Disclaimer: I do not own the Fate franchise it belongs to Kinoko Nasu and Type-Moon.
Different Fates
Chapter 27
Wood splintered as steel fell, Sakura's eyes widening at the doll which had managed to come between her and vengeance. With a twist of her wrist she ripped Starlight free of the doll, half-turning to face the newly-arrived enemy.
"Sakura…!" Anika's thoughts slipped into her head, a warning and an explanation why she had not stopped the interference. "It's…!"
She didn't need it. She could see very well with her own eyes, even as the dark-coloured bolt of prana shattered Illusive Precision, dispersing prana flaring blue in the air as the defensive spell collapsed, its mysteries torn apart on a conceptual level. Sakura's crest and circuits alike flickered blue with sympathetic vibrations over her body, the magus staggering back as her nerves were scrambled all over.
Silver hair…crimson eyes…a face so like her own…her sister Rin, holding her hands out on top of each other, palm-outwards in Sakura's direction with dark-coloured prana already pooling for the next attack.
Why?
Three bolts flew towards her, and forcing aside the confusion and her nerves screaming with pain, Sakura swung Starlight. Steel turned the immaterial attacks aside, but as the rational part of her mind caught up her reflexes slowed as realization came crashing down.
Illusive Precision can only be broken by conceptual weapons, Noble Phantasms, and High Thaumaturgy or mysteries with historical weight of at least five hundred years! Sister…how…?
A bolt struck her in the chest, Sakura screaming with pain as she was sent flying, all of her prana ripped out of her in a moment of supreme agony. "Tohsaka-san…!" Shirou shouted, clutching at his injured shoulder as he stared after his helpless enemy. She might nearly have killed him mere moments ago, but he was far too chivalrous to not care about a young woman getting manhandled just so. He turned to face the newcomer, eyes widening as he took in her identity. "Matou-san…?"
Rin Matou slowly walked closer, dolls and golems spreading out on both sides behind her. Eyes flickered up to the roof, where Archer was being restrained by a narrow-eyed Anika. "What are you planning?" she thought to herself, wondering why her sister's friend wasn't coming to her aid.
Her left hand trembled, and Rin grabbed and squeezed her left arm to supress the shaking. "Looks like I made it in time." She said, approaching Shirou and giving a weak smile. She froze however as Sakura shakily got to her knees, coughing and spitting blood. Rin's expression turned wary at the sight.
What will you do now, Sakura? Will you fight? Or will you retreat?
The younger girl grabbed her sword and shakily got to her feet, running a hand over her bloody left wrist. A gem flashed and dulled as stored prana was drained to heal the self-inflicted injury. "Why?" she asked. "Why do you help that bastard?"
The last question was said in a shout, and Rin closed her eyes briefly before giving a sigh. "Why, you ask." She said. "He's my apprentice that's why. It's only natural that I come and help him, even if I've been delayed by events beyond my control."
"Your apprentice…?" Sakura echoed with evident outrage. "He…he's Kiritsugu Emiya's son! And yet you…?"
Rin narrowed her eyes. Her left hand shook again, and again she squeezed her arm with her other hand. "So what if he is?" she asked. "To blame someone for the sins of the parent and not for their own faults…how shallow…!"
"Shallow…?" Sakura echoed, drawing herself up and fighting to control her temper. "I see…so you don't know. That's the only reason why you would harbour someone like him."
Rin raised an eyebrow as Sakura continued. "His father was Kiritsugu Emiya!" Sakura shouted. "He killed our father ten years ago, during the final battle of the Fourth Holy Grail War! And because of that…because of that…our sweet mother…she lost…she lost her mind and died…"
Sakura trailed off, the fight coming out of her. "She died…" she repeated. "…she died on that bed…she died in front of me and I couldn't do anything…all because father wasn't there…"
Eyes going hard, she looked up at Rin and Shirou, the former's eyes hidden behind her bangs while Shirou looked at her with veiled sympathy and pity. "Kiritsugu Emiya killed our parents!" Sakura shouted. "That's why I….!"
