The moonlight was marred by ragged wisps of cloud like pollutants dragged over the stars. Their wan light filtered down past the dirty yellow flickering of streetlamps that cast pools of safety against the hostile night. Rin felt out of place in the grungy dockside neighborhood. Derelict cars and piles of rubbish loomed out of the darkness like the half rotten husks of great beasts. The sharp scent of the ocean, normally so invigorating, was tainted by a dull miasma of old fish and rotting wood.

Rin could sense Berserker behind her without looking, his massive figure towering over her petite one like an oak next to a sapling. He was a difficult man to gauge since he said so little. Most talkative men were very easy to size up, but the less they said the more time it took to find out what was beneath the stony facades they presented. Rin's father was such a man. He spoke rarely but when he did you could be sure his words would be important. As the head of one of the most powerful magical families in the world he could decide the fate of a man with a single word. Rin got the impression that Berserker was the same way, strong and silent.

She was sure he was confused, without memories, cast into a fight that he was even less well equipped to face than she was. Yet she had never heard him complain or even question her. Even so his actions did not bear the feeling of simple blind obedience. She didn't know what it was, but she got the impression that Berserker considered himself her equal for all that he addressed her as Master. After a brief moment of introspection Rin decided that she liked it that way. Her life was full of servants, but battles should be conducted by equals.

As if in counterpoint to her thoughts Berserker spoke in his gravely bass.

"Master, we are here." He said.

Rin glanced up and realized he was right. They were at the warehouse that the fourth and most recent murder had occurred at. Rin paused before entering and mentally recounted everything that she and Shane had been able to gather from the various news and gossip sites that they had spent the day researching. All four victims had been young women but other than that had little in common. One was a habitual criminal with drug possession and prostitution charges against her, one was a house wife, one a minor executive, and this most recent victim a shop girl. Their ages, appearances, and body types had all been different. The police had no leads, and they hadn't released the details of the murders to the press.

Berserker pulled away the gaudy yellow police tape that criss crossed the doorway and tried the handle. It was locked but with a cautious glance around the street he stepped up and slammed his shoulder into it. Despite his sub par stats for a servant he was still very strong and the door sprang ajar with a splintering sound. He cautiously pushed the door wide and Rin peeked inside. She clicked on the flashlight she had brought and shone it through the opening, playing it over the empty entrance hall.

Just as she was about to step through the doorway a prickle shot up her spine and she whirled to face the street, the unmistakable feeling of watching eyes making her skin crawl. The street was as deserted as it had been a moment ago but the feeling didn't fade. Beside her Berserker tensed.

Despite her unease several minutes passed, the street remained empty and Rin could sense no presence beside her own and Berserkers with either her magical or natural senses. Her hackles still bristling she sniffed haughtily, partly to restore her own confidence, and stepped into the warehouse.

While it was hardly the decrepit abandoned structure so popular in children's mystery literature it was still wide open and completely empty. The vastness gave the impression an uncomfortably open space, slack and lifeless. With a gesture for Berserker to follow her Rin moved in, playing her flashlight over the walls as she made her way towards the center of the floor. There was a cordoned off area there bounded by police tape and traffic cones that Rin moved towards cautiously.

Inside she expected to see the neat chalk outline of a body, just like in daytime crime dramas. Instead she blanched as she saw a deeply spreading stain of crimson covering the floor. Evidently cleaning crews had soaked up as much blood as they could but the rubiate stain still marred the concrete, bearing silent witness to the atrocities that had been danced out on its surface. Of course there would be blood. She chided herself. It's no use getting squeamish now.

But the reality was still sobering. 48 hours ago there had been a living, breathing human being there gasping out their last tortured breaths on the ground where she now stood. Rin suppressed a shudder and stepped over the police tape.

Instead of the chalk outline that she expected there were a number of neat little evidence tags scattered over the surface. Rin's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Why tag where the victim's scattered possessions had fallen instead of marking the position of the body? She knew that they would photograph everything and then mark their locations with the tags, but why do that and ignore the body? She bent and picked up one of the tags. It said Left Foot.

Rin held it dumbly for a moment until it occurred to her what it meant. Then she dropped it as if she had been burned. They did mark the body. She realized grimly. With a growing sense of horror she read the other cards near her feet. Right Middle Finger. Intestines 2 of 9. Liver?. Right Ear.

