Shirou dropped his weapons and raced over to Sakura.
"Cast a healing spell on her!" Rin demanded of Caster.
"I used up my prana reserves, and Sakura's prana is drained to zero - that's why she collapsed. I can't do anything." She became incorporeal to reduce the strain on Sakura, as the drain from the Servant began to eat away at her life force.
Shirou lay Sakura out flat on her back and began rescue breathing, followed by chest compressions.
"I have plenty of prana," began Rin. But it had to be attuned to Sakura, otherwise it would do no good. She looked around frantically for any reservoirs of Sakura's prana that might have been stored in the basement. It was her workspace, after all. But there was nothing that she could see - just a table and a pair of heavy wood chairs, as well as a couple of mostly empty book shelves
It was then that her eye caught on the directional spell that Sakura had cast. More specifically, on the drop of her blood, infused with her prana, resting in the oil. Muttering an aria, Rin pulled out a small gem and held it over the cup. The gem shattered into a fine dust and fell into the cup, mixing with the blood and oil.
Rin scooped out the mixture and kneaded the honey-like liquid inside as she continued her aria. the liquid thickened into a warm paste. She then rubbed the mixture onto Sakuras' arms. The prana infused blood and the spell would attune the power in the gem to Sakura. In theory. Rin knew that at best, the procedure would be horribly inefficient, and that her sister would just get a few drops of power.
She watched as Shirou continued to perform CPR.
Sakura took a gasping breath.
Shirou sat back on his heels and watched as she began to breath on her own. After a moment, she sat up, looking a little dazed.
"Are you ok?" asked Rin.
"Yeah. A little weak, but getting better. But I don't know how much longer I can maintain Caster - until I get better, I'm going to be generating prana slower than she is draining it."
"I wish there was some way to transfer large quantities of prana from magus to magus" Archer mused, rubbing his chin as if trying to recall something he had forgotten.
Rin blushed, "Uhm, there is." Rin continued to redden until she was beet red, "I could teach you and Shirou a tantric ritual that will…"
"I know it." snapped Sakura.
"You know it?"" Rin's eyebrows crept up past her hairline. 'Does she mean she's used it before?' Rin's mind froze as her image of her estranged sister as a sheltered young girl completely shattered. "Uhm, Does Shirou know the ritual too?"
"No, but I will teach him, Rin-sempai" Sakura turned to Shirou, "Please help me up."
Shirou pulled the purple haired teen to her feet. She swayed slightly, "Are you certain you're up to doing magic?"
"Yes, I'll be fine. And I'll feel much better as soon as we start the ritual." She blushed slightly, as she realized what she had said. "Come, we can use my bedroom."
She led a confused Shirou upstairs.
-FAR-FAR-
"What about Zoukan?" Rin asked, as she realized that all of them had let their guard down when Berserker died.
"I think he's gone - Berserker drained him of prana. Not certain if he's still alive, but if he is, he is so greatly weakened that he won't be a threat to anybody for a very long time." Archer replied after giving a couple of tentative sniffs at the air.
He sat down on the stairs next to Rin, and they sat awkwardly for a moment.
Rin became more and more uncomfortable. Somewhere upstairs, her sister was having sex with a boy that she kind of liked. And she wasn't certain how to feel about that, whether to be happy for Sakura's sake, or jealous for her own. And sitting next to another man while thinking about that was definitely NOT something she was going to do.
Rin got up and walked up to the first floor, "Uhm, I'm going to go get something to drink."
After she left, Archer continued to sit. A few moments later, Caster materialized, looking a little flushed. "Uhm, they have started," she muttered, embarrassed. She pretended to look through the books on the shelves.
Archer walked over to her, "are you ok?"
"Um, yeah.. I'm just getting some bleed over from Sakura's emotions through the Master / Servant link."
"Oh really?" Archer breathed into her ear.
