Disclaimer: I do not own the Fate franchise it belongs to Kinoko Nasu and Type-Moon.

Purified by Fire, Dancing with Fairies

Chapter 15

Once again, a warm and sunny day dawned over Fuyuki City, the skies above clear and blue with only the faintest wisps of clouds to be seen. People bustled to and fro as they began on yet another day, cars filled the roads, trains rumbled by with regularity, and every so often a plane could be seen flying by in the distance.

Saber and Ayame likewise left the latter's home early for what needed to be done for the day, Saber carrying large crate under his arms, and Ayame a large, heavily-packed bag on her back. Making their way out of the suburbs and into the outskirts of the city, they entered lightly-forested hill country and by the time they reached their destination the Sun was already shining high in the sky.

"What is this place?" Saber asked while setting the crates down.

"This?" Ayame echoed. "Hmm…it's a node for one of the local ley-lines. And because of that it's naturally rich in mana, which I'll be taking advantage of. I'll need to draw some circles on the ground, once I'm done Saber could you please put the jars inside those crates on the circles?"

"Alright," Saber said with a nod and beginning to open the crates. He blinked and then tilted his head in curiosity as he pulled the glass jars inside out, and then turned back to Ayame who'd summoned a fairy which was guiding her to where circles would be drawn at. "What's this?"

"Heavy water."

"Heavy…water…?" Saber echoed in confusion before looking back at the jars, which were imprinted with faded labels in some kind of alphabet that while bearing some resemblance to the Roman alphabet was clearly not Roman alphabet. "What's that?"

Ayame hummed while thinking on how to explain. "From what dad told me," she began. "The best storage material for prana of any kind is deuterium. That's a gas, think of it as a different kind of one of the atoms which make up water."

"I'll take your word for it."

Ayame smiled at that. "Anyway," she continued. "Deuterium by itself is rare and hard to find and even more so to make, with the best substitute being heavy water, which is naturally made from deuterium instead of hydrogen. I…don't know where and how dad found that out…and maybe it's better not to know."

"Perhaps," Saber conceded before holding up a jar. "What are these letters?"

"They're Russian, and they read as heavy water." Ayame answered before shaking his head. "Definitely better not to know how dad got his hands on those. Heavy water is usually used to make nuclear weapons."

"Nuclear…weapons…?"

"Think bombs which can destroy entire cities in one shot." Ayame said. "As you can imagine, anything which can be used to make them is carefully and strictly controlled by the world's nations, so whatever and however dad got his hands on heavy water…I do not want to know."

"Yes, I see your point." Saber said, looking at the heavy water with some apprehension now. He didn't completely understand what Ayame was saying, and the idea of bombs capable of burning cities to ash in a single blow was…disturbing, and he was carrying what was used to make them.

Ayame realized what he was thinking and laughed. "Oh relax," she said. "Heavy water won't explode, in fact it's just like water, only made from different atoms. It won't explode if you drop it or hit it or anything of that sort. Here, put a jar on this circle."

"Right," Saber said, walking over. As he did so, he took a look at the circle Ayame had drawn, that of a circle inside three interlocking squares inside another two circles, with the points of one of the squares touching smaller circles drawn inside the space between the two outer circles, which had been divided into a series of rectangular segments. "So…you're gathering prana?"

"Yup," Ayame confirmed, already drawing another circle. "I think I've figured out that spell the fairies showed me, but it's going to be a five-count, and those don't come cheap to perform. I'd really rather not exhaust my reserves, that can be a problem later on. So just in case…"

Saber nodded as Ayame trailed off. They worked in silence after that, at least until they were done with the jars. Ayame continued drawing circles though. "Saber," she began. "Can you bring me my bag please? I need what's inside."

"Alright," Saber said with a nod, walking over to where Ayame had left her bag and brought it over. "What's in it?"

"Stuff," Ayame said, opening the top and pulling out what looked like a big bowl made of metal. She placed it on a newly-drawn circle, and then reaching into her bag pulled out…was that coal?

"Is that coal?" Saber asked incredulously.

"Yes."

"Coal…why coal?"

"Because coal stores prana very well." Ayame said, pouring the coal into the bowl. "About as good as gemstones in fact, though from what I know that requires the best and hardest coal and even then it lacks other properties that gemstones have. This is just regular coal…it stores prana well, but not as well as it could otherwise possibly be. Still good enough for me though."

"I…see…" Saber said. He looked on in silence as the fairy guided Ayame to another spot, where she drew another circle and placed a bowl on top, before filling it with more coal. "So…now what?"

