Disclaimer: I do not own the Fate franchise it belongs to Kinoko Nasu and Type-Moon.

Transposition

Chapter 14

"I'm impressed." Zouken said with a smirk, running a wrinkled hand over the bloated barrels sitting in the storeroom. "When you started this project a year ago, it would take what, a month or two, just to complete the gestation cycle of any one of these. But now, you finished gestating a whole batch in one night."

"What can I say?" Rin said from behind her grandfather. "I'm resourceful."

Zouken chuckled with amused approval. "Yes," he said with a nod and a smirk. "Very resourceful…Caster had already…harvested, the prana of the people in those buildings. With little…effort, on your part, you then took what they hadn't already taken, and with no need to further take advantage of the residents. It's quite admirable, I have to say."

Rin said nothing, her expression giving no indication of how she truly felt. "And through it all," Zouken continued. "The arrangement is such that Caster will take the blame for the incidents with little to no gain for their trouble, where we are able to profit with minimal effort and no…complications."

Rin was silent for a moment longer, and then she briefly closed her eyes. "I learned from the best." She said, and Zouken chuckled again.

"Indeed," Zouken said with a smirk. "Still, even if gestation is complete, the next stage as I recall from your research would require more than prana to facilitate, will it not?"

Rin was again silent for a moment, and then she nodded. "Yes." She said softly.

"And what do you plan to do, granddaughter?"

Again, Rin was silent for a moment, and then she sighed. "I'm sure," she began. "There are people out there, on the fringes of society, that no one will really miss. Whatever happens to them…some disappearances here and there…I'm sure no one will notice for some time. And…"

"And?"

"…there are still seven Servants and Masters. And at least one pair are aggressively gathering prana. I'm sure we can still pass the blame around at this point."

Zouken chuckled. Turning away from the barrels, he took a few steps closer to Rin, and raising a hand caressed a cheek with surprising gentleness. "How…ruthless of you." He said, smirking up at her.

Rin didn't bat an eyelid, instead thinking back to a morning ten years ago. She remembered pushing herself up on her arms, naked in the darkness, shaking from the previous night's training, slime and other fluids dripping from her pale skin. She remembered turning her head, and seeing the half-eaten corpse beside her.

'You broke your promise.'

'Weren't you supposed to save me?'

'Why did you die?'

'You promised not to die until you could bring me home!'

'You promised you wouldn't die until you got me out of here!'

'Why?'

'Why did you break your promise?'

'Why?'

'WHY DID YOU DIE?'

Rin blinked, and briefly closed her eyes as she returned to the present. "I have no plans of losing this war." She said. "I will do what I must to win."

"Oh?"

Rin stared her grandfather in the eyes, gleaming amethyst against pitch-black. "I learn from example." She said, and Zouken chuckled.

"Indeed…" he said, trailing off as he stepped past and walked away. "Well, you're a smart girl, no, more than that you're a genius. Even I had never considered this project of yours before, and what it involves. Well done…either way…"

Still chuckling, Zouken walked away, leaving Rin alone in the half-light of the storeroom. Silent and unmoving, Rin stared at the barrels before her, and sighing with sad resignation, closed her eyes.

I'm sorry. I'm so sorry…

"…Rin-chan…Rin-chan…Rin-chan…"

Rin blinked as Taiga's voice brought her from early this morning back to the present, and she coughed. "Sorry," Rin said. "I was just thinking, that's all."

"It sounds very interesting, then." Sakura observed.

Rin didn't answer at once, instead taking a spoonful of rice with her chopsticks and putting it into her mouth. Chewing slowly, she swallowed and then briefly closing her eyes, met Sakura's eyes with half-opened ones. "It's nothing important," she said. "Family matters."

Sakura didn't respond for a couple of moments, and then closing her eyes nodded with a smile. "I see." She said as she opened her eyes. "Sorry for prying."

Rin nodded, and turned back to eating her breakfast. Shirou and Taiga stared curiously at each other, but after a shrug from the latter they too returned to their breakfast.