"Hey, cut that out!" Caster pushed Archer away halfheartedly. Which is when she discovered that his hand was under her shirt. And his face was right next to hers. They stood like that for a moment. Caster's breath caught as Archer's hand began to move from her back up to her front.
One kiss couldn't hurt, could it?
The next thing she knew, their clothes were scattered all over the floor and she was lying naked on the desk, with Archer next to her. And she was... happy. Very pleasantly so.
As she luxuriated in the afterglow, Caster traced her hands across the scar over Archer's heart. A very unique, yet familiar scar. "Shirou?"
-FAR-FAR-
Rin sat hunched over in the kitchen, a hunted expression on her face, as she slowly sipped her orange juice. There were *noises* coming from the second floor. And now, there were similar noises coming from the basement.
'How long can they keep going like that?'
-FAR-FAR-
After they were done, Caster turned to Archer, "Shirou, how did you become a Counter Guardian?"
Archer sighed, "It's a long story." He turned to look at Caster, "Is that what you were thinking about all the time that we were, you know?"
TOHSAKA smacked him in the arm, "No, baka, but you forget how much smarter than you I am. It took me much less time to think this through to it's logical conclusion than you would expect." She smiled to take the sting out of her words, "I missed you, Shirou."
Archer grimaced, "Don't call me that. I'm not him any more" Caster quirked an eyebrow, and Archer sighed, "Too many wrong choices."
"Actually, that sounds exactly like Shirou. Beautiful ideals, horrible execution."
"Ehm," Archer got up off of the table. "Let's go see if the others are ready to go yet. We still need to deal with Lancer."
-FAR-FAR-
It wasn't too much later that Shirou and Sakura came back down stairs, holding hands. "Lets go home. I'm drained and I'm not going to be much use for the rest of the day." Everybody smirked at Shirou, "What? NO! I mean I'm drained of prana, and I won't be much use in a fight!"
"Yes, you need to get your mind out of the gutter, Rin-sempai!" Sakura frowned at Rin, "But Sempai is right - lets get out of here. I don't want to be in this house a moment longer than necessary."
The group of five made their way back to Shirou's home.
"I'll see you guys later!" Rin said awkwardly.
"No, you should come with us!" Sakura quickly countered, smiled slightly, 'That way you can see that Shirou is with me.'
At the same time, Caster added added, "Shirou will cook dinner, and afterwards we can plan.."
"Oh, ok" Rin finally acquiesced, 'I guess It'll be good to spend time with family.' Rin was grateful that Sakura seemed to be making an effort to not exclude her.
As Shirou and Sakura went into the kitchen, Caster leaned over to Rin and whispered, "Don't give up hope - you're not out of the running yet!"
Rin scowled at the servant, "This isn't a horse race. And why are you still matchmaking? Shouldn't you be worrying about your own stud?"
Caster just smirked and patted the younger Rin on the shoulder.
After dinner was served (and promptly eaten), it was time to talk strategy.
"So the only Servant left is Lancer." Rin began.
"Actually, Lancer is not the last servant." Interrupted Caster
"There is one more - Servant Archer, from the last War." finished EMYA.
"And how do you know this?" Rin asked suspiciously. Her former Servant had claimed not to know anything when he was under her command, and now he seemed to know WAY too much.
"Well," Archer began, looking slightly sheepish, "I lied a little when I said that I didn't remember anything. You see, I'm from the future."
"What?"
"How far in the future?" Rin asked, calculatingly
"One POSSIBLE future," Archer corrected, "But I am fairly certain that this is the same in both our timelines: Archer, Gilgamesh, survived the end of the previous Holy Grail war, and is now sitting back and watching the chaos, but as the war draws to a close, he will take a personal hand in it. He revels in destruction." Archer's words became somewhat heated, as his personal hatred for the man leaked through.
"Or it's possible that he, like many hedonists, has become so jaded and bored, that only pain and suffering break his ennui" corrected Caster, in full 'I am giving you the word of God' lecture mode. "The important thing is that he will try to activate the Greater Grail, to bring about mass destruction. We need to get at the Grail and render it unusable. Archer and I discussed it, and we think we can do that now."
