Rin shot sidelong glances at Shirou as they drove, the calming early morning sunlight serving as a counterpoint to the turmoil that she was feeling. All of her goals, all of her perceptions had shifted. How would what she knew of Shirou alter her goals to use the Omega Weapon to win the Grail war? Could she simply ask him for it? Was it something that he would give her? Was it something that he could give her?
And that was assuming that her hunch was right, that he truly was the subject that Emiya had rescued from the laboratory. It made so much sense but what proof did she really have? He was so cheerful, so confident. Was that all a façade that he put up to cover the atrocities he'd endured?
And what of Kotomine? His actions as the head of the project had been monstrous. But the sin wasn't his alone. Rin forced the bitter taste of betrayal and guilt down her throat at the thought that her family had been privy to such evil. Had her father known of this? Had he lied to her every time he spoke of honor, and duty, and their place at the head of the Tohsaka family? Or was Omega something that didn't come about until after his death? Rin had to believe that this was something her father never would have allowed.
And then there was the Grail War itself. All the pieces were on the table. All the Servants were in the open. The time for deft maneuvering was over, the time for the war to being in earnest had come. But was that what Rin wanted? Did she view the Omega Weapon as a way to win the war or did she view the war as an inconvenience to her investigation of Omega?
Rin knew that she was going to have to make some tough decisions in the coming days. Her thoughts were interrupted as Shirou pulled to a stop in front of a dilapidated looking apartment complex in a rundown section of the city just outside the downtown metropolitan area. The broken windows and loose sidings said that the building was abandoned, the wild front lawn and the droopy trees said it had been that way for a long while.
Shirou jumped out of the car with all of his customary excitement and gesticulated wildly as he lead Rin and Berserker towards the building. He opened up the waist high chain link fence that surrounded the property and did an ungainly half step, half hop through the opening. Rin raised an eyebrow but the reason for his odd maneuver became apparent when she drew up to the gate. A strand of piano wire had been drawn taut across the opening at knee height as a trip wire.
Shirou continued his strange dance as he crossed the lawn, now ducking, now raising his knees nearly to his chest as he stepped over some invisible barrier, now skirting around something that Rin couldn't yet see.
"Watch your step." He cautioned.
His warning was well justified. As Rin made her way forward she noticed hundreds of easily missable wires slanting through the air at odd angles. They criss crossed the lawn, stretched tight between the trees, the fence, and the building. Their arrangement was chaotic and random, from chest height to only a couple of inches off the ground. Some were even and some were angled between a high point and a low. The overall effect was a steel web of barely visible wires criss crossing the property like a hopelessly tangled spider web.
"This is...erm, what's the point of all this, exactly?" Rin asked as she slowly picked her way across the booby trapped lawn.
"It's for Lancer!" Shirou replied brightly.
"She's got super speed, right? So I figure we don't have much chance against her in open terrain. I figure me and Berserker can spend the rest of the day memorizing where all the wires are. Then when it comes down to a tussle we lure her in here. She'll be pretty much shut down and we'll be able to move as we please."
Rin was a bit surprised. Maybe it was his blatant disregard for his own personal safety but Rin's impression of Shirou had always been that he was earnest, dedicated, and well meaning but not terribly bright. It was actually endearing, the way he tried so hard at everything and let the consequences to himself be damned. But the wire trap and his light car contraption showed that he was more clever than he let on. Perhaps much more clever.
"Good thinking, but how are supposed to get Lancer to...wah!" Rin let out a small shout of alarm as her leg caught on one of the trip wires that she hadn't noticed.
Her arms windmilled as she tried to right herself but she had taken too big a step and was toppling forward when Shirou caught her. He moved surprisingly fast, supporting her in his arms and pulling her upright.
"You okay?" He asked, his eyes moving back and forth between hers searchingly.
Rin's fingers tightened on his biceps. It was such a small thing but she was suddenly at a loss for words. Behind her Berserker cleared his throat and Rin pulled away from Shirou a little too quickly.
"Oh, I'm fine!" She said brightly, waving her hands in an oddly self conscious gesture.