She felt sick to her stomach, an icy sense of dread clawing its way up her spine. The murderer hadn't just killed the poor girl. He had mutilated her. Eviscerated her. Despoiled her body and scattered her remains about like a child playing with toys. Perhaps it was her growing sense of dread but Rin nearly jumped out of her skin when Berserker placed his massive hand on her shoulder.

"Master. We should go. Something isn't right." He said.

"One moment, I still have to check the magical disturbance."

Rin concentrated and reached out with her third eye, probing for magical phenomena in the area. Her brow furrowed. The irrational fear coursing through her was making it difficult to concentrate. She directed her magical scan towards the ring of police tape and the gruesome tableau displayed there. Within she detected…nothing. Not even the ambient strands of prana that drifted around the general atmosphere. The entire area was a magical dead zone.

"Well, that explains the disturbances on the map." Rin said, trying to keep her voice steady.

"The magical energy has been completely drained from this area. Probably a Servant trying to bank mana. But as for why anyone would do this…" Rin trailed off, gesturing vaguely towards the crimson stain in the center of the dark warehouse.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" A voice hissed into Rin's ear.

She shrieked and whirled around, her wide eyes frantically searching the darkness. Her heart raced, blood pounded in her ears. She saw nothing and for an instant she had the sickening feeling of being hopelessly, helplessly alone.

Then Berserker grabbed her by the shoulder and pushed her behind him, his grip restoring her to her senses. Frantically she played the beam of the flashlight over the abandoned warehouse searching for the source of the voice. A laugh that contained no mirth echoed from a distant corner of the massive space, a manic titter that spoke of pain and a sudden, horrifying end. Rin tried to keep her panicked fingers from shaking but the beam of light jittered like it was being run through a tumble dryer as she focused it on the source of the laugh. There was nobody there.

Then the dark laughter came again, this time from the opposite side of the room. Rin desperately tried to shine her light on it but was interrupted as once again the mocking laugh sounded again, this time from near the door they had entered from.

"How many of them are there?" Berserker grunted through clenched teeth, the laughter circling them like a crowd of insane jesters.

As if in answer a pillar of shadow shot up from the floor not inches from Rin's feet. She fell and scrambled backwards, the fear that gripped her amplifying to maddening heights. The great pillar of darkness resolved itself into the figure of a man and Rin slowly played her light up his body.

He was tall and impossibly thin. There was something about his proportions that set the mind ill at ease. His arms came down just a bit too far, his elbows struck a disconcerting angle. He looked like a spider or a scarecrow, too thin to stand without collapsing under his own weight. His fingers were long and pale, twisting and grasping each other with nervous intensity. His clothing was an impeccable business suit distinguishable only from the gloom by being blacker than the surrounding darkness. He wore a high collar and an antique style cravat. When her eyes reached his face Rin fought not to avert her gaze. His mouth was too wide for his head, stretched into a crooked toothed cheshire grin like a corpse's rictus. His hair did not cover his eyes, nor did the darkness obscure them, but when Rin thought back on the incident she could not remember them at all. Perhaps the portion of her subconscious relegated to maintaining her sanity simply blocked out the memory.

Her vision was obscured as Berserker seized by her collar and dragged her behind him once again. He lunged forwards, arms wide to snare the dark figure but it darted backwards, ducking under Berserker's outstretched arms. There was a flash of steel and a long, shallow cut appeared over the scar tissue that gnarled on his forearm. Once again the maddening laughter began echoing from around the room, never originating in one place twice.

The last rational piece of Rin's mind cast about for a retreat and settled on a course of action.

If I've seen him do it... She though. She quickly flickered her eyes and reached into that odd space that she did not yet understand, pulling up the Master's vision granted her by the Grail. She saw Berserker's page, his E rank stats, his glitched class ability list. Quickly she flicked here eyes to the left, desperately searching for something that would save them from the predicament they were in.

CLASS: Assassin

TRUE NAME: ?

MASTER: ?

WEAPON: The Knife

NOBLE PHANTASM: ?

CLASS ABILITIES:

Terror: Enemies within Assassin's vicinity are filled with supernatural fear.

Presence Concealment C: The Assassin is not detectable as a Heroic Spirit and gives off no magical aura.