Archer nodded, "Once we start messing with the Grail, Kirei will realize that something is going on, and will send Archer and Lancer after us, but I should be able to hold them off long enough for Caster to destroy the Grail. But the longer we wait, the lower my reserves of prana will get."
"Wait, how is Kirei involved?" demanded Rin, taking one of her trademark poses that she typically used when interrogating… uhm... asking a polite question.
"Oh, he's the master of the old Archer, and he stole Lancer from his original Master." Caster lectured.
Shirou took a close look at Caster, and then at Rin, and did a double take.
-FAR-FAR-
Later that evening, Caster had taken Sakura to Shirou's workshop to discuss 'Master Servant things', leaving Shirou in Rin's care. The two teens sat drinking tea
"Ah, Tohsaka? Have you noticed that Caster looks a little bit like you?" Shirou asked. He wasn't certain how to broach the topic, so he began by fishing around.
"Yeah, you noticed that too, huh?" Rin finished off her cup and put it down, not looking at Shirou. "And she seems to know about the future like Archer does. I wonder.. I wonder if she might be my future granddaughter or something…" Rin blushed.
"Why granddaughter?" Shirou looked puzzled.
"Because she keeps pushing us together…" Rin blushed even more, "Like maybe she's OUR granddaughter."
All of a sudden, Shirou found his tea cup very interesting, "Well, she's probably from an alternate future, like Archer, so we don't have to worry about messing up the timeline and causing a paradox.."
"Meaning…"
Shirou sighed, "Meaning I'm going to try to make things work with Sakura." He looked up at Rin, "Not just because we had sex, but because I.. because we've been close a long time, and I just didn't see it. I think… It's… I mean.." Shirou trailed off, "Why a granddaughter, not a daughter?" He finally asked.
"Because no daughter of mine would give herself to that Archer!" Rin snarled, just as glad that the awkward turn of the conversation was finished.
-FAR-FAR-
Much later that night, after all the humans were asleep (in separate beds, much to the annoyance of several individuals), Caster sat down next to Archer on the balcony. "This feels familiar."
"Hmm" Archer put an arm around her.
"EMYA, in your timeline, did we have a relationship?" She finally asked.
Archer leaned back, drawing away slightly. "Yeah. We dated for a couple of years, before my foolish ideals drew me away to try to save the world. We stayed in touch even afterwards, but we rarely saw one another, as I kept traveling all over the world, and your counterpart was hard at work in the Clocktower" Archer turned to look at Caster, so gauge her reaction, "It was one of my more stupid decisions."
"Baka, all your decisions are stupid, yet they somehow work out for the best." Caster smiled.
"My breaking up with other-Rin was for the best?"
"Yes. Otherwise I would have never met you."
"Convoluted and irrelevant," sighed Archer. "After the Holy Grail war, you'll go back to the Throne of Heroes and forget all about this.
"Maybe not." Caster paused, but seeing Shirou's questioning look, continued, "I am the Servant Caster. And I am probably the most powerful Caster to ever be summoned for one of these stupid things. I was able to warp reality even BEFORE I became a Servant."
SHIROU smiled, "Yeah, you do that whenever you talk."
"Hey!" Caster elbowed Archer in the side. One thing led to another, and it wasn't long before they were lying snuggled up on the porch, clothes slightly askew.
-FAR-FAR-
The three teens and two Heroic spirits made their way back up the mountain to Ryuudou temple. It was Caster's idea. Over breakfast that morning, when Shirou had asked how they could find the Grail to start messing with it, and she had deigned to inform the others that the heart of the Grail was under the Temple
"I hate stairs" Rin groaned. Sakura nodded, but didn't have the breath to say anything. She was in the worst physical shape of the lot - archery really didn't do anything for your legs. She used the bow she had borrowed from the dojo as a walking staff. Archer, meanwhile, remained incorporeal to conserve prana.