Her shin smarted where it had hit the wire. If she hadn't been wearing the stockings that Shirou liked it probably would have cut her.
Shirou looked a little embarrassed himself and continued the conversation as if nothing had happened to ease the tension.
"How're we gonna get Lancer here? You went back to that restaurant to get Magnus's number, right? I figured it'd be as easy as callin' him up and challenging him to a duel. Then we banish Lancer back to Hero-Ville dimension and he's out of the war." He said.
"That probably wont work, but it's a good start. Magnus is smart enough to expect a trap if we just call him here. But we can find out where he's staying, hopefully with a little surveillance we'll be able to find a way to lure him here. The first thing we should do is..." Rin said but was interrupted by the generic tweeting of a cellular telephone.
She and Shirou both looked at each other expectantly. He jumped as the phone rang again and dug a hand into his pocket.
"Whoops! Looks like it's me. Forgot I had the darn thing. Hello?" He said, flicking open the cheap pre-paid phone and lifting it up to his ear.
His face sobered after a few brief words from the other side of the line.
"Don't do anything stupid, I'll be right there. Lobo! Don't do anything stupid, d'you hear...crud." He said and clicked the phone shut as the line went dead.
"That was El Lobo, er, Carlos the Wolf. That burial agent that bailed us out a couple days ago. We've got a situation." He said tersely.
He grabbed Rin's hand and quickly guided her out of the wire trap, Berserker tight on their heels. Ten minutes and one tense car ride later they stood at the steps of an office building in the city center just outside of city hall. Shirou rushed up the fire escape to the roof with Rin and Berserker in tow. He froze as soon as he made the roof, slowly raising his hands over his head.
Carlos the Wolf knelt at the far corner of the roof, his massive silver revolver pointed at Shirou's chest. He re-holstered it when he saw who it was and Shirou dropped his hands. Carlos was crouched about six feet back from the side of the roof, the distance between himself and the ledge made up with a massive military grade anti materiel sniper rifle that rested on a bipod. It was longer than Rin was tall, with a thick barrel and a bulky scope that had been treated with anti-glare finish so that it wouldn't glint and give away the shooter's position. There was a case next to the rifle presumably for the storage of the weapon and Rin could see several loose shells. Each was nearly the size of her forearm.
Carlos snorted and turned his attention back to looking through the scope at the white facade of the city hall building, which was across the square from the building they were on.
"I see you brought your girlfriend and her pet freak. You always did have shit taste in companions, Samuel." He said derisively.
"I am not his..." Rin began, incensed, but Shirou cut her off.
"Good to see you've still got your sunny disposition, Lobo. Why did you call me?" Shirou said, the tension in his voice giving Rin pause. He obviously considered Carlos to be the most dangerous person on the roof.
"I've got eyes on one of the Masters. He came here about an hour ago, tripped one of the flags I set up in the city archives. He's searching for something. Subterranean building codes. Power draw. I figured maybe you could shed some light on the issue." Carlos said.
Rin drew in a sharp breath. She knew what they were searching for, the underground lab complex that housed Project Omega. But since she hadn't had a chance to discuss her findings from the security file with Shirou he wouldn't know that.
"No earthly idea." He said frankly, crouching near the edge of the roof to get a good look at the city hall building. It had a large central clock tower flanked by oval domes on the corners. Quite a beautiful building.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, Rin debating whether or not to fill them in. She decided against it. She didn't trust Carlos, even though he had saved her life from Lancer and Magnus, and she could always tell Shirou later. Thinking back on the incident something occurred to her.
"Why guns? Burial agents hunt the forces of the supernatural, right? Surely an enchanted blade would be a more effective weapon." She said, kneeling on the roof next to Shirou.
Carlos snorted again.
"This isn't just a gun. Look closer, girl." He said.
Rin frowned but focused her magical sight on the weapon. It was perfectly ordinary. No...that wasn't quite right. The body of the rifle was distinctly non-magical. But when she directed her probe at the magazine or any of the stray shells lying around they didn't scan as mundane. They simply didn't scan at all. There was a small aura around each bullet that her magical senses couldn't penetrate. Her eyes widened slightly.
"Anti-magic ammunition?" She asked.
