From Dusk (I)

Two Masters and three Servants had gathered at the Emiya Household. The mansion had become their base of operations for all intents and purposes.

Not that there was any operation going on. For the past two nights, they had waited. Considering the time gaps that had previously been observed between one Singularity event and another, they had expected another one the previous day. However, it hadn't come.

It wasn't down to an exact science of course, but when dawn came to Fuyuki again without any kind of incident, they knew something was up.

"What the hell is going on?" asked Shirou. "Illya, do you have any idea?"

"The power is there. I can feel the buildup. It's just not manifesting. I assume it's Zouken's doing."

"What do you think he's trying to do?"

"Nothing we will like, that's for sure. We need to take him out as soon as possible." "Great. How do you suggest we do that?" asked Medea.

"Short of destroying the entire mountain and burning down half the city along with it? I don't know. We can't go in and he can't come out, but he's the one with the better strategic position. He isn't in any rush to get to us. He can bide his time as long as he wants."

"So we are stumped," Rider concluded

"Damn it! If only Tohsaka and Saber were still here."

"I'm not sure even they could help us in any way at this point."

"No, but it would put my heart at ease knowing that they are well and able to assist," Shirou added. "Are we absolutely certain that Saber hasn't been eliminated?"

Both Caster and Illya nodded.

"If a Servant had been killed, I would know," said Illya. "Even if the soul went to Makiri's Lesser Grail."

It was still a mystery where the Master and Servant pair had vanished. No amount of searching on their part or even the police had borne any fruit. Shirou had to believe that they were hiding of their own volition for whatever reason because it was the only thing that made sense with what they knew. Which was remarkably little.

"Well, there is no point standing around here now," he said. "I'm going to make something for breakfast and then I'll head to school."

"Really? At a time like this?" asked Illya. "Shouldn't you be resting?"

"I'm not tired enough to sleep. I need to do something productive to keep my mind occupied."

"Then exercise or something," said Caster. "This isn't a good time to split and make yourself a target."

"I could have Berserker act as your sparring partner," Illya offered.

"That... sounds like the opportunity of a lifetime and also the last thing I'd ever do," Shirou said after a moment of consideration.

"Probably," Illya agreed.

"Then I'll politely refuse the kind offer," he said as he got up from the patio.

It was then that a large shadow fell over him, covering the light of the rising sun. A huge hand dropped on his shoulder and he looked up to see the gargantuan form of Berserker looming over him.

"Come," he said with his voice that sounded like rocks smashed together. Shirou looked around, panicked.

"Don't worry, Shirou," Medea reassured. "Herakles isn't a mere brute. He's a master of precision and control. He won't harm a hair on your head unless he wants to, and even in that case it would be that strand and that strand only."

Before he could agree to anything, Berserker picked him off the ground and threw him across the courtyard.

Naturally, Shirou landed on his feet but he skidded a good distance away before he could stop.

Berserker approached with slow, meticulous steps. Despite his incredible size, he scarcely made any noise as he moved. No wonder this guy was heralded as a hero among heroes.

The giant crossed his arms over his chest and planted himself firmly on the ground.

"Hrrr... Hit me with everything you've got."

Shirou blinked momentarily.

"Right. It's not like I'm going to scratch you, even if I do," he said.

Shirou projected the Married Blades and took a stance. If he had to actually fight against Berserker, how would he go at it?

"Too slow."

Suddenly Berserker was kneeling in front of him, and he poked Shirou in the stomach with his pinky.

"Guah!"

Shirou took several steps backward as he tried to hold in the contents of his stomach. Next, his world spun and he landed on his back after the Servant swiped at his legs. However, before he could be hit a third time he leaped back and threw the black Dao at the giant. In the nick of time, too, because he was about to be kicked off his resting place.

"About time. Now come at me."

"Nuh-uh, no way," he replied, and abandoned the sword in favor of projecting a bow and arrow.

The projectile went flying through empty air, as Berserker closed the distance and slapped Shirou over the head with his pinky again.

"Buh!"

Shirou face-planted in the ground, while the Heroic Spirit took a few steps back.

"Hrrm... I see now," he said. "You are the type who picks the best method to achieve victory. That's fine. Only a fool wouldn't adapt to the challenge out of pride. However, in order to grow past one's limits, one should accept a restriction and face the task from a disadvantageous position."

Shirou pulled himself up on shaky legs.

"So... you are saying... I should just leap into the grinder."

"Hrrr... Cast away any thought about a victory you cannot achieve and concern yourself only with shattering the chains of your current limits. Do it enough times and victory will come to you as a matter of course."

He nodded before he dismissed the bow. In its place, he brought forth a Zweihänder. It was a sword with no magical properties whatsoever, but it wasn't as if it would have made any difference if it did.