You talk like you know anything…you've always been loved! You know nothing about what I've been through!
"Shut up." Rin growled, shocking both Shirou and Sakura both. "Our sweet mother…our father…our parents…? Don't make me laugh!"
Zouken Matou watched coldly as the nude girl before him thrashed and writhed with pain and ecstasy on the cold stone floor, her skin slick with viscous fluids and her flesh bulging and contorting unnaturally as the worms moved at will inside. Even more clustered and crawled over and around her, the moans and ecstatic gasps continuing for several minutes before she shouted with orgiastic delight, her body arcing up in a bow.
And then it was over, Rin Matou lying on the cold stone floor, her face and eyes blank but with a mindless expression of satisfaction. Fluid both from her and the worms lay slickly on the stone floor, as the worms slowly crawled away or out of her orifices.
It took several more moments before comprehension returned to her eyes, the albino girl stirring and shakily rubbing her limbs to get some calm and warmth back into her muscles before shakily and slowly crawling up and out of the pit. "Hmm…" Zouken murmured, stroking his chin. "…simply put there's nothing wrong with you, your organs, energy levels, crest, and even your familiars are all as they should be."
Rin didn't answer, focusing on breathing and trying to get some of her dignity back before facing him. Zouken stroked his chin further. "I'm tempted to continue the physical examination…" he said with a leer. "…but I don't think I'll be able to find out more as things stand. Very well, you may go. Oh yes, you should hurry. It seems that young Tohsaka is on her way to your school."
Rin glanced up at that, and Zouken smirked at her. "It seems that she's behind the bounded field over your school." He told her. "I wonder why she'd do that…or rather, seeing as only you and young Emiya are targets worthy of her attention there, why she'd be going after that apprentice of yours."
Rin stared at him, and with a smirk Zouken moved to leave. "I suggest you hurry." He said. "Young Tohsaka is after all a prodigy, to the point that her usually-conservative father would set aside tradition for her sake. I doubt if young Emiya would last long against her."
"Rin…?" Sakura asked, completely take off-guard by her sister's outburst. "Sister…?"
You know nothing Sakura Tohsaka, nothing!
"Don't call me that!" Rin raged. "You…you've lived a life of comfort and privilege while I've endured horrors you can't even imagine! And you know what? You know who's to blame for that? That's right…it was your father and oh so sweet mother! They gave you everything you ever wanted while throwing me like trash to the mercy of a man who'd make the devil look like a saint!"
"W-w-what are you saying?" Sakura stammered, shakily taking a step back at the pure hatred in her sister's voice. "Y-you were…you were supposed to be…"
"The Matou heiress…?" Rin snarled, her irises beginning to glow and the air around her began to ripple as power flowed through her magic circuits, far more and with greater power than Sakura or indeed, most magi could possibly have. "Ha! Zouken used me as a guinea pig with his parasitic worms so he could fuse Einzbern mysteries with the Matou magecraft. Even now they feed on my prana and use my body as their nest. Why else do you think I would look like this?"
Sakura recoiled, stepping back and shaking her head in denial. "N-no…I…I didn't…" she stammered out. "…this wasn't…I didn't want to…I just…"
"Excuses…" Rin spat. "…you're just happy that you're finally in charge aren't you?"
"No…! I…"
"I hate Tokiomi Tohsaka, the man who sent me to hell." Rin snarled. "I hate Aoi Tohsaka, for being a weakling and doing nothing and just watching as the devil took me away. And most of all…I hate that treacherous, backstabbing little girl who faked being weak and timid…just so she could take everything from me!"