Ayame's response was to dust her hands, and checking her wristwatch, walked over to a nearby tree. Saber followed her with his eyes, and then his mouth fell open as Ayame jumped up, catching a sturdy branch with her hands, and then hoisting herself up and then crawling onto a higher branch settled against the trunk relaxed with her hands behind her head. "I am going to sleep." She said with a grin. "It takes time to charge up that stuff, and I've got nothing else better to do anyway. Why don't you take a nap as well? We've got about a couple of hours or so before it's time for lunch."

Saber sighed and pinched his nose. "No," he said. "I'll admit it's tempting, but someone has to keep watch."

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure." Saber said before sighing and smiling up at his Master. "It's alright, I can handle things well enough on my own. So please be at ease, Ayame."

This time it was Ayame's turn to gape at her Servant. "Hey now," she said, "You're not angry or something, are you?'

Saber just shrugged and walked away with a smile, Ayame staring after him for a moment as he turned away, and then jumping down chased after him. "Hey wait," she shouted. "Saber…!"

"…this is what I think," Ayame said as she set her lunchbox and utensils down on the ground. She and Saber were eating lunch under the shadow of a tree, rice with fried pork and vegetables washed down with a thermos of tea. "We have a number of options on how to eliminate Matou and his Servant, followed by the rest of his family. The easiest of course, is to simply hit the Matou property from a safe distance with Excalibur. However, this has disadvantages of its own."

"Such as…?" Saber asked.

"Well, for one thing we need to make sure Matou and his Servant are still inside the property when we attack." Ayame pointed out. "If they aren't then we'll have expended all that prana for nothing."

"Not necessarily," Saber mused. "We'd have eliminated their base of operations, and snuffed out their…nest of evil."

"Point," Ayame agreed with a nod. "That said, it'd make finding Matou even harder to find, as at least at present we can use their property as a reference point. Take it out, and we'll have nothing to work with."

"I suppose there is that." Saber conceded. "And the other options?"

"We could attack from the front." Ayame said. "Take up positions before their property during the day, and then once night falls challenge them to battle. However, we'd be fighting on or next to their turf, so they'll have the advantage."

"Don't go to the enemy, make them come to you." Saber said sagely, and Ayame nodded. "I suppose you have other plans?"

"Yes," Ayame said with a nod. "The final idea I have and what I think would work best for us, is to wait until Matou and their Servant engage with another Master and their Servant. We can either intervene in the battle against Matou…or we wait until both sides disengage or one side or another wins. If Matou wins then we crush them. If Matou's opponent wins then we'll just crush them. If neither wins, then we let the others go and focus on pursuing Matou and taking them off the board."

"And…the disadvantages?"

"Well," Ayame said. "If we intervene in the battle, both might turn on us, and then we'll be at a disadvantage."

"True…anything else?"

"There also if we attack Matou after they and their enemy fight to a draw," Ayame began. "And defeat them, another Master and Servant will do the same to us as we did against Matou. It might even be Matou's recent opponent, who won't be too happy at us…um, stealing their kill."

"If that's the case though," Saber pointed out. "They'll still be exhausted from the fight."

"And so will we."

"Not as much as they would be." Saber countered. "We'd have fought a depleted enemy, and not a fresh one. While it would still likely require significant effort from either of us to achieve victory, we'd still be fresher than an enemy which had previously been forced to retreat from exhaustion."

"…okay, you've got me there." Ayame conceded after a moment. "But what if a fresh Master and Servant attack?"

"In that case," Saber said. "We or you might have to use a command spell to order me to get us to a safe location for us to gather our strength anew."

Ayame nodded her head slowly in acknowledgement but stayed silent. The moments passed, Saber sipping at his tea before setting the cup down on the ground. "Was there something else, Ayame?" he asked.

"It'd hardly be the fairest fight in the world, would it?"

Saber chuckled. "I thought we're already past considerations like that." He said. "We're at war, and in war you take what opportunities you can get. The objective is to win, and to make any and all sacrifices made to achieve that goal mean something worthwhile. Within reason, of course."

Ayame smiled and nodded. "Right, right, sorry about that." She said, and Saber nodded. "So we're good on that strategy then?"

"Yes," Saber nodded. "We are, as you put it, good on that strategy."

"Right," Ayame said with a nod. "All that's left now then, is waiting and finding Matou and their Servant fighting with another Master and their Servant. I hope it won't take too long though."

The day passed without any untoward incident, the Sun climbing down from its zenith to the horizon, the sky shifting a clear blue to orange and gold, which then gave way to violet and deep blue. Shadows lengthened and merged together into twilight and then darkness as the Sun set below the horizon, the Moon and the stars glittering high overhead.