Once up in the temple compound, they went back to the middle guest cottage and down the tunnel to the chamber where Assassin had kept Caster prisoner. Several other tunnels lead off from it. Some were barely large enough for a person to squeeze through, while others were as wide as a school corridor.
"I think the Grail system is close by" Caster pivoted her head left and right, as she tried to get a sense of how all the bounded fields connected to the lei line. Not that anybody else could see what she was looking at. "I'll get starting working on it."
"You look while we set up some fortifications" Rin started an aria, careful to keep out of Caster's way, physically and magically. Sakura and Shirou sat down to wait. There wasn't much that they could do until Kirei or his Servants showed up. Sakura took Shirou's hand. Shirou turned and smiled at his girlfriend. Or at least he hoped she was - they hadn't discussed it yet. 'We really should talk about this. Later.'
With everybody else working, it was almost private. Sakura leaned over towards Shirou. Shirou opened his lips and leaned towards her in turn.
"Get a room" Archer materialized.
Shirou's head whipped around, "we weren't.." Whatever else he was about to say was interrupted as Archer leaped into them knocking them both to the floor a moment before a red spear flashed through the spot where they had been sitting
Archer took a fighting stance, swords in hand as Lancer perched on a stalagmite that jutted ten feet into the air.
"I see you had the same idea as I did, and you even brought your own lesser Grail." Kirei nodded towards Sakura as he walked in. He was followed by a bored looking blond man wearing a leather jacket - Gilgamesh - who dropped a tightly bound bundle at his feet before striking a pose, a pair of gates of Babylon forming behind his shoulders.
Shirou rolled to his feet and projected his own pair of swords.
"Oy, now. There are two of you. That doesn't seem sportsmanlike" Lancer quipped as he dropped to the ground.
The Emyas charge, swords out. Lancer slashed at Archer, ducking under Shirou's slower attacks. "You two are like peas in a pod, anybody ever tell you that?"
Before Gilgamesh could launch any Noble Phantasm from the glowing Gates of Babylon hovering over his shoulders, he was confronted by an array of bluish portals streaking towards him.
"Ohh?" he cocked his head, hands in his pockets. He looked completely bored as he fired off swords at the portals, shattering them. But as quickly as he created new Gates, Caster summoned portals.
"So the child comes full circle, to face her master. It is just like in the legends of old," Kotomine waxed poetic as he blocked a kick from Rin with his knee before straightening his leg into a side thrust kick that sent his former student flying.
He had to throw himself sideways to avoid the splash of inky black that flew at him from the other girl, "And the prodigal sister returns as well. How heart warming!"
The battle was chaotic, with the combatants dodging around stalagmites and piles of rubble in the poorly lit cavern. Sakura finally managed to get her bow in hand and fired off a shot at Kirei, but in the gloom, she didn't even come close to hitting. She threw it back down in disgust and slit her palm with a knife, letting blood fill her palm. This was going to be a close in fight. At least for the humans.
Caster continued to warp reality around Gilgamesh, but the ancient hero was ripping all her spatial distortions apart with Ea. At the same time, they continued their artillery duel of portals versus Gates of Babylon. 'Last time, it took both Saber and me to take this clown down. His weakness is that he's an obsessive jerk and he is no good at splitting his attention.' She risked a glance over to where Archer was facing off against lancer.
No help would be available from that quarter. Archer was fighting defensively, not daring to use any of the more powerful Noble Phantasms in his armory for fear that his supply of prana would run out. Shirou kept circling, darting in and nipping at Lancer's side whenever the Servant in blue locked up with Archer. He was sticking with the Chinese broadswords, as they were most comfortable in his hands, and he couldn't afford a moments hesitation, or it would be the end of him.