He took a low stance, holding the blade behind him at his side. Berserker moved again, but so did he, and they met halfway.

The confrontation wasn't completely one-sided. From the onset, Berserker had acted with a level of speed and strength equal to Shirou, with the latter getting repeatedly knocked on his ass only because he hesitated.

Of course, Berserker wasn't using even a fraction of his ability, and even with the demigod moderating the speed of his movements to be at the same level as his opponent's, Shirou still couldn't land a hit on him. The giant dodged or pushed away Shirou's sword with the back of his bare hands, showing a tremendous level of agility that belied his size.

Shirou couldn't say the same, as he received a number of painful blows that staggered him several times. It was hard to believe how perfectly Berserker could control his strength. The slightest mistake would have turned Shirou into a lump of meat, But at the level they were going, he'd have been surprised if he even got bruises at the end of the sparring session.

They exchanged blows for the next hour before Berserker called an end to it.

"That will be enough."

Shirou was drenched in sweat and was breathing heavily. "Thank you... for the lesson," he said, bowing at the waist.

Berserker didn't say anything else and simply disappeared into spirit form. As he did so, he revealed the form of Illya standing a bit behind.

"Did that take care of your excessive energy?" she asked. Shirou nodded. "And then some."

"Good. Then you should probably go get cleaned before eating. Your breakfast has been waiting for quite a while."

"Right. I'll do that," he said as he made his way toward the bathroom. [br]

'Well, what do you think?'

'Hrr... there is plenty of room to grow,' Berserker said back. 'Really? I would have thought he was as good as he'd get.'

'No. What you saw until now is the result of him imitating others. If he could discard that mentality and forge his own unique self, he would be much stronger.'

'Did you tell him that?'

'It's pointless and it would not serve him. Strength alone does not a victor make. He wouldn't sacrifice versatility for power. He is indeed someone who chooses the best path to victory according to the circumstances. Some might consider it an ignominious way to live, but he cares not for what others think of him. Nor should he.'

'That sounds lonely.'

'Only if he's foolish enough to let it be so.'

They both watched as he neared the house, only for Rider to come out of the living room the moment he was close enough to make it look like it was a coincidence.

In reality, she had been watching the exchange with Berserker for the entire time.

Indeed, with all the people worrying about him, he would have to be the biggest fool ever to wind up alone.

[br]

"Master, do you have a moment?"

It was the early hours of the afternoon when Rider approached her Master while he was reading a book in his bedroom.

"What's wrong, Rider?"

She closed the door behind her and sat down in front of him.

"There is something I need to tell you. Something I should have said a lot sooner."

She had been mulling over it for a few days already, working up the courage to bring it up. It wasn't easy, after hiding it for so long.

"Alright," he replied, unperturbed by her serious tone.

For a moment, she didn't say anything and she looked down at her lap, searching for the words.

"The person who originally summoned me is Sakura." "...Excuse me?" he asked.

"Sakura is the real Matou heir."

There was much more to it than that, but this was how much Rider was willing to divulge about Sakura's circumstances. Rider couldn't hide from Shirou the very real possibility that Zouken would use Sakura against them. At the same time, there was no reason to divulge just how abused the girl had been.

"I'm sorry. I should have told you sooner." Shirou held up his hand.

"No, I get it. That's why you didn't care much when I took you from Shinji. Your loyalty wasn't to him in the first place."

Rider nodded.

"She didn't want to fight. Especially not against you, I believe. So she let Shinji take over." "So, why are you telling me now?" he asked.

"I have seen the training Zouken puts her through," she explained, glossing over the details. "She doesn't have it in her to defy him, and Zouken won't hesitate to pit her against you if it suits him. Even if she doesn't want to, she might not have a say in it."

"What made you decide to tell me this now?"

"In the beginning, I didn't trust you. I wouldn't have told Sakura's secret to another Mage. Later I understood that you wouldn't knowingly want to hurt her or anyone else, but it still felt like a betrayal to tell when it wasn't relevant. And when Zouken returned, I had been keeping it a secret for so long that I felt like I betrayed you instead. It took me a little while to work up the courage to tell you."

"I'm sorry. It must have been hard for you, having to keep everything to yourself."

"I should be at the bottom of the list of people to receive your sympathy in this matter, you dummy."

Rider knew he wouldn't get angry at her for her duplicity. That just wasn't her Master's personality. But at the very least he shouldn't be so nonchalant about it.

Shirou got up and put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm very worried for Sakura, but I also know how wanting to keep everyone safe feels. And besides, you are in the habit of putting yourself at the bottom of the list all the time. That's not good, Rider."

She gave him a flat stare and poked him in the chest.

"You are the last person who should say something like that. You are so much worse than me on that."

"Then I really guess we were meant to be-" "Eh...?"

