tight ball under the comforter on her bed. Being wrapped up in the comforter was the only way she could generate a facsimile of the feeling of safety.

It was always the same; the "training", the feeling of isolation, those wretched things stirring inside her and making her feel weird which was cue for Byakuya to—

The only person who remotely treated her well was her foster brother, Shinji. But… in the back of Sakura's mind, she knew that even he would cease to do so after finding out about what was going on in the dark cellar beneath the mansion—

Her thoughts were wandering towards those subjects again… It was inevitable. A black haze constantly hung over her thoughts, and it was easier to become a doll than keeping her emotions alive most of the time.

A sound of the doorbell ringing made her stir. She slipped out from under the comforter, and almost robotically went to answer the door. It was probably Byakuya returning after nearly drowning himself in alcohol like always.

But she never expected the person she found waiting outside.

She blinked in disbelief, not daring to believe her eyes. Those aqua eyes, the dark hair, and that face…

"Sakura!" the boy standing outside, her older brother, said with equal parts of joy and worry before she was pulled into an embrace.

She could only stand stiffly. Shock and joy rouse in a crescendo within her, filling her up with the kind of hope she didn't dare to feel when Uncle Kariya embraced her while whispering promises of both of their salvation.

…And she gently pushed him to break the embrace. Those foul creatures began stirring inside her, and as much as she wanted to stay in his embrace, the signal that the Old Man was approaching neutered all positive emotions inside her.

"Sakura?" he asked, a look of sadness on his face.

"Good afternoon." She said, trying to sound as neutral as possible.

"What— Sakura, I'm here to take you back! You don't need to stay here anymore!" he said, perplexed at the lack of enthusiasm on her part.

"Ah, if it isn't the new Head of the Tohsaka family." A reedy voice greeted Rin, and his face instantly turned into a scowl. He looked behind Sakura coolly, and Sakura felt the gnarled hand of Zouken touch her shoulder. She fought the feeling of revulsion; the hand emanated a faint smell of rotting flesh but she was quite used to it.

"My condolences for the loss of your parents. It's a great tragedy for a child to lose both patents at such a young age." The Old Man continued, his kindly voice quite not reveling the sadistic pleasure he was probably deriving from bringing this subject up.

"Thank you for your kind words…" Rin replied, "It was unfortunate that none of the Matous were able to attend the funeral. I believe that the Matous and Tohsakas had an alliance, did we not?"

"Unfortunately, we already had another meeting that day." Zouken said indifferently.

"Ah, so it was important enough to merit Sakura missing her own birth parents' funeral. That was quite the meeting." Rin said, the polite tone of the statement veiling the sarcasm.

"Hmm? They weren't Sakura's parents. It would be pointless for her to attend even if we had some time." Zouken had abandoned all pretense, and Sakura almost felt his anger in the stirring of the worms.

"What!" Rin snapped, dropping the marginally polite tone as well, "She might be a Matou now, but they were her parents and still are! And I'm definitely still her brother!"

Zouken laughed nastily, and Rin glared at the old man with a surprising amount of intensity, "I have to admit, you're quite a bit more amusing than Tokiyomi. It was agreed between the two families that Sakura would be adopted by the Matous and in exchange the Tohsakas have to stay away from her. Can you afford to breach an agreement so shortly after becoming the new Head?"

"You know what?" he said loudly, "I was opposed to this stupid agreement from the moment I heard about it. I don't give a rat's ass about this agreement, Sakura's coming with me!"

"No." Sakura said before he could say anything more, "I apologize, Tohsaka-san. Please leave at once." She bowed in a polite manner as though to end the conversation.

"What are you saying?" Rin said incredulously, "You mean you don't have any problem with this?"

"Grandfather is the eldest in the family, what he says is for the best." Sakura honestly didn't believe what she was saying herself, but she had to do this… for Rin's sake, "And it's my responsibility to stand by his decisions."

"You see now, boy? You're just wasting your time here. There's no place for sentimentality in the heart of a true magus." Zouken said, relishing the look on Rin's face. Rin's glare was now directed towards Sakura.

There was a slight quiver in his voice as he said, "Fine, I guess I should've known that you'd still be angry about our parents giving you away for adoption. I can understand not wanting to do anything for their sake, but what about me?" His eyes lingered at the pink ribbon he had given Sakura before her adoption.

A part of Sakura wanted to scream out, "Yes, I want to go with you." But the vision of Uncle Kariya's lifeless body slipping down the stairs into the nest of worms, and the subsequent sounds of tearing flesh and crunching bones vividly played in her mind.