Fuyuki City likewise glittered in the night, countless points and sources of light driving back the darkness, people and vehicles continuing to go to and fro without care for the passing of the day and the coming of the night. One skyscraper glittered with its own lights and the reflected lights of the city around and below, even as shadows lay heavy on the roof.

Illya stood on that roof, the cold night breeze blowing through her hair and clothes as she looked out over the city. Berserker towered beside her, his breath steaming in the cold air, and then Illya's eyes narrowed and her smile turned cruel and menacing as she found her prey.

"I've found him." She triumphantly. "Let's go, Berserker!"

Berserker grunted in acknowledgement, and picking up Illya with surprising gentleness placed her on his shoulder. And he jumped from roof, down to another building below, and thence to another building and so on and so forth. Images and directions flashed through his telepathic link with his Master, and Berserker roared as they closed in on their prey.

"Here we come, little worm!" Illya cheered as she and Berserker leapt through the night sky. "Here we come! I hope you're ready, not that it'll matter much! I'll be seeing you strapped down on a dissection table before the night is out, and your guts being removed by the time the Sun rises tomorrow!"

Berserker grunted once, and Illya laughed. "Don't worry, Berserker." She said. "I haven't forgotten about you and what Rider owes you for killing you six times. Kill him as brutally as you like."

An answering grunt had Illya laughing, and then they leapt off a final building and then down, towards a private park below. The air whooshed by as they fell through the air, the trees and the ground looming closer and closer until finally, they broke through the treetops and landed hard, breaking the earth and sending dirt and displaced air in every direction.

Screams and shouts of alarm could be heard, and Illya pulled strands of her hair free, casting an aria as she did so. "Kill." She commanded her constructs, and they flew out, through the clouds of dirt, the screams growing and joined by those of pain only to be quickly cut off, punctuated by the dull sounds of bodies falling to the ground.

And there was another sound, that of insect wings. Illya blinked and scoffed, jumping off Berserker's shoulders before holding out her hands in opposite directions and twirling once, in a complete, three hundred and sixty-degree rotation. The air grew searing hot, and was blasted away in every direction along with the dust clouds and the Matou familiars.

There was a shout of pain from the front, and Illya narrowed her eyes at a half-naked Shinji clutching at his burned face, his clothes singed along with those of the girl behind him, exposed skin red and sore. Illya gestured, and one of her constructs flew up and then shot straight at them, the Matou's paramour abruptly jerking once before slumping down after Illya had given her head an air vent through and through.

"You are without a doubt, an incredibly-twisted individual." Illya remarked. "Doing naughty things in public? Then again, why do I even bother to expect better?"

"Don't talk as though you're any better!" Shinji spat as he staggered to his feet and back a couple of steps. "You killed everyone in this park! They weren't even involved…!"

"No witnesses!" Illya interrupted. "And this is a private park. No one will be getting out soon because of me, and because of what this place is no one will be coming in either. Long enough for me to finish this at least. So, let's begin shall we? Berserker, drag his sorry ass to my castle, so I can start cutting him up!"

"Rider!"

Blood flew through the air, the Gorgon Medusa's, and with a powerful surge of prana and a blast of wind Pegasus was summoned once more. Illya's eyes widened with alarm and she quickly ran to one side as Berserker roared, and charged.

Shinji likewise ran for cover as Rider mounted Pegasus, driving his mount forward and up into the sky, bowling Berserker back several steps as he gathered altitude. "So you're going to try and use your Noble Phantasm from before?" Illya whispered with a bloodthirsty grin. "Humph…it is worthless!"

Looking around, Illya ran to pursue Shinji, eventually catching sight of him entering a large, glass and steel building. A powerful wind began to build up, and Illya came to a halt as she looked up and behind her, seeing a great, silver comet rising into the sky and coming around, descended to the earth.

Narrowing her eyes, and then glancing once at the building where Shinji was hiding in, thought better than to enter it. Rider's Noble Phantasm might be useless against Berserker, but only against Berserker.

Whatever collateral damage an anti-army Noble Phantasm would inflict would still be inflicted…and judging from what she was seeing and feeling, going inside a largely-glass building was a very bad idea. Instead, she ran to a nearby patch of trees, and took cover under them.

Just moments later a thunderous boom erupted up from the sky, threatening to deafen Illya as the ground shook and the trees buckled from the waves of displaced air, branches snapping en masse. Illya covered her head with her crossed arms to protect it from falling debris, and with a groan a few trees were partly-uprooted.

But as it quickly came, the effects subsided, and Illya began to laugh.

Berserker had won.

The Pegasus lay dead on the ground, its wings crushed by Berserker's grip and its head bashed open by a head-butt from the Servant of Madness.

