CHAPTER 20:

THE TRUTH WILL OUT

Kirei Kotomine grimaced as the link with Lancer was severed. Such was the sheer shock of Lancer being attacked by Caster, he hadn't thought to use a Command Seal to get him to flee. He had been an unruly tool, but a useful one. It seemed that Kirei had erred in ordering him to attack the teacher.

And knowing Lancer, he was already divulging Kirei's identity, and what happened to Bazett.

So, how to deal with this situation? He considered his options, and he didn't like them at all. He could call upon Gilgamesh to try and deal with things, but Gilgamesh was mercurial, and tended to only obey orders when it suited him. He couldn't very well censure Harry, as Caster's Noble Phantasm was well within the rules. His father would have tutted in displeasure, but would have allowed it. Kirei found it stung, but that was more from a loss of control over a prized tool. He knew that Harry would be a major spanner in the works, but hadn't realised how much. Then again, considering what little Rin and Harry had spoken of Harry's past, it should have been considered. A child who managed to thwart an infamous magical terrorist had to have some capacity for being a fly in the ointment.

As if drawn by his thoughts, Gilgamesh appeared, drawling, "You seem troubled, Kirei. Has the director of this little farce lost control over his play?"

"Am I that obvious?"

"Having lived with you for long enough, yes," Gilgamesh said.

"Lancer has been stolen from me," Kirei said. "He has been stolen by the Caster belonging to the elder Tohsaka, using a Noble Phantasm."

Gilgamesh actually had the temerity to chuckle. "So that is why you look to be in a foul mood. You got deprived of the mutt whom you were using as a toy. Either you are slipping in your dotage, Kirei, or else the prodigal Tohsaka and his Servant are more dangerous than you thought. This Caster is at least more calculating than that bug-eyed madman with designs on Saber. Still, to steal a Servant from under your aegis, especially one you had already stolen yourself, is a dangerous ability for a Servant to have. Rather too dangerous for my liking. Especially as they may find out about your controlling Lancer."

"They doubtlessly have found out already," Kirei said. "Harry Tohsaka may be quixotic and impulsive, with a flux of the tongue, but he is not a fool. That was probably the first thing he asked Lancer. Assuming Lancer hasn't already volunteered it out of spite."

"Hmm. Well, Lancer did not know your true intentions, which is something. Losing the hound's assistance will make our goals harder to accomplish, but not impossible by any means. I think we would do well to ally ourselves with the decrepit old worm for the time being. As much as I despise that disgusting worm's very existence, he will want to break the Tohsakas, and thus break the Sakura girl. However, I am also certain that the von Einzbern doll they've sent this time is the Lesser Grail, so she's also a good alternate plan."

"Why not both?" Kirei mused. "We ally ourselves with Zouken Matou in order to break his adopted daughter…and also capture the von Einzbern girl. Between yourself and Assassin, Berserker should fall quickly."

Gilgamesh grinned. "I'm in a good mood, so I will accept this plan. But how will we communicate with Matou?"

"Knowing him, he has eyes and ears in the right places," Kirei said. "And in any case, he does actually have a telephone…"

Rin stared at Harry after he related what had happened. "You're kidding," Rin said flatly. "Kirei…was behind Lancer."

"If it makes you feel any better, though I don't think it will," Harry said, "he stole Cú Chulainn from his old Master. We'll need to find some way to find her."

"Look, I can help you with that," Cú Chulainn said, folding his arms. "That damned priest told me where she was, but used a Command Seal to prevent me from helping her. He ensured she would die slowly, so hopefully, she's still alive. She's in a dilapidated house near the church." He rattled off an address, and Medea pulled out a viewing crystal to check it.

"And there's another thing," Rin said, looking over at where Kuzuki was sitting in their lounge room, drinking tea. "Why haven't you wiped his memory and taken him back home?"

"Because I thought he might be useful. Without Reinforcement, he managed to last long enough against Cú Chulainn with his abilities," Harry said. "According to Archer, he's an ex-assassin."

"And how would this man know of my prior profession?" Kuzuki asked, his hard eyes looking over to the tanned Servant.

"It's a long story, one I doubt you would believe," Archer said.

"I have just learned that a number of my students can use magic, that I have fought, allegedly, a revived version of one of Ireland's best known folk heroes, and that there is a tournament being fought between magic users occurring right now. I doubt that you could anything less believable to the mix…save for perhaps Miss Fujimura being involved. Please tell me she is not a Magus or whatever you call yourselves. I am not sure I could handle the stress."

That last part was delivered in Kuzuki's trademark deadpan tone, so it took those present a moment to realise he was being facetious, or whatever passed for facetiousness in Kuzuki's agelastic(1) mind. "Let's just say I was once one of your students and leave it at that," Archer said.

"I've found her," Medea said. "There's a fairly basic Bounded Field concealing her, strong, but once you know what you're looking for, easy enough to break. She's in a bad way. Not dead, but she's a week away at most. I'll go fetch her now." She disappeared in a swirl of robes…and soon reappeared. The woman she had cradled in her arms was in her twenties, with a boyishly short mop of red hair, dressed in a rumpled, severe suit, not unlike the one Arturia wore. A crude tourniquet was around the stump of her arm. "Harry, I'll be healing her in my Workshop. If I'm lucky, I might be able to transfer the Command Seals to her remaining arm."