I cannot lose.

If I lose, I may likely not have a future. But if I win, then things will only get easier from there on out.

But…even without that…I need to make it mean something. The sacrifice of everything they could have been…of what they were…of what they should have been…and…

Rin ate another spoonful of rice, the food tasting like ash in her mouth. "My purity and nobility are long gone," she thought, briefly glancing towards Shirou. "But maybe…I can still…we can still…start over again…"

"Are you sure you'll be fine by yourself?"

Sakura nodded and smiled at Shirou's concern. "Yeah, I'll be fine." She said before grinning mischievously. "I'm a grown girl after all."

The two of them shared a laugh at that. "I'm sure." Shirou said before falling silent. For a long moment they just stared at each other, Shirou standing by the door to Sakura's room, Sakura sitting on her bed. And then Shirou coughed, and scratched a cheek. "Well…if you get hungry there's food in the fridge, so don't hesitate to help yourself, or even to cook if you want something hot for yourself and for Saber. Though, either way be careful, you still get dizzy don't you?"

"Hmm…not really," Sakura said. "I mean…I've still got something of a migraine, but the dizziness is gone, and I'm sure the migraine will too once I get a bit more sleep."

Shirou nodded approvingly. "Alright then," he said. "Still, don't push yourself, and if you do cook something or even just help yourself, well, be careful."

Sakura nodded. "Thanks for your concern, sempai." She said. "I really appreciate it."

Shirou nodded as well, and again silence fell between them. After a few moments though a shout from Rin in the distance that they were going to be late broke the silence, and Shirou sighed. "Well then," he said. "I'll be going."

Sakura nodded. "Take care." She said, and Shirou smiled.

"I will." He said, before stepping back and closing the doors. Sighing as she was left alone, Sakura shifted her covers before letting her head fall back onto her pillows.

"I still have so many things to do." She murmured once she was sure Shirou was no longer within earshot. "Still, I could probably spend the morning sleeping. If the migraine does go away, it'll be less of a hassle later."

Nodding to herself at that, Sakura closed her eyes, and went to sleep.

The lunch bells rang the end of morning classes, the teacher giving a last set of instructions before beginning to erase the chalkboard behind her. The students meanwhile began to bustle about, gathering and stowing away their things before bringing out their lunches. Some left the classroom, others gathered together, pulling and linking desks together to eat on as a group.

Shirou was part of the former, making his way through the school to the council meeting room, and joining Issei and Shinji for lunch. "Well look who's back?" Shinji drawled as Shirou opened the door and stepped inside. "For the past couple of days or so you've been eating lunch with Tohsaka up on the roof, haven't you?"

Shirou just shrugged with a smile, and Shinji gave an amused smirk. "Well, I heard Tohsaka's called in sick today," he said. "I guess we're the backup now, aren't we Ryuudo?"

"Emiya," Issei began as Shirou took a seat with an exasperated glance at Shinji. "Is there something between you and Tohsaka now?"

Shirou gave a surprised yelp at that. "No, of course not!" he protested. "Why would you think that?"

"Well, boys and girls at our age don't usually eat alone together up on the roof, unless they're in a relationship. It's considered as an intimate, no that's not quite right, romantic act."

Shirou spluttered in denial as Shinji snickered. "We're friends, really, just friends." Shirou finally said with a glare at Shinji. "And please, keep this to yourselves. You know as well as I do that there's a rumor mill at school. It's not really a problem getting talked about, but…it's still best, not to get talked about, especially if it's completely wrong."

"Just friends, huh?" Shinji said with a roll of his eyes. "Well, if you say so."

Oblivious, aren't you Emiya?

Then again, it wasn't exactly obvious that Tohsaka has had an interest in you for who knows how long. I myself wouldn't know if Rin hadn't told me, what her familiars said Tohsaka had said when she saved you from being killed that night, when Lancer had stabbed you in this school we're in right now.