Somehow, even as Bellerophon chewed up the earth and displaced the air with enough force to raze surrounding buildings and the ground below…Berserker was completely unaffected. Even as the ground below him crumpled and broke, the giant had somehow managed to remain undamaged, discarding his axe and somehow keeping its footing before catching the Pegasus by its wings.

Berserker closed his hands and with a roar slammed his head against the Pegasus' own. Rider threw himself from the Pegasus' back and looked on in horror from a small distance away. Berserker turned to him, and with a growl picked up his axe.

"Who…just who…just who in the gods' names are you?" Rider roared, and Berserker roared back before charging.

Rider grit his teeth in frustration even as winged sandals appeared on his feet, and flying up and away narrowly avoided Berserker's two-handed strike. Soaring out of the crater and over the ruined ground, Rider looked back over a shoulder just in time to see Berserker jump out with a roar and come running after him.

"Looks like it's come to this, huh?" Rider thought. "Alright…Harpe won't work…but that just might…let's do this!"

Picking up speed, Rider led Berserker on a chase across the ruins of the private park, around piles of rubble and over broken trees and torn up ground, Berserker growing increasingly frustrated at his inability to close the distance. Unnoticed, Rider smirked at Berserker's roar.

Just as planned.

Slowly but steadily, Rider reduced his speed, allowing Berserker to catch up to him. Over several minutes, Rider allowed Berserker to close the distance, until finally judging he'd reached the limit, and built up Berserker's frustration and eagerness as much as possible to completely neutralize what little rationality the Servant of Madness had left, abruptly decelerated, twisting to the side and shot past behind the surprised Berserker.

The winged sandals vanished as Kibisis appeared in Rider's hand, the Servant landing hard and skidding back several meters on the ruined ground. Berserker turned and with a roar charged, raising his axe two-handed into the air, even as Rider put his hand into Kibisis, and grabbing onto long, silky hair, pulled out the head of a beautiful woman, eyes with violet irises and square pupils staring out blankly into the air.

The air shuddered even at the dead gaze of a Gorgon, patches of Berserker's skin turning to stone which steadily spread, covering his body and sinking deeper, turning his flesh into lifeless stone. A growl of utter rage and frustration escaped the giant's lips as it struggled to close the distance, stone flexing and cracking as what flesh was beneath continued to move, driven by superhuman will infused with divine might.

Stone cracked and popped, Berserker's legs and body finally coming to a halt a step away from Rider, Berserker's axe slowly dropping towards Rider's head before stopping an inch away, the Servant of Madness completely petrified. Gasping out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding, Rider stuffed Medusa's head back into Kibisis, and taking a deep breath regarded the lifeless statue behind him.

"It worked, thank the gods." Rider breathed in relief. He then smiled, fondly recalling a memory when he'd used a similar trick to save the woman he'd loved from the monster Cetus.

Tapping Berserker's statue once to be sure, Rider turned and left, hurrying over the ruined ground to where his Master was.

Silence reigned over the battlefield, save for the distant sounds of people and of emergency vehicles. And then…

…the statue that was Berserker cracked. Once, twice, three times and more, more and more light filtering out from within through the cracks.

Even as Rider led Berserker on a merry chase through the ruined park, Illya heaved broken branches off of her, blew a broken trunk off her legs, spat out some blood, got up, patted herself clean, and wiped at a cut on her cheek. Glaring at the ruined building nearby, Illya made new constructs, and ordered them to find her prey.

As they flew off, Illya stepped closer but didn't actually enter the ruins, instead exorcising her anger by throwing energy blasts around and further tearing the ruins apart. She didn't do this for long however, as Shinji was quickly found.

The Matou was lying on his back against a piece of broken masonry, breathing heavily with blood staining his chin. A long trail of blood led further into the ruins, indicating he'd dragged himself – no doubt trying to escape – to this point, with dead worms lying amidst the blood.

"Look at you." Illya sneered, coldly regarding the disemboweled Matou before her. "How so very pathetic…why did we ever lower ourselves to deal with the likes of you? Tohsaka might be upstarts, Emiya even more so…but they have more respectability to them than any of your worthless family have ever had. Disgusting…"

Illya spat at Shinji's feet. "I've changed my mind." She said. "I don't think I'll learn anything from cutting you up in my castle. I'll end you here and now, and after you I'm going to do the same to that walking plague which spawned your entire filthy family."

Power began to build, bring a sensation of something incredibly vast looming overhead despite being invisible, and Shinji grit his teeth while gurgling up more blood. "Any last words, little worm?" Illya sneered.

"No…NO…NO!" Shinji spat. "YOU WILL DIE!"