"Bingo. They'll punch through barrier spells like they aren't even there, dispel magical healing, even banish incorporeal creatures. And anything that is corporeal, well, I don't care how magical you are. If you've got a fifty caliber hole punched in your brain pan you aren't going anywhere. Or at least you'll hold still for a proper exorcism. There isn't a single motherfu-" Carlos began but was interrupted.
Shirou punched him.
Not hard, but a quick jab that was enough to snap Carlos' head back. He and Rin both stared at Shirou in surprise. Rin half expected Carlos to start shooting at them.
"Don't cuss. There's a lady here." Shirou said matter of factly.
The tension stretched for a moment and then broke when Carlos let out a rumbling chuckle. He re-shouldered the rifle and focused on the entrance to the city hall once more.
"Heh, I'd forgotten what a boyscout you are." He said, letting the matter drop.
For her part Rin was glad that all attention was on the building and off the thousand watt blush rising in her cheeks. Her embarrassment was short lived when Carlos pricked up.
"There they are." He said, looking down into the square through the scope of the massive sniper rifle.
Shirou quickly rummaged around in the case and found a pair of binoculars. He examined Carlos's target briefly before handing them off to Rin.
"Rin, do you recognize 'em?" He asked.
She did. The shorter had curly black hair and dark stubble. The taller had flowing blonde hair and a golden beard.
"We need to get out of here. Now." She said urgently. If it was anyone else they might stand a chance. But against…
"It's Saber. He can take out half a block with a flick of his wrist. There's no way we can face him without some kind of plan." She said.
Shirou and Berserker looked concerned but Carlos remained unphased. The only reaction he showed was a soft stretching sound as his leather gloved hand tightened on the grip of his rifle.
"He won't get a chance to make that swing." He said grimly.
Shirou didn't sound as confident.
"Are you sure? Will those bullets of yours dispel a Servant?" Shirou asked.
"I'm not aiming at the Servant." Carlos replied grimly.
Shirou gave him a sharp look.
"No. Dispelling Servants is one thing, but we aren't going to kill anybody."
"Do you know who that is? Kirill Roschenko. He's a mage assassin. He's got a file at the Vatican as long as my arm. Murder, dark summoning and worse. He's a shithead in the service of shitheads." Carlos sneered.
"Never the less, we aren't gonna kill him." Shirou said sternly.
Carlos fixed him with a level glare and then raised his rifle.
"You're still too naïve, and it's going to get you killed." He said with a tone of deadly finality.
Before Rin could intervene Carlos brought the rifle to bear, zoned down the scope, and squeezed on the trigger. At that same instant Shirou lunged towards him, not fast enough to stop him from firing but fast enough to knock the barrel away. The gunshot sent a shockwave of dust blowing away from the end of the barrel, its crack resounding around the square as loud as a thunderbolt. Rin clapped her hands to her ears too late and the gunshot left them ringing.
Carlos seized Shirou by the collar furiously and shook him like a rag doll, bellowing obscenities that Rin couldn't hear into his face. For a sickening instant she was afraid that he was going to be thrown off of the roof but Carlos dropped him in a heap and dove for the large case that she had assumed was for the sniper rifle. He opened it to reveal a large caliber heavy machine gun with a massive box magazine. It was the sort of thing meant to be operated by a two man team from an entrenched position. Carlos simply hoisted it one handed and sprinted to the corner of the roof where he had a rappelling rig secured to a carabiner.
As he fast-roped to the ground Rin felt Shirou's hand on her shoulder. Her hearing was slowly returning as the ringing in her ears faded. Shirou pushed her into Berserker's arms and then made a run for the rope.
"Get her out of here!" He called to Berserker over his shoulder.
Rin's face flushed again, this time with rage.
"Oh no you don't!" She yelled at his back.
Without thinking she reached out and breathed a chant, conjuring a shimmering wall of force to block Shirou's path. He couldn't stop in time and bounced off it ineffectually. Rin stalked up to him, grabbed him by the collar as Carlos had done just moments before, and dragged his faced down to within inches of hers. Luckily she was too furious to get agitated by the proximity.