No doubt the excuse she used to move into your house is connected to the war, but still…considering her interest, it's very…convenient for her. Well, you probably aren't sleeping with her though…for now.

Shinji narrowed his eyes as Issei began to preach. "If you were," Shinji thought. "And Rin found out, she'd probably have talked about it by now. Maybe even gone berserk…my sister…she's a genius…if she goes berserk…"

"…a certain air coming off her," Issei said. "I can't really describe it but, I…yes, she smacks of an apparition to me."

"What?" Shirou asked deadpan, and even Shinji raised an eyebrow.

"As I said, I can't really describe it." Issei said with a cough. "Regardless, that's the reason why no matter how accomplished she might be, no matter how popular she is, I can't trust her."

Issei paused and coughed again. "Well," he said. "If you say you're not in a relationship with her Emiya, then you aren't. But if you are at some point in the future, I can only hope you watch your back. There's just something not right around that girl."

Shinji smiled slightly in amusement as an uncomfortable and exasperated Shirou began to argue with Issei. "That's pretty much what Ryuudo said when Rin was elected student council president." He thought. "I wonder…maybe you're not so ordinary after all, if you can sense something not quite right about two magi, and are perfectly fine around a blunt like me."

Shinji's smile faded as old, half-forgotten resentment at being born and passed over as useless to a magus family welled up, but then more memories welled up, of seeing his sister lying there in the dark, bloated and writhing as worms crawled over, around, and inside of her, and how his mother had been the same, when she was punished for having birthed someone like him. He remembered lashing out at Rin, remembered their blood splattering her room as they'd fought each other, and at the sight of the worms crawling out of the deep wound he'd cut into her side.

Is this what you want brother? If it is, then you are welcome to it.

Shinji closed his eyes, swallowing the bile with practice. The dream…his childhood dream…was dead, and perhaps for the best. But, Rin…

We're the same. Two useless children…a genius given away for a wild card…and a useless child set aside for a genius…

…we shouldn't have to hate each other. Not when we're so alike…in more ways than one…

…I don't know if more will come of this, but at least, let's try and get along like we used to, before this night, and start over…

"…wrong?"

Shinji blinked, coming back to reality at Issei's concerned voice. "No, it's nothing." He said. "Just thinking about some things…private, family matters."

Shirou raised an eyebrow. "Funny," he said. "Rin said the same thing earlier this morning."

Shinji smiled slightly at that, going back to what he'd just remembered, of two useless, eleven-year old children lying naked together under bloody sheets, finding common ground in the bitterness of their shared fate. "Is that so?" he said. "Funny, that."

Shinji chuckled, and then turning back to his lunch, resumed eating. Shirou and Issei shared a glance, but after Issei shrugged, Shirou and Issei also resumed eating.

Unnoticed, Shinji's eyes flickered towards Shirou. "I wonder," he thought. "Who will you choose in the end? Or perhaps, have you already chosen? If so, then I wonder, who will come out on top? Will it be the genius? Or will it be the wild card?"

"I'm home!"

Silence met Shirou in the golden twilight of his house's foyer that afternoon, the boy shrugging it off as he took off his shoes and put his slippers on. Making his way into his house, he noted with mild interest the washed utensils, china, pots and pans lying on a drain cloth to one side of the sink, and nodding to himself headed further into the house.

He found Saber seated on the veranda, looking out at the yard beyond with a cool expression on her face. She turned to face him as he approached, and rising to her feet gave a small bow. "Welcome home, Shirou." She said.

Shirou nodded, and then he blinked as Saber stepped closer. "My apologies for not being able to meet you at the front door upon your arrival," she said. "But as you said, part of our alliance with Archer and her Master is that I protect her until her Servant is once again combat-worthy, barring of course your summons via command spell."

"Y-yeah," Shirou said with a nod. "I know that. Speaking of which, where's Sakura?"

"She's in her rooms." Saber indicated, stepping to one side.

"Sleeping?"