"Yeaah!" Rin charged Kirei, reinforced arm shooting in for a lightning fast punch. The former Executor brought his his arm in and hunched down, letting the attack glance off of his shoulder. Rin staggered from hitting such an unyielding target. As she recovered, a pair of Black Keys flew at her. But before Kirei could throw any more, a whip of inky blackness lashed across his back..
He grunted in pain and stabbed the blackness with a Black Key, and then pivoted to pin it to the ground. Sakura's eyes widened in surprise as she realized she couldn't release the black energy. She tried to duck out of the way as the Fake Priest leaped at her, delivering a powerful punch to her stomach.
"I have always wondered if women react differently than men when they are hit." As Sakura folded over his fist, The fake priest followed up with a sharp hook to Sakura's head.
SNAP
Her head whipped around with a crack. As she collapsed three streaks of sickly green light flew at Kirei, exploding into concussive force. "Get away from my sister!" Rin followed up with a red gem that burst into a spear of fire as it flew, almost incinerating the priest as he rolled clear.
As Lancer landed another glancing blow on Archer, Shirou whipped his sword across the back of his leg attempting to hamstring the Servant. But Lancer pivoted, and jabbed,
'Not again' Shirou knew there was no dodging the spear from this close. At least this time, he was fast enough to actually see the blow that killed him. 'Too bad I never told Sakura how much I love her.'
A red clad body slammed into Shirou.
As Shirou smashed into a stalagmite, Archer collapsed, the spear piercing his chest.
"NO!" Caster turned from her opponent as a massive wave of 'something' swept out from her towards Lancer, making the stone walls ripple. Lancer had just enough time to look up in surprise before he was folded in half and then torn into four unequal pieces.
"Never take your eyes off your opponent."
Caster whipped back towards Gilgamesh as the elder hero raised Ea. The sword was spinning and tearing reality as he swept it in for a finishing blow. Gilgamesh smiled cockilly, almost bored, "Goodbye... urk?"
The last was pronounced as a thin needle of steel appeared from his chest. "Don't you dare hurt oni-chan!" Gilgamesh slid to the ground, revealing an angry looking Ilya standing behind him, a dagger in her hand. Cut off strands of rope were piled around her feet.
As Gilgamesh dissolved into pure prana, Caster lunged for Archer, siphoning all the prana in the air into a dazzling blue shape that looked like heart made from broken glass before shoving it into Archer's chest.
Archer took a gasping breath.
Caster pulled him in close, "Baka, I can't keep doing that!" tears were pouring down her face..
""Easy, easy there. I just took a mortal wound. It takes a couple of minutes to recover from one of those."
"Baka," Caster repeated with a smile before kissing him as Archer held her tight.
Shirou looked at Rin, "What the… Did you know about this?"
"Umm, yes, but only just recently," Rin blushed at the memory.
"Sakura!" Shirou had just spotted the purple haired girl lying unmoving on the ground. He ran over to her as the two servants broke apart. "She's still breathing, but she looks like she got hit on the head. Rin, can you do anything?"
Rin smiled, "of course" and palmed a small gem as she began her aria.
"I take it the Grail war is over?" Ilya asked.
"Yeah, I don't think those two are going to be fighting each other." Shirou replied, jerking his chin at the two remaining servants, who stood hand in hand.
"We still need to take the Grail apart." Archer was trying to act like his normal dour self, despite everything "and we don't have much time - I still have only a few hours of prana left, even if I don't use any Noble Phantasms."
"I can provide you with prana - As a Caster class, I can tie into the lei line here and tap enough for both of us. And I still have a command seal, from back, you know. If you become my servant, I can transfer prana to you directly." Caster was still standing at Archer's side, and the two of them appeared to be in their own personal world as they ignored the humans around them.
Rin continued to chant, and Shirou turned to Illya. "Thank you for coming to our rescue. You're a true hero."
Illya blushed at the complement before making a dismissive motion. "I didn't have much choice - that arrogant priest dragged me along." She paused looking embarrassed. "You didn't come back, Oni-chan, so I had to come find you."