"I am sick of you treating me like a child. I am a fully capable mage, I can take care of myself, and you are not going to leave me behind again. Furthermore if you go down there you are going to be killed. That's Saber. He could obliterate this entire square with a single swing. We all need to get out of here, now, and you are coming with me!" She growled.
It was Shirou's turn to blush and stammer but Rin didn't let up. She dragged him by his collar towards the fire escape at the back of the building. There was a spatter of gunfire from below Shirou tugged himself free from her grasp. He quickly moved to the edge of the building and Rin followed, exasperated.
Below in the square Kirill and Saber had taken cover behind a parked car. Carlos was slowly circling around to where he would be able to get a shot at them, occasionally sending a burst of fire spattering against the hood of the car to force their heads down. The few tourists and business men had long since fled the scene leaving the square largely deserted. Magic and servant duals were esoteric enough that the attracted the curious and the stupid. Everyone knew to run away from the sound of gunfire.
It was only a matter of time before Carlos got into position to finish off the duo ducked behind the car but Rin couldn't imagine that Kirill would just wait for him to come in range and kill them. With a quick glance through her third eye Rin could sense a spell building in the Russian mage. He was no doubt preparing to blast Carlos with eldritch sorceries. He was too far away to counter what he was doing but without thinking Rin threw her hands up. A spike of power shot through her just as a similar spike erupted from Kirill. Rin conjured up a wall of force between him and Carlos to protect the burial agent from whatever spell Kirill was conjuring at the same instant that he unleashed it.
She cursed as she saw what spell Kirill had cast. It wasn't a fireball or bolt of energy, it was a simple fail-weapons spell targeted at the gun. For a moment Rin hoped that Carlos's special anti-magic ammunition would prevent the spell from working but the gun itself was perfectly mundane, only the bullets were enchanted. There was a sudden silence as the clatter of Carlos's weapon fell silent.
Even as Carlos struggled to clear his suddenly jammed gun Saber vaulted over the hood of the car and sprinted towards him. Carlos let the useless weapon drop to his feet and readied himself to meet Saber's charge with a combat knife that he pulled from a hidden sheath in his boot. For all his fearlessness there wasn't anything his short blade could do against the legendary Saber. The battle was over in a single stroke.
Shirou averted his eyes from the killing blow bitterly but Rin knew they had bigger problems. Her ill advised shield spell had given away their position even more effectively than the gunshot had. Even now she could see Kirill directing Saber towards them.
"We need to get out of here. Now." She said.
Berserker shook his head.
"If we run he'll just nuke the building. No, there's only one way we're getting out of this. Or, rather, there's only one way the two of you are getting out of this." He said.
He gave Shirou a long, significant look. Shirou nodded solemnly. They reached out briefly and clasped hands.
"No. No! You can't!" Rin protested, tears stinging at her eyes. But it was too late. As if on a signal Shirou swept her off her feet and threw her over his shoulder, sprinting towards the fire escape. At the same time Berserker sprinted in the opposite direction, grabbing the rope and sliding down to street level.
Rin's struggles proved fruitless but she reflexively reached out and sent a tendril of force to wrap around Shirou's feet. They both went sprawling but Rin scrambled to her feet and dashed past Shirou before he could grab her again. She stood on the edge of the roof watching as the scene below her unfolded. She heard Shirou approach behind her but he made no more moves to carry her off. He seemed to accept that she was determined to stay here, in the blast radius of Saber's phantasm. Neither spoke.
Below them Berserker drew to a halt in front of Saber. Berserker stood straight backed and unarmed, facing down his death with a calm dignity that shamed the torrent of hopelessness that Rin felt welling inside her.
"Destroy them!" Kirill commanded. He had ceased his cowering behind the bullet hole riddled car and was now standing atop it triumphantly.
Saber hesitated. His grip tightened on his massive sword.
"Master, he's unarmed. There is no honor in…" He began but Kirill cut him off sharply.
"Annihilate them!"
"...As you wish, Master."