"-Master and Servant. Who knows, maybe if I didn't already contract with Medea, I might have wound up summoning you."

For a second there, she had really gotten her hopes up.

But... it would have been nice if that had been the case, wouldn't it?

'Under the name of Rider, I have come in response to your summon. I ask of you, are you my Master?'

If she had met him without the barrier that separated them at the beginning, if she had met him before Caster... then the person he would hold in his arms at night could have been her?

"Anyway, we should let Caster and the others know about it," he concluded.

She got up as he passed her on the way to the door. His back was turned to her and didn't see her get up to follow him, nor did he notice her arms reaching out until they were already around him and pulling him back.

"Rider? Are you... hungry again?"

"Just... I wish... I wish you had been my Master from the start."

If that had been the case, then her loyalties wouldn't have to be split between him and Sakura. If he had been her summoner all along, then she wouldn't have to hold back the things she wanted to say.

"Let's get through this, Rider," he told her. "Once this stupid war is over, there won't be any more sides to be had. On that day, things like Master and Servant won't matter anymore, and we can be whoever we want to be with each other."

Rider's heart skipped a beat. Was he really saying what she thought he was saying? But what about Caster?

Shirou didn't have it in him to betray someone. So if he said that, it meant that it was alright somehow. She didn't need to know anything else. She trusted him completely.

"I'll hold you to your word," she said.

She pulled away and he turned to her. "Come on. Let's go speak with the others." She nodded, and together they left the room. [br]

Caster was not pleased.

"Are you telling me that we've had an enemy Magus in this house and I was none the wiser?"

"Sakura is not an enemy," Shirou objected. "I want to make it perfectly clear that she's to be considered a hostage and that her participation in this war is against her will. If she attacks us, we are going to use non-lethal force to stop her. Is that clear?"

"Well, I wasn't expecting anything different from you," Caster replied. Rider, naturally, had nothing to say.

"Illyasviel?" Shirou prompted.

"I won't put my life in danger to protect your friends, Shirou. If she comes at me, I will react accordingly to the threat she poses. But if she's not a complete idiot she won't come anywhere near us in the first place."

"Please be lenient. She wants no part in this."

"That might be the case but that doesn't mean I should take additional risks for people that I don't even know. As a courtesy, I will aim to disable instead of kill, but I won't take unnecessary risks to my person."

"Okay, that's fair," he accepted. He couldn't ask Illya or anyone else to put their lives on the line to save the very person who was trying to harm them.

"That being said, it would have been nice to know beforehand," Caster added, glaring at Rider.

"Don't forget we started off as enemies," Shirou said in her defense. "Until now, there was no reason for Rider to tell us when we basically coerced her to join us."

"Yes, yes. I see your point but it still would have put us in a better position. She might have known something about Zouken's plans."

"Not if she's really a pawn," said Illyasviel. "That would have been an unnecessary liability. In fact, if she appears before us she might not even know she's being used in some ways. We would do better to treat her like a bomb rather than an opponent. If you don't want to strike her down on sight, you'd better keep your distance entirely."

"That's a fair assessment," said Caster. "Remember, then. If Sakura does show up at any point in time, disable her. Don't even let her speak. Anything she might say could be used to cast doubt whether she knows it or not."

Everyone agreed. Even Shirou although he didn't like the idea. It was for Sakura's own good in the end. Even Rider had no objection.

However, by the time they had finished discussing, it had gotten rather late and they all retired to rest in preparation for another night on their feet.

[br]

Night fell, and everyone gathered. They were well-rested. Or at least as much as the situation allowed for. They were all wondering whether it was going to be yet another waste of time when Shirou felt it.

"It's about to happen," he warned. The singularities had yet to appear, but as usual, Shirou could tell beforehand

"Where to?" asked Medea.

He frowned and focused on the direction.

"The park... and the temple again."

"Very well. Shirou and Illya, you deal with the temple, while Rider and I will worry about the park. We-"

"Wait, something's wrong," said Shirou. He was sweating more than usual. "There's more."

"What do you mean?"

Just as Rider asked that the singularities started to open.

Above the mountain, above the park... and above the Tohsaka household smack dab in the middle of the western residential district.

"The bastard Zouken has held back the Grail to manifest multiple Singularities at the same time," said Caster.

"Now is not the time to think about that," said Shirou. "Rider, you go to the temple. Use your eyes to seal the stairs. That should be more than enough as a stop gag measure until one of the others have been dealt with. Caster, you and Berserker deal with Tohaka's place. I'm going to the park.

"Shirou, it's a trap. You cannot go there without a Servant watching your back. Zouken will target you," Caster protested.

"I'm irrelevant to Zouken. He needs the souls of the Servants to fuel the Grail and killing me won't net him even a single one. Besides, I won't be on my own. There is still someone I can call upon."

"What, who?"