Presence Concealment A: The Assassin is completely invisible to all detection and in essence phases out of "reality". Of Note: This ability can only be activated while Assassin stands within the shadows.

Shadow Walk: The Assassin steps from one shadow to another like a doorway.

STRENGTH: E

ENDURANCE: D

AGILITH: A+

MAGIC: D

LUCK: B

NOBLE PHANTASM: D

"Aaaargh!"

Rin was snapped back to reality as Berserker cried out. She dropped the magical statistic sheet that she was viewing just in time to see Assassin hove out of the darkness like a great bat, ram a knife into Berserker's back, and then vanish once more with a cackle. Altho the terror had no less of a hold on her somehow knowing that it was supernatural in origin and not her own weakness helped Rin regain her faculties. All at once Assassin's fighting style became clear. Assassin's stats were nearly as bad as Berserker's. He would almost certainly lose a direct confrontation with any servant except one as weak as her own. He was far weaker than any regular servant, almost entirely reliant on stealth and darkness. But within that darkness he became an indestructible, untargetable angel of death; capable of striking at will and retreating without fear of reprisal as his terror aura did its work on his victims.

There's no way to beat him in the shadows. Rin thought. Then a single possible avenue of escape presented itself to her.

"Berserker! We have to get outside!" She cried, scrambling to her feet and dashing towards the yellow pool of lamp light still visible through the gap in the door. She had not made three strides before the great spidery form of Assassin burst from the floor in front of her. She bounced off him and fell back, cringing as the terror once again flooded her mind.

"My, my, my." Assassin said. He twirled a slim blade through his fingers, weaving it in hypnotic, glinting patters.

"Leaving so soon? Now we can't have that, can we!" He grunted, lunging. Rin screamed. Berserker bellowed "NO!" He tore the knife from his shoulder and sprinted towards them, throwing himself into a headlong dive. Assassin's stroke, aimed directly at Rin's heart, veered off course as Berserker slammed into him. Rin cried out as the blade pierced her leg, clamping her hand over the wound as pain shot through her.

Assassin hissed in displeasure and once again vanished into the darkness. Berserker quickly pulled the knife from Rin's leg and let it clatter to the floor.

"Can you stand?" He asked urgently.

"I...I don't think so." Rin gasped through the pain. Immediately Berserker bent to lift her but as he did she caught the flash of silver as Assassin struck again. Berserker cried out and fell to his hands and knees over her, the blow had laid open his back from shoulder blade to waist. Assassin could easily have finished them both. He was toying with them. Berserker pushed himself back to his knees, glaring into the darkness as Assassin's taunting voice circled them.

"Now, now, children. Where are your manners? It's impolite to leave when your gracious host is having such fun. Altho I fear my fun must come at your expense."

Rin gritted her teeth and tried to sit up. The mind altering terror of Assassin's fear aura mingled with despair and bitter disappointment. Not at dying, but at losing. Stupid, stupid. It was a trap and we walked right into it. If I had any servant but Berserker... She though bitterly. She immediately regretted the thought. It wasn't Berserker's fault. He was as much a victim as her. Even more so, summoned into a fight he wasn't prepared for without memory or motivation.

"But, alas, as fun as it has been I'm afraid our little evening is drawing to an end. Please bear in mind that I bear neither of you any ill...what the hell?"

The loading bay doors behind Assassin exploded inwards in a shower of wood and metal and a roaring, snarling beast pushed its head through. Its eyes cast a beam of brilliant light that bisected Assassin. For an instant Rin hoped that he would simply vanish in a puff of smoke but instead he dove out of the beam, screaming in rage and frustration. The beast squealed into the warehouse and ground to a halt in front of Rin and Berserker. She realized that it was the Bentley, that its high beam headlights had saved them from Assassin, and that Shane sat behind the wheel.

"Get her inside, quick!" He bellowed, and she felt Berserker lift her. He pushed her into the passenger seat and then dove into the back seat himself. Shane did something with the gear shifter and the car roared once again, the rear wheels creating an acrid cloud of smoke and burning rubber as he peeled into a tight circle that sent them crashing back out onto the street.

"What...how..." Rin mumbled, glancing back at the quickly shrinking warehouse like a nightmare being wiped from her eyes.

"Maybe I'm a super hero." Shane replied to her unanswered questions, one of his trademark grins lighting his face.

Then Rin passed out.