"I'll come with you, Caster," Cú Chulainn said. "I don't trust you to leave my Master alone with you."

"Technically, I am your Master…but your loyalty is touching." Medea left the room, Cú Chulainn in tow.

"This is a mess, and no mistake," Rin murmured, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Kirei still has Gilgamesh to call upon. Assassin is still an unknown quantity, and I don't know how open that von Einzbern brat is to a temporary alliance against Kirei. And he is meant to be the Church's impartial representative, and I'm not sure how we can gainsay him."

"What about bringing in Zelretch?" Harry asked.

"It might turn into a case of 'he said, she said'," Archer pointed out. "The Church and Clock Tower haven't been on the best of terms, and while the Tohsakas have a historical friendship with the Church, we can't rely on that having much weight. Keep in mind, Rin, in most countries, you're still not an adult. I'm not saying we should do nothing. Informing both Zelretch and Kirei's superiors is certainly the first step…but against a Servant, especially one like Gilgamesh, what can some Enforcers or Executors do? Only a powerful Dead Apostle or another Servant can fight a Servant."

"Dead Apostle?" Kuzuki asked.

"Vampire by another name. Long story short, the first vampires were originally aliens from the Moon seconded by the consciousness of the Earth as a sort of immune system against humanity," Harry said carelessly. "Yeah, it's insane-sounding, just roll with it. So, we call up Zelretch?"

Rin chewed her lip, before nodding. "I'll call the damned troll. You send a Patronus to Shirou and Saber. And send a Patronus to Sakura, too. We'll figure out what to do with Mr Kuzuki later."

Harry nodded, and sent the Patronus spells, and their messages. As he did so, Archer said, "What about Illya and Berserker?"

"I'll send another Patronus. Even if she doesn't believe us enough to team up against Kirei, she's at least been warned." Harry promptly did so, and then, his phone trilled. Shirou's number, he noted. He answered it. "Hello, Shirou?"

"No, it is I," Arturia said. "Harry, is what you said true? Is the Overseer truly in possession of Gilgamesh?"

"Lancer said that, but he also had attacked Lancer's Master and stole her Command Seals. I have Lancer under control, or at least Medea's," Harry said.

"Damnation…Harry, we will need to go all-out. I struggled to vanquish Gilgamesh in the previous Grail War. And Kirei Kotomine was the one Master Kiritsugu feared. I spoke to Irisviel about the martial arts he used during their battle. She and Maiya identified it as a form of Bajiquan. Even outnumbered, they may be too powerful."

"We're not charging in without a plan, Arturia. But we'll need to think of one soon. If Kirei was cruel enough to leave Lancer's Master to die the way he did, then he won't think twice of taking one of us hostage. And if Gilgamesh is as fixated on making you his bride as he was before…"

"I'd rather die," Arturia said coldly. "But…if Kirei Kotomine does come after one of us…who would he go after?"

There was only one answer. Harry and Rin were powerful, and they had strong Servants by their side, despite the Caster class having a low physical attack rating. Shirou had Arturia by his side. "Sakura…" he hissed. "Except…I don't think Zouken would allow it. Rin told me that Kirei and Zouken despise each other."

"The terms 'no' and 'I will not allow it' are not in Gilgamesh's lexicon, save for when he says them himself," Arturia said. "And there is the possibility that they may ally to spite you, for Zouken is as much your enemy as you are Kirei Kotomine's. Hatred of a mutual foe is a powerful unifying force."

"Sakura has a Portkey for in case things go sour," Harry said, remembering something. "If she feels she needs to escape, she can use the Portkey to flee to our place."

"Hmm. Even so, that doesn't mean she may be stopped before using it, Harry. Portkeys are either automatic, or else based on a passphrase, from what you told me earlier. Did the one you gave her have a means of automatically transporting her if she was in danger?"

"I don't think you can arrange one like that," Harry muttered. "But you're right, if it's taken from her…shit, she's in danger…"

Sakura should have felt elated that her Servant was back by her side, but she felt apprehension. She felt some sadness towards Shinji's death, though she felt relief more than anything else. She knew that Shinji hadn't always been so bad. Had it not been for Harry's attempts at reaching out to her, she would have blamed herself for his death on some level, blamed herself for Shinji forcing himself on her, defiling her, making her feel soiled used filthy…

She shuddered, trying to force herself to remember. She had value, worth…in the eyes of her brother, and of her boyfriend. They were trying to help her…and so was her sister. God, that term felt alien to her tongue after so long of being forced to pretend otherwise, even as they tried to reconcile. Sakura couldn't forget the distantly cordial relationship (at best) that they'd had since she was sold off to the Matous, painful compared to their warm relationship they had before. It was her father's fault for doing so…and some part of Sakura blamed her mother Aoi for not protesting enough, though Sakura also knew that, in temperament, she was very much her mother's child. Quiet, gentle, demure…and more than a little passive.