Saber's jaw clenched but he raised his arm. In his hand Gram began to glow, a soft blue light enveloped the blade, its edged outlined with purest white. Time seemed to slow as Berserker dashed forward. His only chance was to tackle Saber, to engage him before he could deploy his phantasm. But the distance was too great. Berserker had yards to go, all Saber had to do was bring his arm down in a swift and decisive stroke. From her rooftop vantage point Rin felt like the helplessness of the situation would drown her. There was nothing she could do.
Except...
There was just one thing. She didn't see how it would help in this situation at all but there was one small advantage that she could confer on her Servant.
"Berserker! Activate your Mad Enhancement!" She cried. It was a slim chance, next to none, but Rin had no other options.
Berserker froze. Rin gasped softly as a lance of pain shot through her arm, one of her precious command seals vanishing. Saber frowned, glanced up at the rooftop, and then brought his sword down in a violent arc.
"Take a deep breath." Rin said, grabbing into Shirou.
And then her world exploded.
Her nerves burned as she pulled all available prana from her reserves and from the gems she was carrying, funneling it all into a shield around them. Instead of a regular hollow bubble of force she encased herself and Shirou in a solid sphere of mana as dense as she could make it. The solid force pressed them together but even as it blacked out her vision and covered her mouth she could feel the nuclear fire of the explosion tearing through the outer layers.
There's no way. She thought. No way to block an explosion of this magnitude.
She felt the shield failing, the heat encroaching in on them. Layer by layer her defenses peeled away as the hungry fire devoured them, seeking their tender flesh. Even in the cushioning bubble of the shield she was conscious of tumbling end over end. She buried her face in Shrou's chest as she waited for the end.
The shield lasted for three heartbeats and consumed every scrap of prana Rin had available. However much it was it must have been enough, because four heartbeats later she was still alive. She cautiously opened her eyes.
She was laying atop Shirou in the rubble that had seconds ago been a building. Here and there a fire burned, behind them a water main had burst and was geysering upwards. Everything in the square in front of Saber had been obliterated in a neat angular scar.
And there, standing in front of Saber, his chest heaving, every scrap of clothing burned away by the inferno, stood Berserker. Rin could do nothing but stare dumbly. Between the shock and the exhaustion of expending all of her prana in a single spell she was barely conscious. It was impossible. Impossible. Nobody could survive that.
Rin gasped. Suddenly she felt a pressure on her magical senses as if even more power were being drawn through her.
What's happening? How could Berserker have survived that blow? She wondered dumbly, her suddenly exhausted brain trying to make sense of the situation. With a supreme effort of will she summoned Berserker's data sheet. She looked at his stats, at his skills.
STRENGTH: D
ENDURANCE: D
AGILITY: D
MAGIC: D
LUCK: D
CLASS ABILITIES: Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad….
She felt the change again and before her eyes Berserker's stats shifted.
STRENGTH: C
ENDURANCE: C
AGILITY: C
MAGIC: C
LUCK: C
CLASS ABILITIES: Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad….
And again. And again.
STRENGTH: A
ENDURANCE: A
AGILITY: A
MAGIC: A
LUCK: A
CLASS ABILITIES: Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad….
The pulse continued like a mad drummer beating at Rin's soul. She felt like a chip of wood caught in a tidal flood as energy poured through her in a torrent. She swooned and Shirou caught her in strong arms.
STRENGTH: EX+
ENDURANCE: EX+
AGILITY: EX+
MAGIC: EX+
LUCK: EX+
CLASS ABILITIES: Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad Enhancement Mad….
Rin felt like she was watching something happening in a dream, or perhaps a nightmare. Berserker looked calm and still on the surface but his breathing was labored. His muscles bulged and grew, stretching his skin into the grotesque hyper-masculine caricature that he had been when she had first summoned him. He vibrated with insane, inhuman rage. His face was a mask of unholy, bestial fury. Nothing could be seen in his countenance of the gentle and quiet man that Rin had come to know. She reached out tentatively through the link that they shared and recoiled. His mind was a seething turmoil of agony, cruelty, the desire to hurt, to rend, to kill.
Saber's nuclear attack hadn't even scratched him.
Even from behind him Saber's attack had bowled Kirill over. Instead of rising he stared in horror at Berserker's face. He scrambled backwards, desperately trying to claw his way through the car that he found his back against.
