Dsclaimer I in no way own any of the franchise I am writing of. Fate/Stay Night is the property of Type-Moon.
The golden Archer stood above a mocking smirk upon his face as looked down at those below him. His wife and that pathetic mongrel of a faker who dared to tarnish his belongings.
The sheer audacity that a common street rat would not only dare to make a mockery of his treasures with his forgeries but to even sleep with his wife.
Who was he? Gilgamesh the King or Urek, the first hero, the King of heroes but did the urchins of the time even know or care of the greatness that walked among them, that their King now lived again to grace them with their presence. 'The fools of this time truly are undeserving of me' he thought with a mocking tone, 'Oh how far they have fallen' a glare sent to the red headed faker.
Who at this point was sprawled on the concrete, a gaping wound in his chest courtesy of the golden King.
Then with slow confident steps he approached, an easy smirk on his face as he grew ever closer to the beautiful blonde girl with sharp determined green eyes. "So Saber are you ready to become my wife?"
"Archer as I have told you I never will" she bit back in a frosty tone as she stood over the Shirou, ready to protect him from the oncoming threat one even greater than the horrifying Berserker they had faced earlier in the war.
"Is that so" the prideful man almost laughed, rather surprisingly at the obvious disrespect directed at him. "That will of yours is what always attracted me to you in the first place, that hopeless dream you ever chase. How much I've wanted to squash it and make you bend to my will." His voice growing heated as he went on and dozens of golden portals appeared behind him now shimmering in the air as weapons of legend now began emerge.
A sword.
Faster than he could react a sword flew at him, from within the single rippling portal the golden man had opened. As easy as crushing an ant no more attention was paid to him as the sword finished ripping through his body leaving a bloody gaping hole much like what Lancer once did.
The sword that struck him was beautiful, a golden sword ever so similar to the one which he just created in his fruitless attempt to combat the armoured man and stop him, but also different.
What he created in his foolishness was the sword of his dreams, the sword he used to cut down the black giant, the broken sword which was once upon a time pulled from the stone and selected the King. Though what cut him down was different his mind replaying the moment it struck at him, learning everything about it.
A golden blade much like Caliburn itself, and also the power the authority both blades shared in choosing the King. But it felt older, much more ancient then Caliburn perhaps its prototype, no even more so, an idea the prototype was based on. It was Merodach: The Original Sin the sword of which so many legends were based.
The seemingly endless time in which Shirou spent analysing the weapon which pierced through him was but an instant, with King of heroes now coming towards him and Saber.
'I have to get up' at the sight before him tried to urge his body to move, but failed to. The life fleeing from his body as Saber stayed ever close to protect him from the coming madmen.
With a rather morbid sense of humour he felt like he would have laughed had he been able to, 'This whole time I've been trying to protect you and stop you from fighting yet here you are facing the final enemy alone over my dying body, at least next time I will be of some help.' As the last of his life painted the road red his hazel eyes went blank while staying locked on the back oh his Saber.
The black void appeared without a single warning right below the severed bleeding stump of the ancient kings arm, rapidly growing in size it began to engulf the entirety of the panicked hero.
"Stop you damn cup! Don't you know you cannot use a fellow servant as a vessel!" He roared with a face stricken with panic.
But Shirou could tell just by looking at the blackness it had no conscious, driven by its base instincts to simply survive and be born into the world it searched for any container, and in his moment of weakness that was Gilgamesh.
The look on his face was truly human. Even though he was simply a copy of a spirit that existed within the Throne of Heroes he did not wish to die, so in a final attempt to escape his fate he once again open the Gate of Babylon.
A silver chain shot out faster then he was being consumed and bound the red headed boy around the wrist as the King tried to pull himself out. "Do not move you mongrel!" He commanded.
With what strength he had left Shirou tried to free himself from the Noble Phantasm that bound him but was unable to. Enkidu: Chains of Heaven the most trusted weapon of all the treasures held within the kings vault.
The weapon he knew that helped to claim the life of his sister.