"No," Saber said. "She woke up earlier, and after bathing cooked lunch for the three of us, after which she washed up before getting to work."

"I see." Shirou said, and then blinked as something Saber said belatedly registered on his awareness. "Wait, getting to work? Rooms?"

"Yes," Saber said with a nod. "Unfortunately I do not know the details, as I am no magus…"

Saber trailed off, instead watching silently as a concerned Shirou stepped past and stopped in front of Sakura's doors. "Sakura, I'm coming in." he said, just in case she was half-dressed or something inside. Sliding the doors open, he blinked at her absence, and then smelling the faint hints of iron and ozone in the air, sighed and closed the door before heading to the next room.

Sliding the doors open, he blinked at the sight that met him, and sighed again. "I see you made yourself at home." He said with a hint of reproof. "Nice workshop."

Sakura blinked, clearly out of touch with reality and focused on strangely (or not so strangely) swirling patterns of shadow and light in one hand, and then noticing Shirou coughed and blushed. "Yeah, sorry about that," she said. "But, I wanted to start working on improvements from last night so…"

"It's fine." Shirou said, stepping inside and closing the doors beside him. "You should have asked though…or that's what I should be saying, but since you were somewhat out of it this morning…"

Shirou trailed off with a shrug, and smiled at Sakura who smiled back. Shirou took a look around the room, noting with approval the neatly set aside furniture in corner of the room, and with interest the bounded field surrounding the room. "What's the bounded field do?" he asked.

"Well, Fujimura-sensei does come here often so…" Sakura began hesitantly.

Shirou sighed. "I…yeah, I think I see what you mean…Fuji-nee doesn't know about magic and she doesn't and shouldn't know either…" he said. "Mental suggestion?"

Sakura nodded, and Shirou sighed. "It's expected, I guess." He said, before examining Sakura's magic circle, drawn in chalk on the floor. It was composed of two narrowly-spaced concentric circles, with a third, much smaller circle in the center in the middle of which Sakura was sitting. Two circles were tangent to it, one of which had a crescent Moon drawn in the middle, while the other had a single, large circle completely shaded in in the middle, which Shirou assumed was symbolic for the Sun.

Five curving lines ran out to the outer circles, vanishing under bronze stands with bronze basins on top, in each of which burned a single candle. The curving lines were each broken at one point with another circle, in the middle of which was drawn a symbol which Shirou remembered from an alchemy text his father had shown him once but couldn't remember the meaning of. Four more curving lines each ran from the circles breaking the lines running from Sakura's circle, each ending with another circle in the middle of which was drawn one of four other alchemical symbols that could be seen in the magic circle as a whole.

Three sets of lines and circles were dull and lifeless, but Sakura's circle and its adjacent ones were active, as were the outer circles. Shadows gently flickered and ran along the lines, and caressed what looked like a giant pearl and a large chunk of quartz on sitting on the two active sets of lines and circles.

"Interested?" Sakura asked.

"Not really," Shirou said, and then fidgeted as Sakura smiled and raised an eyebrow at him. "Okay fine, I'm curious. What are you doing? Apart from what you said earlier, and of course, you don't need to tell me any details if it means revealing family secrets."

Sakura giggled, and despite himself, Shirou smiled and shrugged in amusement at his own nervousness. "I'm transmuting elements." Sakura said, and Shirou's eyes widened.

"What?"

"I don't have any elemental affinities outside of my Sorcery Trait, Imaginary Numbers." Sakura said. "That gives me control of the 'shadow' element, but the five regular elements are normally out of my reach."

"Wait, you have the Imaginary Numbers?" Shirou asked, wide-eyed. "That's supposed to be…!"

"Incredibly-rare?" Sakura finished. "Yes, I know. Dad described it as a wild card, something that could either be of little or average value, but at the same time he said it could also be something that could push our family's magecraft beyond all possible expectations."

Sakura shrugged. "Anyway," she said. "Dad's expectations aside – since I'm still ten years or more away from getting any real work done on that front – not having access to the five regular elements was a massive pain in my neck, since it meant I couldn't learn a lot of my family's gathered lore."