It was that selling to the Matous and the subsequent infestation of Crest Worms that first had Sakura thinking that she was unworthy of love, and later events only served to solidify this notion. But…Shirou and Harry provided the first true gleams of hope, that horribly seductive emotion that may never be fulfilled. That Harry had returned Rider to her had helped that, as was Caster's ritual to remove those…abominations from within her, or at least change them into something that she wouldn't be repulsed by.

And then, the Patronus had arrived, a silvery mist in the form of a stag, and had warned her about Kirei Kotomine's duplicity and his possession of two Servants, the Lancer, and the previous Grail War's Archer, Gilgamesh of Uruk. And she knew the time had come to make her escape.

But even as she reached into her pocket, ready to activate the Portkey, she heard a silky whisper in her ear. "You don't want to do that."

And then, against her will, she extracted her hand from her pocket. Medusa materialised, only for the man behind her to say, "Order her to obey me, and only me, with your Command Seal."

Sakura, unwillingly, obeyed. And Medusa was forced into compliance, though her glare, hidden by her blindfold but evident on her exposed features, was clearly focused on the man behind Sakura. "Assassin…" she hissed. "Are you here to kill my Master?"

"Nothing so pedestrian, Gorgon," the man sneered in his nasal, resonant voice. "My Master wants her alive. And as loath as I am to be at the beck and call of another decrepit old meddler…this one has at least appealed to my instincts for revenge." The man then spoke to Sakura. "Do you feel that, Sakura Matou? What's running through your veins? I once told your worthless brother that he could bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death…if he wasn't as big a dunderhead as what it is my misfortune to teach. What you feel running through your veins is not unlike the Imperius Curse…or rather, a form of Command Seal. A potion I slipped into your food and drink. Any order I give you, you must obey until I tell you otherwise. And it lasts as long as the potion is active. A strange thing, being a Heroic Spirit. Most potions back home would only last as long as the metabolism took to break them down or flush them out…but I could tie this one to my lifeforce. You are now an extension of my will, until you die. And so are you, Gorgon."

Sakura felt herself shoved into the arms of her Servant, and looked up, scared. The man was dressed in black robes, wearing an elaborate, skull-like mask, which he took off to reveal cold, merciless features. A rather prominent nose. Pitiless black eyes. Greasy lank hair. A perpetual sneer on his lips. "It seems that Zouken Matou and Kirei Kotomine have entered into an alliance. But we needed more of an advantage, hence our need to control you both. I will make you watch, Sakura Matou, as I destroy your boyfriend, your sister, and last of all, your brother. Oh, I won't kill him. But I will leave him impotent, unable to do anything but watch as you break, and I win. Maybe I will use the Cruciatus on you and make him watch. Hmm…I think we have plenty of time to figure that out. And Potter will rue the day that he ever believed he was free of Severus Snape…"

CHAPTER 20 ANNOTATIONS:

Oh dear. The endgame is fast approaching. It took a while to figure out what to do with Kirei and Gilgamesh's response. And the whole thing about Snape controlling Sakura and, by extension, Medusa, was only conceived of when I decided to have Snape stop their escape. It also makes the final confrontation more exciting: three Servants against the others instead of two, even if one of them is unwilling. Plus, it stops what a few of you are claiming, that Ruler will be summoned.

Review-answering time! Gabriel Herrol: Considering that Kuzuki was capable of keeping up with Arturia, albeit with help from Medea, in the Unlimited Blade Works route, it's not too big a stretch for him to hold off a Servant without help, as long as said Servant is unfamiliar with his fighting style.

merendinoemiliano: A coincidence to be sure, but a serendipitous one, so I'm glad you felt that way.

Delta8: Yes, he intends to basically make Lily into his lover, whether she wants to or not.

Ultimate-Zelda-Fan: I was actually thinking more along the lines of what happens to Dallas Genoard at the end of the first Baccano! novel. He's made immortal (or at least unable to die from anything but old age), and for what he did to the Gandor Mafia family and other people, he's given the concrete shoes treatment, so he ends up drowning and dying and reviving continuously. He ends up being saved three years later, and surprisingly, becomes better than he once was.

fanreader18: I used that in two different angles for my Fate/Zero crossovers Gorgon and Thanatos (a Potterverse crossover like this one), and Light the Blue Touch Paper and Run Like Hell (a Thor crossover). In the former, while Tokiomi still adopts Sakura out, he does so to Harry, and in the latest chapter (yet to be finished), he meets with Sakura, and, despite being not her father anymore, gives her a paternal pep talk, albeit one touched by Magi attitudes to family. In the latter, Tokiomi, to some degree, views her as a bargaining chip, and while he does care about her and is horrified about what happened to her within the Matou family, he views her being in Loki's custody as wounding his pride, and can't help but view things through the eye of a Magus. Kiritsugu (who is admittedly more antagonistic in that story) and Risei are both disgusted for similar reasons.

DalkonCledwin: As Snape was dead, the life debt doesn't come into play.

1. Agelastic means possession no sense of humour or ability to laugh. Isaac Newton was infamous for it, being said to laugh only once, when someone asked him what possible use the world could have for Euclid.