"I'm sorry to have caused so much trouble for you. Things have been… you see."
Illya smiled, "I know, I am just teasing you. It took me a while to get myself together, but I decided to come talk to you one last time before it is too late. Unfortunately, I stopped at the Supervisor's to ask directions, and got captured."
Meanwhile, Archer considered Caster's proposal "Very well, but only on one condition. I also have command seal. I will become your Servant if you become mine." He held up a copy of Rule Breaker.
Caster swallowed, looking at Archer with a dazed stare like a deer in the headlights, "ok".
They both in turn pronounced the ritual words.
Rin was still concentrating on her spell, trying to stabilize Sakura, but she caught the last part of that. 'Ok, was it just me or was that some sort of freaky marriage ceremony?'
Before she could say anything, Shirou exploded, "Wait, what will be too late?" he took Illya hands and looked at her worriedly.
"I am connected to the Grail system, and as it fills up with magical energy from the the slain servants, some of that energy pours into me. It will soon erode my body away to nothingness.
"Right! Lets take the Grail apart" Archer pronounced.
"I never said I would dismantle the Grail." Caster relied. As Archer quirked an eyebrow at his lover, she added, "You think too small, Sh.. Archer. It's because you are a third rate magus. I wish I could give your teacher a piece of my mind."
Archer tried hard to restrain a smirk, "She might already have it."
"She?" Caster bristled, "That's a discussion for another time. What is at issue right now is the Great Grail, and what we can do with it before we take it apart." She took the 'Tohsaka Lecture Pose #3'. "Did you know that not only is the Grail a magical battery sucking up power from the leylines and deceased Servants, it is also a back door into the Akashic records? When that function was used correctly, it let the founding families overwrite (temporarily) the record of who lived and who died. That is how they were able to summon forth the Servants."
Sakura sat up, pushing past an exhausted rin."Yeah, grandfather hoped to do this on a far grander scale, to actually bring back the dead." Rin allowed herself to slup down and finally catch her breath.
Shirou looked between Illya and Sakura before dragging his sister over next to Sakura so he could hold his girlfriend's hand. Illya rolled her eyes. "I don't like the direction this is taking," Shirou pronounced. "Hasn't this thing caused us enough pain?"
"Yes, and that is why I think we deserve a reward," Caster retorted. "Oh, don't worry, I'm not going to use the Grail like Zouken had planned, That would be irresponsible, dangerous, and would most likely fail. I'm just going to use it's power to search the Akashic record for a reality where Gaia won't attempt to wipe Archer and me from existence. That should drain most of the power from the grail." Caster smiled, as if what she had described was no more complicated than a Googling something on the internet. "And once we find our new home, Archer and I shall move there." Her eyes glowed bright blue as strands of energy danced from her body to the walls of the cave around them. She turned to look at the others before stopping at the dumbfounded Archer. "Is that acceptable for you?" Archer could just nod.
Caster smiled and took both of his hands in hers. The glow spread from her eyes to the rest of her body, and then to Archer. At the same time, she was starting to float - the only thing anchoring to the ground her was Archer.
The humans watched this spectacle, dumbfounded. "What about destroying the Grail?" Shirou asked, feeling like the Servants were ditching them.
Archer shrugged. It was a very unusual sensation: letting other people take care of their own problems. He wasn't certain if he would be able to manage something like this again, but just this once, he stepped back and let TOHSAKA decide what to do. "Try explosives, Or maybe Rin - she's almost as good." Archer shrugged, "It's your problem now."
Shirou started to get upset. They WERE ditching them!
Rin frowned, "wait..that would require that in this new world, both Caster and Archer are in the process of dying at the moment you transition in. What's the likelihood of that happening?"
Caster smiled affectionately at Rin, "I always was the smart one. Come along, SHIROU"
Caster and Archer winked out of existence.
"Ah, crap" Shirou breathed.
THE END, for some. A beginning, for others