"Kill it kill it kill it!" He shrieked, panicked.
Saber retained his cool, appraising his suddenly enhanced enemy with nothing more than a raised eyebrow. He lifted his sword again, preparing for a second attack. Rin didn't see what Berserker did. His movements were too fast to follow with her eyes. But the next instant he had dashed and seized Saber by the throat with one hand and the wrist with the other to stop his swing. He snarled like a beast. The two stood chest to chest, muscles straining. Saber fought to free himself but against Berserker he may as well have been a child. His free hand balled into a fist and rammed again and again into Berserker's side with all the strength that he could muster. It was like he was slamming his fist against a brick wall.
A look of panic shot through his face. Berserker's knuckles cracked, his sinews strained. He pulled his right hand farther and farther away from his left. Rin's mouth gaped in horror and Shirou clapped a hand over her eyes to shield her from the sight. There was a sickeningly wet, meaty tearing sound and the soft thump of two equally sized bits being discarded. She shrank down farther into Shirou's arms as she heard Berserker pounce on Kirill. There was a sharp shriek and a series of wet packing sounds like someone slapping a raw steak onto a hard counter, then silence.
Shirou tremblingly lowered his hand and Rin averted her eyes from the gruesome scene. Berserker stood with his back to them. Blood dripped down his forearms. Shirou cautiously got to his feet and moved between Rin and Berserker.
"H-hey buddy. You...you alright?" He asked uncertainly, moving forward to put a hand on Berserker's shoulder. It didn't occur to Rin to stop him until it was too late.
With animalistic swiftness Berserker whirled on Shirou. He dealt him a backhanded blow that lifted him off his feet and sent him crashing into a nearby car hard enough to shatter the windshield. A familiar burst of power surged from Shirou as he fortified his body against the blow but even with his powers Rin could hear his bones crack. In a flash Berserker was on him, bellowing with incoherent rage and raining down blows powerful enough to splinter the concrete beneath them. Shirou pulsed, more power than Rin had ever seen him output, but he still wasn't even a fraction of a match for Berserker.
Each blow staggered him to his core. It was only a matter of time until Berserker finished him. Still dazed Rin finally managed to find her voice.
"Stop...don't...no...NO! GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Rin yelled, her voice starting small and rising to a panicked shriek. She gasped once again as a second searing lance of agony burned through her arm. A second command seal in as may minutes gone.
The effect on Berserker was instant. His fist stopped its downward swing and Shirou, propped up against the car, slumped forwards in unconsciousness. Berserker recoiled backwards, the magic of the contract propelling him away from Shirou. He backpedaled, clutching at his head. As Rin watched as his bulging muscles faded, shrank, and disappeared. The expression on his face shifted from rage to horror as he saw the blood that coated his hands and chest, the nightmarish scene of carnage that he had caused. His eyes widened in shock and then narrowed in despair.
"Oh god, Rin..." He moaned.
"I...I remember! I remember everything! You...me...that place..." He seemed lost. Dazed. Perhaps unable to comprehend what he had done. Suddenly his expression shifted to one of realization, of grim hope.
"I'm here...now...that means it's not too late!" He lunged forwards once again but was forced back by Rin's command seal, clutching at his head.
"Shirou...it's Shirou! You have to kill Shirou!" He said urgently, his voice nearly pleading as the magic forced him back, and back, until he was running. He disappeared into the rubble and Rin stared dumbly after him.
What had he meant? Nothing he said made sense. Nothing in the world made sense to Rin right now. Weakly she crawled to where Shirou had fallen. He was bruised and broken, many of his bones shattered, his face swollen almost beyond recognition. Rin tenderly cradled his head as she wept, her tears falling onto his face. What could have happened?
Desperate for clues she once again looked at Berserker's sheet. His stats were all E rank, his Mad Enhancement power inactive. But to Rin's shock a new entry had appeared revealing Berserker's noble phantasm. Unfortunately it made even less sense than the rest of his sheet. She didn't think it could possibly be accurate.
NOBLE PHANTASM: Armageddon
TYPE: Anti World
DESCRIPTION: Destroys target.