Starlight fell to the ground with a clatter, Sakura collapsing to her knees cheeks wet with tears. "Sister…onee-chan…" she sobbed, looking imploringly at her sister in the distance. "…I didn't want to…I just wanted to be like you…never this…"
"I hate you most of all." Rin growled, aiming a finger at Sakura and charging a beam. "I wish you'd never been born! I wish you were in my place! And I wish…"
"Sakura…!" Archer and Anika shouted as they jumped off the roof, finally moving into action as they finally realized the depths of the danger she was in.
"Tohsaka-san…!" Shirou shouted as he got to his feet and ran for Rin. "Run…!"
"I WISH YOU'D JUST DIE!" Rin roared as a blazing beam of red lanced from her finger in Sakura's direction. She just sat there as death approached, resigned to dying at her sister's hands.
What have I done? What have I done? What have I done?
"RHO AIAS...!"
Red clashed against red before exploding in a massive explosion that tore up the school grounds. As the dust cleared, Archer narrowed his eyes as he saw, through the Noble Phantasm's protective field, Rin backhanding Shirou away after he'd knocked her to the ground, trying to reason with her that killing her sister wouldn't right any wrongs.
"Brave of you boy…" he thought. "…but also very foolish…"
"Caster…!" Rin shouted with her eyes bright and her voice high in a way that made the hairs on the back of Archer's neck begin to rise. He'd see and heard them before, from a white-haired girl with red eyes and red markings clad in a dress of black and red. "Don't let them escape! Kill them! Kill her!"
In the end, you're just like her.
He turned and spotted Anika dragging a catatonic Sakura with one hand in the direction of the forest, while her other hand carried Starlight. "Who'd have thought she'd have reacted like golden boy when someone copies her weapon?" he thought before something literally dropped out of the sky with a resounding crash and collapsing the surrounding bounded field..
It was…well it was obviously a golem, given it was made of rock with ensorcelled mercury forming bone, nerve, and obviously blood and other ichor-analogues. Gems glowed across its body, while parchment scrolls inscribed with Arabic trailed from seals of red wax in the shape of hermetic glyphs. And it was also, alarmingly, taller than the school by half.
A cyclopean eye of mercury flowing around a jewel core flashed menacingly as it raised a fist over the fleeing magi. Anika gasped as the golem threw the blow that would end her and Sakura's lives, if not for a crudely-forged iron hammer crackling with lightning literally flying through the air and blowing the golem to bits.
Anika whirled, her eyes following Mjolnir in all its barbarian splendour as it returned to Archer's hands, the two of them locking eyes and nodding in acknowledgement. Golems and dolls rushed at Archer, who swung Mjolnir with bold sweeps, crushing both with thunderous might.
Meanwhile Anika tried to resume taking Sakura away to safely only for one of Rin's dolls to jump down in front of her. Mercury flowed into claws extending from the construct's fingers, which it used to swipe at Anika. It was fast but clumsy however, and only a few swings of Starlight reduced it to a weeping mass of wood, cloth, and liquid metal.
It was also however, just a distraction.
Anika's eyes widened in shock and horror as she was frozen to the ground, unable to lift her feet from the ground while the air thickened like caramel. Five dolls stood in a pentagram formation around them, fingers pointed at each other. Magic circles flared to life, prana linking the dolls together as secondary circles rose up around the dolls.
"A combination of 'absorption' and the Earth and Wind Elements to concentrate gravity and air pressure within the pentagram…" Anika thought in horror. "…this is bad! Given the enemy is an Average One, the only logical combat progression of the mystery will be absorption of all Five Elements into an unstable proto-matter concentrate…with us in the middle of it!"
Proto-matter began to manifest in grain-like dust particles filtering out of the air and over the two helpless magi…and then arrows flew through the air, prana manifesting as kinetic force that blew the surrounding dolls into pieces. Prana discharged from the dolls as they fell, their bodies burning with cold, ethereal flames like the fragments of Caster's giant golem from earlier, leaving only ash and spent gems behind.