"True," Shirou agreed. "Without any elemental affinities, you can't use spells based on them. At best, they wouldn't work. At worst…"

"The backlash could kill me, I know." Sakura said with another shrug. "Still, I couldn't do nothing. So I studied. I studied, I studied, and I studied, trying to find a way to get around my limitation. I think it was…about six years ago or so, that I found a solution."

Shirou sat down outside the edge of the circle, and nodded at Sakura to continue. "I was reading a book on the various schools of magecraft," she said. "On their general attributes and such, to see if anything could help me. And what do you know, there it was, mentioned in passing: '…allows for the transformation of elements'."

"What school of magic was that?"

"Formalcraft," Sakura said, and smiled as Shirou glanced at the magic circle with newfound realization. "It took me about two years or so after that to get the system functioning, something Kirei said was a work of genius."

"You don't think so?" Shirou asked.

"If I was a genius," Sakura said. "Then I'd have thought of the solution from the start, and on my own. No, I'm just someone who works hard, that's all."

Shirou smiled and shrugged, thinking to himself that Sakura had a rather…high, standard when it came to qualifying 'genius'. "So you use Formalcraft…" he began.

"It's not just Formalcraft," Sakura corrected. "I also incorporated basic Alchemy and of course, Tohsaka Jewel Magecraft into the system, though that came after I got the basic principles down and functioning."

Sakura paused and laughed. "Apart from hard work and research though," she said. "I was also lucky."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well," Sakura said. "I did say the text only mentioned Formalcraft being able to transform elements in passing, so if I hadn't been attentive I'd have missed it. And also, while working on the basic principles a lot of times were rather hit and miss. Thankfully Formalcraft is a very stable school of magecraft, more prone to simply fizzling out as opposed to potentially blowing up in my face as would be the case of more profound, but less stable schools of magecraft."

"I see." Shirou said with a nod. "And…yeah, I remember that. Because Formalcraft is so well-known, with its focus on rituals, reagents, and things like that which are what ordinary people would think of when someone mentions magic, it's not very profound or powerful, but that's also what makes it very stable, making it very useful for magi who don't have much magic potential. Well, something like that."

Sakura shrugged in agreement, and Shirou glanced back at the circle, and pointed at the pearl and the quartz. "So," he said. "What's up with the pearl and the quartz?"

"That's not a pearl, that's moonstone." Sakura said. "And I prefer to call it rock crystal, not quartz."

"That's a big moonstone."

"Yes, I know." Sakura said with a nod. "I have no idea where my grandfather got it from, but it's very useful for research and experiments about the water element."

Shirou crossed his arms and hummed in thought for several moments. In the meantime, Sakura looked back down at her right hand, her fingers twitching as she manipulated the swirling light and shadow in her hand. "So," Shirou began. "You control shadows."

"Yes."

"And you transmute the shadows into other elements."

"Yes."

"And you can transmute them back."

"Yes."

"So how do you control the elements?" Shirou asked. "I mean, yeah, transmuting elements is all well and good, but, without elemental affinities how do you control elements that you don't have affinities for?"

"Shadows are weak if not outright useless when it comes to the physical." Sakura explained. "But when it comes to the spiritual or the conceptual, they're very powerful. In fact, the core concept behind Imaginary Numbers is 'that which is possible but not on the physical plane'. Get the idea?"

Shirou thought it over for several moments, and then his eyes widened in realization. "I see!" he said. "You need to transmute elements to generate or something, the other elements, but with your shadows you can directly control the concepts and such that make up the spell!"

"Full points!" Sakura said, clapping her hands. "Well, it's a more complicated process than that, and it's still a very circuitous system that requires more effort than actually using an elemental spell directly, but it's a functioning system. I might have to reconstruct control and other functions for my family's existing mysteries, I have to use this circle of mine to enchant gems with elemental spells, and I have to constantly tweak and update my mysteries, but I can do it now. And that's a massive improvement from over six years ago, when I couldn't at all. I daresay I've achieved a miracle."