…There was no hope for escape. Only death awaited for her and Rin if he got on the Old Man's bad side. Her fate was already sealed, she couldn't bring herself to drag Rin down into the abyss with her.

"You've got it all wrong," There was a painful lump growing in Sakura's throat, but she had to say this, "I have no malice towards Tokiyomi-san and Aoi-san. It's just that I'm no longer a part of the Tohsaka family, Tohsaka-san. That name and family hold no value for me anymore."

There was a pause when Zouken looked on in sick relish he masked by wearing an expression of doting pride. Sakura could feel his fingers digging into her shoulders, and that more than anything kept her composure as Rin's eyes seemed to well up just a bit.

"Fine," Rin said coolly, "it's your life Matou Sakura, so I have no right to have a say in it."

He paused and closed his eyes before turning away wordlessly. Without a backward glance or a farewell he left.

Sakura closed the door and made to leave, but was stopped by the foul hand on her shoulder.

"And excellent choice, Sakura." Zouken said in his best imitation of a kindly voice. He let go of her shoulder and placed the hand on her head before continuing, "Although I have to say, I'm disappointed in not being able to make an example out of him as well…"

The way his voice gently trailed away made a shiver go up her spine. Zouken probably felt her shiver as he started chuckling.

"He would've made a fine carrier of the Crest Worms. Being an Average One means his body wouldn't need much modification to adapt to the Water attribute of us Matous, unlike you." He continued in such a casual manner that Sakura couldn't help but feel sickened.

"Maybe I should offer you in exchange for hi—" He added in almost a thoughtful manner.

"No! You leave Nii-san alone!" Sakura shrieked, cutting him off and even she was surprised at hearing her voice go beyond a timid whisper.

A gnarled hand grabbed her chin and forced her to look into Zouken's face as it approached her. His breath smelled of rotten flesh, and Sakura would've vomited had she not been used to it.

"'Nii-san', eh?" He said, his putrid breath going over Sakura's terrified face, "And here I was hoping you had accepted your position. Remember this, you're mine now. You can't escape. I know everything you say and do, so any resistance will end in the Tohsaka brat being fed to the worms."

Zouken smiled and let go of Sakura. He left her there, frozen in horror.

She couldn't believe what the Old Man had just told her, but she didn't dare write it off as an empty threat either.

"Sakura… Are we nearly there?" Rin said, breaking the silence for the first time and bringing her out of her reverie.

"Y-yes, we're almost there. Only a few more minutes." She replied, rather flustered.

"Um… Is it just me, or is Miyama City totally deserted?" Rin asked her, realizing a bit too late how suspicious they must look and the police would've caught them a few times over by now if someone had seen them.

"Didn't you see the news? There've been many disappearances lately… Fuyuki's in a state of panic." Sakura replied. She slowed her pace so that she was walking beside Rin.

"Really? I need to watch the news more often…" He sighed.

"Ah…" Sakura looked at Emiya who was starting to stir faintly.

"Well, she took her sweet time." Rin said, trying to sound grumpy and failing spectacularly.

"Mmm…" Emiya's eyelids fluttered for a bit, and for a moment it looked like she was looking at Rin before snuggling closer and falling asleep.

"Wha- For the love of-" Rin spluttered, and Sakura couldn't help but laugh at her brother's embarrassment.

"This isn't funny!" Rin glared at Sakura, but the effect was greatly diminished by his tomato-red face and overall flustered demeanor.

"Okay, okay." Sakura said, still smiling, "But I think you owe it to her. She saved your life, after all."

"I think I more than replayed the debt." Rin said sourly, "I used two of my trump cards. Two!"

"It would've been worth it if I got to beat Berserker," Saber chimed in, "But someone had to get sentimental at the wrong time…"

"You're never going to let me forget it, are you?" Rin asked the invisible woman drily.

"Only until we actually beat Berserker." Saber said replied rather coolly.

"Ah, we're here!" Sakura said before Rin could retort. They were standing at the base of a steady slope leading up a hill. The top of the hill housed an impressive Japanese style house which was the Emiya residence.

"Emiya-san lives alone, right?" Rin asked her as they approached the main gate

Sakura nodded in response, "But Fujimura-sensei drops in from time to time." She added.

"…It'll be such a bother if she does turn up." Rin sighed, "I guess I'll have to distract her if it comes to that. Wake Emiya up and have her change, I have to erase her memories of this whole fiasco."

"O-okay—" Sakura started, but was cut off by the voice of the invisible female.

"Rin, another Servant's close." The woman named Saber warned sharply.