With a single look of the bladed end it was forever stored within the confines of his soul. But with that the realisation, even though he himself possessed no divinity how could chains that could easily bind divine spirits be so easy for a mere mortal escape.
Out of prana he could no longer even trace another weapon to sever his arm. All that he could do was dig his feet into the ground as he began to slip and the golden haired hero slowly but surely pulled himself out of the warped space.
Shirou made his decision.
His thoughts drifted to familiar faces as as his feet left the ground, one with golden hair pulled into a bun and the other with black split into two pigtails. The people dear to him that must survive this war.
With no resistance the suction force instantly multiplied. The shocked and rageful face of Gilgamesh disappearing, abruptly cutting of his shout of 'Fool!' As the body of the sword magus was quickly dragged forward by his chain bound arm vanishing into the empty air.
All to the astonishment of a certain red archer who stood within the tree line a simple arrow knocked on his bow and ready to fire, though now without a target due to his foolhardy younger self.
She was beautiful. Even though her skin was now pale and red vein like markings ran over it. Even though her once regal blue dress was dyed a black so deep no light seemed to escape from its surface. Even though her blade,the crystallised hope and victory of humanity was tainted with the curse of all the world's evils. She was still beautiful.
"Saber," he croaked out his voice dry and rough with a metallic undertone as though the parts of his throat that moved in order to speak were made out of steel.
She was his Saber the knight he summoned yet lost so quickly in the war this time around. Although he came to understand the love he held toward Sakura, Saber still had a place within his heart ever since she appeared before him and said "Are you my master?"
No matter how many time he witnessed that scene in his shed as she stood above and looked down at him, with her lovely but stoic face it made his heart ping, even now as cold and hard it had become.
Yet now she lay on the cavern ground.
'I need to finish her' he thought, the cold numbness in his head ever present, simply knowing that with her connection with the grail it would only be a matter of time until she was fully healed and would be able to help Sakura fight off and kill Rin. But what was left of him that was not yet steel fought against the idea, hopelessly trying to think of any alternative.
Though it was fruitless endeavour.
The traced sword within his hand fell to the ground before dissolving into a blue mist of prana. The agonising pain brought forth from the arm he inherited from Archer made him collapse onto his knees in front of the downed servant, the holy shroud no longer able to contain the world of blades that infested his body, as if millions of tiny blades were racing through his body slashing his nerves to pieces.
His own soul was not even able to record any of the weapons the Counter Guardian had seen during his endless servitude, as Archers Reality Marble would overwhelm and destroy his own no matter how compatible they were due to being much more developed. Like trying to fill a balloon with too much water it can only burst.
Unknown to the boy the corrupted Saber had already recovered from her wounds, now standing and looking at his prone form. As though it was a perverted parody of their summoning that night, that seemed so long ago.
Excalibur Morgan at the ready, slightly raised in order to finish of the writhing ex master. Until the call came to finish of a pesky insect that could still put up a resistance, leaving the boy alone on the ground.
Gleaming shards of metal emerging through the tattered remains of his clothes, though unseen to the eye the same was happening within his body as he was turning into steel. Ripping to shreds the fleshy organs still inside of him as Avalon tried to heal him, but only created more weapons within his body.
To the point that he was not even human anymore. Although one could argue he wasn't one in the first place, and if he ever was that boy died that day many years ago during the fire.
So, all that was left upon the ground was the boy with a mind of steel with a new body to match. As he died.
Once again awakening he looked down at his hand, his heart still ran at a rapid pace following his latest death but in his eyes burned a fiery determination, as he glanced down to where he knew the vermillion command spells would soon engrave themselves.
"I will save them all"
"Senpai"...
So in case you didn't know this chapter was pretty much just a rewrite of dead ends from the visual novel, so that I can begin writing stuff that does move away from the actual plot but with Shirou having knowledge of all three of routes and having begun to learn about his unique magecraft. So please read, enjoy and review, and I just have to say I am a fan of OP characters though Shirou will not immediately become one.