Opening all his circuits, Shinji absorbed all the heat in the air in the immediate area, causing blood and fluid to flash-freeze as temperatures abruptly dropped to below freezing. Illya scowled as the sudden cold bit into her, and she gestured, displaced air cracking as Shinji was blown back and away, through the masonry he'd been leaning against, bloody intestines spooling out along with more blood and even torn off pieces of flesh and organs. Dead and living worms flew through the air, one of the latter landing on Illya's shoulder and immediately trying to bite through her clothes and into her body.

Slowly, as though not quite believing what had happened, Illya turned her head, staring at the crest worm on her shoulder. Just as slowly, she raised a hand and picked it up, holding it before her and feeling it squirm in her hand.

Rage…complete and utter rage…

"Makiri…" Illya whispered, every word dripping with pure venom, knowing full well what and more importantly who the crest worms were. "How dare you? How dare you? How dare you?"

Illya slowly squeezed, crushing the crest worm to pulp. "You will never have her, or any of her." she spat. "You don't deserve us. You never have! Not even close!"

Holding out her other hand, energy pooled in Illya's hand, prepared to unleash a ravening blast of energy to wipe the last of Makiri's foul descendants from the face of the Earth, and then afterwards…

But then all of a sudden Illya staggered in shock, her knees nearly failing her and all but causing her to fall. "No…again…six times again…" she whispered, looking in Berserker's direction with an expression of horror on his face. "His last life…Berserker…how?"

Clutching at her chest, Illya staggered back a couple of steps, shaking her head in disbelief. An approaching figure caught her attention, and then Rider was there, scythe raised before him as he stood protectively between his Master and Illya.

"It'd be so easy to kill you, here and now." Rider growled. "I won't enjoy it, but I can and I will if I have to."

"Then why don't you?" Illya challenged.

"Well, for one thing your Servant is defeated." Rider said. "You're not an enemy anymore, not really. There's no point in killing you. And besides, I need to get my Master to safety and help. No thanks to you, he might die if I don't."

Illya scoffed. "For your information," she said. "He was already disemboweled and bleeding out when I found him like that. All because that Noble Phantasm of yours blew up the building he was hiding in. So who did that to your Master again?"

Rider grit his teeth, and Illya smirked. She knew she was right, and he couldn't deny it. "That may be so," Rider conceded. "But I doubt your actions after you found him were in any way helpful…"

The Servant broke off as a pillar of light split the heavens in the distance, and Illya's command spells flashed all across her body. "Defeated, eh?" Illya asked with a smirk. "I think not. Did you think it would be that easy? You stupid Rider, my Servant is the greatest hero of Greece, don't you know? He's Hercules! You're just a little bug to him!"

"Heracles?" Rider echoed in shock and disbelief. "But that means…no…"

"Yes," Illya said. "That's his Noble Phantasm: God Hand. For every one of the labors he accomplished, he receives an extra life. I wonder how many did you take from him by now? Not enough, obviously, and I doubt he'd appreciate what you took from him."

Rider grit his teeth again. "I could still kill you here and now." He spat.

"It only takes a thought, you know?" Illya sneered. "It'd be like stuffing bugs into a press and then pressing down."

Rider didn't answer, instead stepping back and kneeling down, grabbed his Master's body and slinging it over a shoulder while keeping an eye on Illya all the while. "Running away with your tail between your legs?" Illya mocked. "Well fine…I'll let you go…again."

Illya paused, her face twisting in disgust as she wiped the slime of a crest worm off her left hand with a kerchief which she then threw away. "I'm tired anyway," she said. "And I want to bathe so I can…clean, this filth off. Now, go!"

Rider didn't say or gesture anything to Illya. He just turned and leapt away, vanishing into the night. Once he was out of sight, Illya scowled, dropping the façade of confidence she'd used to help bluff that her position was stronger than it actually was. Berserker was down to his last life, and it'd take another three days to recharge God Hand enough to get that up to three.

She was in a very difficult position now…and all because the Matou had a Servant they didn't deserve to have.

Worms should just quietly lie and squirm in the dirt, and let themselves be stepped on and crushed by their betters!

They should neither walk, speak, or even try to be better than what they are!

Worms are worms and that's all they will ever be!

"Don't think you'll get away next time." Illya whispered. "Berserker, let's go home."

A/N

Berserker starts with twelve lives. In the first Rider vs. Berserker battle, Bellerophon takes six lives. It's been almost three days since, so Berserker now has gained another life – yes God Hand recharges at a rate of two lives per three days – for a total of seven. Medusa's Mystic Eyes take another six…leaving Berserker with one.

Yeah, Illya is pissed.