Sakura paused, and chuckled before smiling at Shirou, her eyes alight with the fires of competition. "This is my Kung Fu." She said. "And it is strong."

Shirou chuckled and nodded. "No argument there," he said with a smile. "Besides, that's what magic is all about isn't it? Making the impossible possible? Okay, it's more complicated than that, but it's the basic idea. You couldn't do something before, and you should never have been able to do it. But now, you can do it. If that doesn't count as a miracle, then I don't know what does."

Sakura blushed, and rubbed the back of her head. "Flatterer," she said softly.

"No, it's the truth." Shirou said earnestly, and Sakura laughed weakly while continuing to rub the back of her head. "So…going back to earlier, what's up with the moonstone and the quartz. Sorry…rock crystal…"

"It's fine," Sakura said, coughing to regain her composure. "Call it whatever you want, it's all personal preference. As for your question, well, you have to remember that gemstones take a long time to form under the Earth, sometimes up to tens if not hundreds of millions of years. In that time, they're under the influence of Nature Spirits who imbue them with elemental affinities of their own, which they retain when they're brought to light on the surface. Moonstone for instance, has an affinity for water. Rock crystal for its part, has an affinity for air or wind, and its sub-element lightning."

"I see." Shirou said with a nod. "So in this case…you're using them to focus the elements or something, aren't you?"

"Water and wind," Sakura agreed with a nod, and then she blushed as her stomach growled. She blushed some more as Shirou laughed, the boy getting to his feet.

"I'm guessing you had lunch somewhat early." He said. "Come on, let's eat something to keep us up until dinner time."

"But I…"

"It's fine," Shirou said insistently, walking over to the doors and opening them slightly. "Your magic circle's not going anywhere, so you can work on your magic again later. And besides, I'm sure you've been working on it for hours now. Let your brain rest, who knows? You might figure out some problem or another that's been holding you back after you let your thoughts freshen up."

Sakura didn't say something at once, instead just staring at Shirou and his earnest smile, and then after several moments, sighed and nodded. "You could be right." She said, dispersing the shadows and light in her hand with a thought. A gesture sent shadows climbing up her bronze stands and over the basins on top to put out the candles, and Sakura stood.

"Yeah, you're definitely right." She groaned as she stretched her cramped muscles. "I could use a break."

Shirou laughed and coming closer held out a hand. "See? What'd I tell you?" he said. "Come on, let's get something to eat."

Sakura nodded in agreement, and taking the offered hand was helped (not that she really needed help) over her circle to avoid smudging the lines or anything along the way. Nodding her thanks, she let Shirou lead her away, neither noticing that despite there being no need for it, they were still holding hands.

And Sakura had absolutely no problem with that.

A/N

And so, the shadow (no pun intended) of Fate/Zero reveals itself, with Rin Matou never meeting a deluded Kariya like Sakura Matou did in Fate/Zero's ending, only just seeing his half-eaten corpse lying next to her the following morning.

Shinji and Rin finding common ground, oh yeah, Rin Tohsaka would freak at the thought that she has anything in common with Shinji. Which, Rin Matou above aside, she does: it doesn't show to the same degree, but like Shinji she gives off an air that she can never be wrong, she can do anything she sets out to do, and pride in her lineage and abilities. The difference of course, is that while Shinji is a paper tiger, Rin Tohsaka can fully walk the talk, so I suppose she's earned – to an extent – the right to act as she does.

Sakura Tohsaka's secrets are revealed, very large degree of creative license on my part, if derived from canon lore. Admittedly contrived, true, but regardless, I invoke creative license: if you have a problem with that, fuck off. Be thankful I don't drop names, lore Nazis know who they are, insisting on 'purity' and that authors who can't stick to the straight and narrow lore have no business writing FanFiction.

Well, here's something from your fuhrer's language: leck mich im arsch.