"It doesn't matter, just trust me. Drop us at each location and move on" he said, as he pulled out his phone. He quickly typed a message to Caren.

Emergency. Meet me at the park, it just said. A moment later he received a response. On my way.

"Alright, we'll do it your way," Caster agreed.

"Really, just like that?" asked Illya, even though she approached Caster so that they could teleport away together.

"There is not much time to argue about it," she replied. "If he says he can do it, then he can do it."

With that, Caster's cloak expanded like the wings of a huge bird and engulfed them all, taking them all away at the same time.

The first destination was the park.

"Shirou, are you sure about this?" Caster asked.

"I got this," he confirmed. "When you are done at Tohsaka's place, bring Berserker here and go close the hole at the temple. Then return to deal with this one."

"As you wish;" she agreed reluctantly. "Shirou... be safe."

"You too," he nodded, but his attention was already focused on the singularity up in the sky.

A couple of minutes after she had left, the abominations started to pour out of the singularity.

"Make it fast, Caren, or there won't be much left of me to help," he said.

Instead of taking out the Married Blades, Shirou projected the first real sword he ever held, Monohoshizao.

These creatures were many but each one of them was much weaker than him. He didn't need a technique of false openings because they cared nothing about stuff like that. However, he definitely needed the finesse and the superlative economy of motion from the person that could touch the edge of True Magic with just his swordsmanship.

The blade gleamed into the night, as it carved a path in the flow of darkness. [br]

Rider was dropped at the base of the temple by Caster.

"Be careful," said Caster. "Zouken's intention is to split us up as much as possible and you are the only one on your own. He's very likely to target you first."

"Then let him try," Rider replied before the rest of them departed for the park.

Looking away, she grabbed her glasses and took them off. She had received permission to use her eyes for the first time in this war. Anyone who tried to meddle with her would do so at their own peril.

Indeed, let Zouken show his face. The sooner they got rid of him, the closer they would be to ending this War. Rider was not going to die easily. She had a future to look forward to now. A promise she wanted to see fulfilled, and anyone who got in the way of that would know why it was a very unwise idea to block a Gorgon's path.

When the malformed creatures came rushing down from the long stone stairs, howling their madness and hatred at the world, they were halted in their tracks by the unflinching gaze of a monster far, far greater than they could ever hope to become.

All of them, without exception, turned into stone before they could even get her within the range of their claws. They became a wall that their similars had to get over in order to pass and that only made her work that much easier.

If Zouken was such a fool that he would come at her now when she no longer had any shackles, be they on her body or her heart, then it would be so much better for everyone involved.

[br]

The moment they arrived in the courtyard of Tohsaka's mansion, Berserker returned to physical form while Caster flew up to the sky to start closing the singularity. She had started to recite the necessary incantations when the abominations started pouring out.

There was no need to give Berserker any advice on how to deal with the situation.

The creatures that came out of the Grail's mud wouldn't be able to even scratch Berserker even if he let them attack without fighting back.

Which he wasn't about to do.

This in turn meant they couldn't even hope to touch him.

The presence of the demigod was like a bonfire in the night to their mindless eyes. They didn't disperse in all directions the way they normally would. They all run at him. And they all died.

That was the reason Shirou had Caster take Berserker there of all three locations.

True to his name, Berserker let out a raging roar, and his massive ax-sword blurred into motion. The river of creatures ran into it like twigs into a woodchipper and they were torn to shreds much the same way.

Indeed, there was no need to worry about it. She was far more concerned about Shirou. He sounded absolutely certain that he would be alright, even though he wouldn't elaborate about this ally. She knew, of course, that there was at least one more Servant out there but she had been told even before this not to inquire about it.

She could only trust that he knew what he was doing, while she hurried up to close this singularity.

[br]

Elsewhere, another figure was making his way toward one of the battlefields.

'Are you sure you want me to go to this one?' Lancer asked telepathically. 'The other one sounds more interesting.'

'Of course,' replied the priest. 'That's where we need to be. Don't worry, Lancer. You'll have your shot at a good fight soon.'

'That better be the case,' he thought to himself. Not that he cared if Kotomine heard him.

It wasn't like they were on good terms. Kotomine knew that Lancer barely suffered him, and even that was only because he didn't have much choice in the matter. Kotomine didn't stay in Lancer's vicinity at all. Even now the Servant had no idea where his Master was hiding, so he couldn't kill him even if he wanted and there weren't any Command Seals in the way.

And speaking of Command Seals, that motherfucker had about a dozen of them on him, so Lancer couldn't even piss off Kotomine into exhausting them. He was on one hell of a short leash and thus he could only go along for the ride, no matter how much he hated it.

The least he deserved for putting up with this shitty situation was a decent fight, otherwise, he'd be pretty damn pissed off.

[XXX]