"Go…!" Shirou shouted at the surprised baroness, tracing and firing an arrow at Rin to keep her from firing a beam behind him. "Take your friend and get out of here!"
Anika nodded and ran for the forest with Sakura in tow, Shirou's arrows providing covering fire. Dolls were blown to bits, while Caster's golems – too conceptually strong to be destroyed by mere traced arrows – were knocked back out of the way.
A shadow loomed over Shirou as one of Caster's golems thundered up behind him, raising a fist to smite him for his apparent betrayal. Mjolnir flew again, and turned the golem to dust. Shirou turned to see Archer catch his weapon back and raise it up high before bringing it down.
Lightning exploded, rending the ground and lashing out to destroy all golems and dolls on the field. Dark eyes met golden ones as the thunder and lightning faded, and without a word Archer vanished.
A few moments passed, the only sound the sound of rocks falling on top of each other, the crackle of dying ethereal flames, and finally Shirou let out a long breath. As his traced bow dissolved into prana, he turned…
…and was tackled by an enraged Rin to the ground.
"Why?" she shouted in his face, holding him by the collar. "Why did you get in the way? Answer me damn you!"
Shirou didn't answer, and Rin snarled before raising a hand crackling with dark power that actually burned her skin. He still refused to answer, golden eyes looking into Rin's crimson ones. The moment stretched, and with a shout of rage and frustration Rin leapt back, smashing her fist into the ground nearby.
She stalked away, muttering and spitting, the burns on her hand healing with unnatural speed while Shirou shakily got to his feet. He winced once, and placed a hand on his shoulder. As usual he healed fast, but he'd pushed too much too soon it seemed.
"Are you going to answer or not?" Rin finally spat.
"Do you really want to kill your sister?"
Rin whirled. "DON'T YOU DARE JUDGE ME!" she screamed, but Shirou stood firm. "You know nothing…just like her…so…!"
"Then…" Shirou interrupted. "…if you kill your sister, will it make you happy? Will it give you back everything you've lost?"
"It's not that simple!"
"It is." Shirou insisted. "In fact, you really are sisters. You're blaming her for everything that's happened to you, despite the fact that you yourself said it was your parents who abandoned you, just like she blames me for my dad killing your father."
"We are nothing alike!" Rin exploded, rushing at Shirou and grabbing him by the collar again. "You hear me! Nothing…!"
Shirou said nothing, simply staring at her in silence. Finally she let him go, and began to storm away. "Fine…" she hissed. "…be that way…see if I care!"
Shirou stood silent for a few more moments, debating whether or not to say what he wanted to say. But in the end he decided to, even if it would only make her angrier. But it was something that needed to be said, and he owed her as a friend, and as a decent person, to say it.
"Rin…" he said, freezing her with the use of her personal name. "…there's just one more thing."
"What is it?" she asked, not looking at him at all.
"Earlier you said you wanted your sister to be in your place." Shirou said. It was a monstrous wish, and Shirou couldn't quite wrap his mind how someone would want to inflict hellish torment as a lab rat the barest extent of which he now knew on one's own flesh and blood.
Did her parents know what they were sending her to? Sakura couldn't have known, she was probably just a child by then, and she was so utterly shocked when she found out.
Rin…what have you gone through? Why couldn't you get help? And could I…? Could I do anything that is?
Could I…will I be able to save you like Kiritsugu saved me that day?
Or should I…? Your sister might make for a more appropriate saviour after all.
"What of it?" Rin asked in a low voice.
Shirou took a deep breath. "How different are you…" he asked. "…from your grandfather if you would have others suffer the same just so you can satisfy…"
He never finished saying what he wanted to say, a fist striking him hard and fast and sending him tumbling to the ground. "SHUT UP!" Rin shouted. "STOP ACTING LIKE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO JUDGE BECAUSE YOU DON'T!"