"What!" Rin exclaimed, "Oi, Emiya, wake up!" he said urgently to the girl and shook her a bit.

"Mmm… huh?" She said groggily as her eyes fluttered open. She looked around, disoriented and confused, but her eyes focused and she was able to assess the situation she was in.

She instantly turned red and struggled to get down. Rin obliged her by dropping— putting her down on the ground grumpily. She seemed to be processing what to say, as Sakura could almost hear the cogs in the redhead's work furiously.

"I'll explain everything later; you can have your shoujo-manga moment then." Rin said sarcastically, with the effect being diminished again by his furiously scarlet face. But it was too late, as a voice from behind them chimed in at that moment.

"Hello." The bell-like voice said. The phrase was imbued with a kind of elegance by the regal voice. The group turned around to face the source, and there they saw a pre-teen girl wearing a royal purple coat, with matching purple fez and white scarf. The girl had porcelain-like skin, shockingly scarlet eyes and white hair which shimmered like strands of silver in the light of the lamppost she was standing under.

She inspected the silent group for a few moments before curtsying politely, "Good evening. My name is Illyasviel von Einzbern. It's a pleasure to meet you all." There was an eerie quality to the greeting. The phrase "Never speak ill of the Dead" popped into Sakura's mind at the tone, and a slight shiver ran up her spine.

"Good evening…" They replied, however odd it might seem.

The girl— Illyasviel, straightened up and gave them an innocent smile. "It was lucky that Onee-san woke up… I wanted to speak to her so much."

"Uh, umm…" Emiya looked confused for a moment, as though she couldn't quite recognize the girl, but a look of understanding came to her, "You're the girl who I met the other day!" She exclaimed.

Illyasviel looked pleased that Emiya had remembered her. "I'm glad that you didn't die tonight, Onee-san," She said. The statement was completely innocent and friendly, but Sakura couldn't help but feel unnerved, and her discomfort was proved to not be irrational when she continued, "Remember, your life is mine."

"W-what do you mean?" Sakura asked the girl, but all she got was a scowl-like look of acknowledgement before she continued as though she hadn't been interrupted.

"So please summon your Servant soon," Sakura quickly turned to look at Rin whose expression had become stony, "the Holy Grail War will begin tomorrow. And make sure to summon a good Servant, I don't want you to expire too easily." The girl said it all without losing that innocent look…

"What the hell do you mean by that?" Rin demanded loudly, "Do you mean that Emiya is a Master?"

A figure clad in armor light blue in color faded into existence beside the princess-like girl with a look of disapproval on his face. The young man who looked about Rin's age had light-brown hair and forest-green eyes, a slim scabbard was at his hip and a shield with an upright pentagon was strapped to his gauntlet-covered left arm.

"Hold your tongue," He said commandingly, "that is not a tone I will allow you take against Milady."

Saber also materialized in front of them in a protective matter, her face expressionless.

"Thank you, Archer." Illyasviel said dismissively, turning to face Rin behind Saber, "I appreciate your indignation on my behalf, but it was quite unnecessary. I never quite expected courtesy, Grandfather Acht had already told me all about the general dispositions of "their" kind… Tohsaka-san, I'd presume?" She added the last par while tilting her head.

Rin didn't quite answer, but leered back at the girl.

"No matter." She said, straightening up. "Come, Archer. We'll come back when they're ready. I doubt you'd want to tarnish your knightly honor by fighting a weakened opponent."

Sakura had the faintest feeling that the girl had put a subtle emphasis on the word "Archer" both times…

"But of course, Milady." The Knight in Azure said with a polite curtsy, "Let us make haste, then. Sella-san and Leysritt-san must be worried."

"Well then, bye bye. It was nice to meet you all. Especially Onee-san" Illysasviel said, curtsying again. Sakura suddenly felt an inhuman amount of magical energy radiate for a moment from the albino, and with a sideway glance she confirmed that Rin had also felt it. It seemed like a show of power, just to make sure that they did not dismiss her words as merely bluffs.

Both the figures turned, Archer faded out of sight as he turned. Illyasviel momentarily glanced back, and Sakura was surprised that it was she who Illyasviel looked at…

As soon as the group was out of earshot Rin said icily, "…Emiya-san, I think we need to talk."

Servant Sheet:

Archer:

STR: A

AGI: A+

END: B

MANA: A

LCK: C

Noble Phantasm: ?

Personal Skills:

Double Summon:

Allows the use of the class skills and capabilities of two different classes simultaneously.

Usually only accessible by Rider, Caster and Assassin classes, it seems Archer has both the class skills and parameters of the Saber and Archer classes, with Archer as his primary class.