Without another word Rin left, storming away in a black fury as Shirou sat up, rubbing at his swelling cheek. He sat there in the light of the setting Sun, wondering what the hell was going to happen next. His thoughts were disrupted as a heard a gasp from behind him, and he looked over a shoulder to see his girlfriend looking at the devastated school grounds utterly shell-shocked at the sight that met her.
Oh yeah, the bounded field's down, so she's up along with anyone else in school before our fight. I hope no one got caught up in it, but still…this is going to be a pain.
"S-Shirou…" Ayako began, shakily and gingerly walking over the ruins to him. "…w-what happened?"
Shirou sighed. This was just what he needed.
Anika and Sakura ran through the forest, or to be more accurate, Anika ran while Sakura followed by hand. They ran for several long minutes, until at long last Anika tired and she slowed to a walk before finally stopping. For a while they just caught their breath, and then the baroness turned to her friend.
"Sakura…Sakura…" she said, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. Only then did Sakura respond, the other girl blinking before looking at her face and then looking back down. Anika sighed and turned partly away, running a hand through her hair in thought.
As she turned, sunlight flashed off of Starlight's edge, catching Sakura's attention. As she gazed into the depths of her blue eyes reflected in the blade, the memories from earlier came rushing back.
You…you've lived a life of comfort and privilege while I've endured horrors you can't even imagine! And you know what? You know who's to blame for that? That's right…it was your father and oh so sweet mother! They gave you everything you ever wanted while throwing me like trash to the mercy of a man who'd make the devil look like a saint!
Zouken used me as a guinea pig with his parasitic worms so he could fuse Einzbern mysteries with the Matou magecraft. Even now they feed on my prana and use my body as their nest.
I hate Tokiomi Tohsaka, the man who sent me to hell. I hate Aoi Tohsaka, for being a weakling and doing nothing and just watching as the devil took me away. And most of all…I hate that treacherous, backstabbing little girl who faked being weak and timid…just so she could take everything from me…!
I wish you'd never been born! I wish you were in my place!
"Sakura…?" Anika asked, reaching out for Sakura.
I wish you'd just die!
Sakura blinked, and with a shout of rage she grabbed Starlight from the surprised Anika before turning it against the nearest tree. Ignoring the pain as she reinforced her arms beyond their limits, she sheared through a tree trunk as thick as a man's waist, the tree toppling with a resounding crash.
"Sakura…!" Anika shouted in alarm, but Sakura ignored her, stabbing and cutting down at the stump shouting and screaming. Finally with a shout of despair and grief she stabbed Starlight deep, crumpling to her knees and sobbing, resting her forehead against the cold steel.
"Sakura…" Anika whispered, stepping closer and kneeling down, wrapping her arms around Sakura comfortingly. The other girl cried for a few minutes more before finally speaking up.
"She's right you know." Sakura whispered. "It's my fault. If only I'd never tried to study magecraft…if only I hadn't caught my father's attention…then…then…"
"What are you saying?" Anika asked. "It's not your fault!"
"Of course it is!" Sakura shouted, pulling free of Anika and rising to her feet. Anika rose after her. "I stole everything from her! I sent her to hell! Me…! It should have been me! Not her…never her…"
Anika grabbed her by the shoulders but was pre-empted from speaking as Sakura continued to speak, softer and less agitated now, as guilt and despair sunk in. "And you know what's worse?" she whispered. "I'm actually grateful that I never had to go through what she did, and I'm the one standing in the end pure and beautiful in the end."
Anika's eyes widened with horror as Sakura laughed insanely, the Japanese girl's hands rising, shaking, as she looked down at them. "I…I am a monster…no better than Zouken…" she said. "…I'm…happy…grateful…overjoyed that it was sister and not me who got defiled…turned into a nest of parasites…me…I'm a monster…I'm just like she said I was…I stabbed her in the back…"
Anika narrowed her eyes and stepped back. "Forgive me." She said, and then she slapped Sakura across the face.
The Japanese girl tumbled to the ground in shock, looking up at her friend while clutching her cheek with one hand. "Anika…?" she asked, and then Anika knelt down, reaching into Sakura's own pocket and pulling out a handful of gems.
"Stop talking like that." The baroness said, rolling up her friend's sleeve and exposing the mass of bruises her limbs had become after being reinforced beyond what was safe. "That's not you at all!"
Her voice was soft, but there was steel beneath it. "Tell me Sakura…" Anika said. "…did you really want what happened to your sister? Did you plan it? Did you know about it beforehand?"
"No of course not, but I…!"
"But nothing…!" Anika interrupted, using the gems to heal Sakura's arms. "You told me once that you studied magecraft because you wanted to reach your sister's level. You wanted your father to smile at you like at her, for your sister to see you as an equal and not just someone to be protected…isn't that right Sakura?"
Sakura nodded, and Anika smiled at her before stroking her cheek. "There's nothing wrong with feeling and thinking that way." She said. "It's only to be expected for younger siblings to chase after the elder siblings. And it's only Human to be grateful at avoiding misfortune. And you...we...all of us, even your sister, are only Human."
The two girls sat silent, the blonde healing the brunette's injuries. At length the baroness spoke up again. "You're a very beautiful person Sakura." Anika said. "And you're not a monster. We've fought monsters in the past, and we've seen through their masks into the ugliness beneath."
Anika took Sakura's hand, and placed the spent gems in her palm and closing the hand over them. She then got to her feet, and patting herself clear she held out a hand. "It's not your fault." She said. "It never was, no matter what your sister says, and she's clearly let her resentment get the better of her."
Sakura just stared at Anika, who smiled at her. "Come on…" she said. "…instead of feeling sorry for yourself…or letting your sister's misguided anger drag you down…won't you focus on the real monster? The one who is truly at fault in all this…?"
"The one at fault…in all this…?" Sakura echoed.
Zouken Matou…
"Let's go Sakura." Anika gently urged. "Together we'll save your sister, and kill the monster just like we always do."
Sakura slowly took Anika's hand, the baroness pulling her to her feet. The two of them stared into each other's eyes, and Anika nodded. Sakura nodded back and looked at her sword, the steel blade reflecting her clear blue eyes. She blinked and for a moment the reflection changed to that of her father's.
It was only a moment, but it was enough to send a terrifying thought into her mind.
Father gave sister to the Matou. Did he know…? Would he really have sent sister or me to hell? And…just how far…just how perverse and demented is Zouken Matou? What has he done to my sister?
Sakura took hold of Starlight, and with some effort pulled it clear of the stump. She held it up, looking on as the sunlight faded and the sword reflected its namesake through the canopy. She turned and looked at Anika. "Thank you…" she said simply. "…for being here…and…but…I need to ask more of you."
"What do you need?"
"I need you to come with me." Sakura said with a resolute yet fearful voice, walking with Anika towards the edge of the forest. "We're going to see a man who might have the answers I want. After all, he's not just a surviving Master of the Fourth Holy Grail War he was also my father's apprentice. If there's anyone who knows the answers, it's him."
Anika narrowed her eyes. "Kirei Kotomine." She said, and Sakura nodded. It wasn't a question, it was a statement of fact.
"Yes."
A/N
Archer is Thor...GAR is immortal :D
Well, as many have wondered Rin's finally snapped, albeit out of unintentional provocation on Sakura's part. Sakura's defence gets no-selled by Rin (she might not be able to go Dark Rin without Imaginary Numbers but the part of her that is Irisviel is still tainted and while she can't use the Shadow she can subconsciously get the age of her taint - Angra Mainyu - to 'crush' opposing mysteries) and Shirou...well Shirou is Shirou. Still trying to be a hero...
Next chapter: the drama continues, as our heroes deal with the truth and plan for the future. Also, a Feast of Heroes will be coming…eventually.