Whew, it took more than a month to finally wrap up. Here it is, folks: Role Reversal 7. I do hope you enjoy it! I've tried to put a bit more "life" into the prose. I think I've almost got it, but I'm not quite there yet. Also, I managed to squeeze in a little Saber and Altria Support Conversations. Hopefully I've bumped them up to a C ranked Support. (Hue hue FE reference.)

Oh, and if you have any questions, feel free to leave them in a review!

Enjoy! (And thanks, Wrathie Winsre, for beta reading.)

Chapter 7: The Great Escape

There were a lot of things I wanted to ask of the man in front of me.

First of all, why didn't Saber respond to my call? The Command Spell is, well, very commanding; it can transcend time and space and bend the very fabric of the world in order for the Servant to be able to fulfill the Master's will. If it could do all that, why wouldn't it transport Saber a few hundred meters to my side? There had to be something on his end that halted the order. Jeez, what a buggy Grail War. Hm... maybe it had something to do with the Command Seals on the back of his hand.

Yep, they were there: convoluted scarlet lines in the form of a sheathed sword. The only difference between his Seals and mine aside from the design were that his were bleeding. Sanguine blood poured out of the Seals like a dripping faucet, slowly yet surely leaking out Saber's life essence.

But I asked none of these questions. The only words that left my mouth were, "Let's just chase after her!"

I gasped as Saber's well-built arm encircled my waist. He picked me up and leaped, soaring a hundred meters above the ground, as I flooded my eyes with prana. From up here, I could see with my Reinforced eyes a cloaked figure dashing - more like floating - above the ground, snaking along the quiet roads with the speed of a car. Luckily, if Caster was a normal sedan, Saber was a motorbike. On steroids. I was forced to Reinforce my soft tummy so it wouldn't pop as my Servant raced at full speed to catch up to that witch.

Once Saber was about ten meters away from Caster, dark tendrils of prana shot out from her, flying straight towards my Servant. Since he had me in one of his arms, he wouldn't be able to parry the blow away. Saber was forced to back off, the spear-like appendage failing to draw blood from his neck as it stabbed the air just in front of him.

We kept up the chase, racing past the suburbs as we approached the long bridge separating the residential area and Shinto. Saber, who still had me in his grasp, said, "So she's going to use the high-rise commercial buildings for cover... I think we can use that to our advantage."

"How?" I asked, still feeling a bit useless. I was unarmed, having left Clarent on the rooftop. If I had only thought of picking it up before Caster scooped me up in her arms, I'd be able to annoy her a bit with my Air Strikes or even speed us up a bit by firing it behind us. Right now, I was just dead weight. Without responding, Saber tossed me a pair of... things: two identical brass knuckle-like grips with an arrowhead sticking out of a can that connected the two parts together. I clutched the two devices to my chest. They didn't feel normal; they were calling out to me, almost.

"They're called hookshots. They'll claw into whatever surface you fire it onto and you'll fly towards it. Since we're going into an area with a lot of tall skyscrapers, you should have a lot of surfaces to hook to. That way, my hands are free so I can approach better, and you can still follow from behind me," Saber said.

"Hm, but what if she targets me?"

"Of course I'll prioritize your safety over your brother's... but I'd like to save both of you, if you don't mind," Saber choked out. I looked at his face. His expression was unlike any other. It was one of blinding passion, sure, but there was something off, like he was masking something. Masking... regret. Yes, that was what I sensed. Regret and sorrow were pouring off of him in waves; I could practically see it, and thanks to our Master-Servant connection, I could see the cause.

A dying girl with a dagger plunged into her neck...

"Alright, Saber, I'll make sure to stay a safe distance away," I replied. And now that I was done focusing on my Servant, I looked behind myself, staring at the blue eyed girl following us. She and Shirou were practically back-to-back when Caster had busted into the Archery dojo, so just what were they doing? They sure didn't look like just a Senpai-Kouhai duo; now I'm sure they had a lot more history than what Rin said. Such is the power of a concerned Nee-chan's intuition.

Then we reached the bridge. This long, unexciting length of steel and asphalt was mostly for cars and taxis that needed to cross the gap. It was rare to see someone walk along the side, since public transportation was so readily available, so they made the sidewalk part very small: maybe big enough to fit one fat person.

Well, Caster made it a little bigger so that her stupid cloak could fit. The sharp tentacles protruding from the Servant slid along the handrails protecting us from the river below, causing the metal pipes to fall into the water with a resounding splash. Then, all of a sudden, a dark spike of darkness jumped out of her cloak, whipped back, and sprung at us.

"Master, take care!" Saber shouted, as he launched me up in the air, flying over the tentacle so that he could slide underneath it. I flew, the Servants below me soon becoming tiny little dots as I gained height. I could make out the hole that the tentacle made in the bridge which forced Archer to jump over them, making their pair lag behind. Then I noticed something.

I was falling pretty fast now.

"Holy shit!" I cried, desperately whipping out the metal hookshots and gripping them tightly. I held out my arm, my eyes pointed at one of the metal supports of the bridge. I could not mess up. Saber was too busy dodging the tendrils of prana to catch me without stopping the pursuit, and Archer was too far behind, having to jump and watch out for potential attacks at the same time. The only one who could save me was myself.

I fired, the arrowhead - which was connected to the handle via chains - sinking into the metal. Once it plunged itself into the surface, I was tugged towards it at neck-breaking speeds, the chain and the arrowhead desperate to reunite. Wind blew past me, my body resembling an arrow as I flew towards the surface, clinging onto the metal suspension tower, both feet pressed against it.

I didn't have time to enjoy the chilly breeze caress me as I heard something pierce the wind around me. I looked down in time to see an overly long and overly thick tentacle race for me. I guess Caster channeled more prana into this one to increase its effective range, making it thicker and longer. At this rate it wouldn't impale me; it could squish me into a grease spot now.

Acting quick on my feet, I lifted my arm, aiming at the tower parallel to mine. Pulling the trigger, I was dragged to the other side, while the tentacle was on hot pursuit, barely a few meters behind me. I continued to set the pace, firing mid-flight at the tower to my right. As it sunk into the red metal of the tower, I released the hookshot's grip of the previous one, now swinging towards the opposite direction. I felt in complete control: these weapons, if they were even weapons, were so mobile, so free. We kept up our zig-zag dance of death till some of his friends joined in, flying straight towards me.

To give a better picture of my situation, I'd have to explain the architecture of Fuyuki's bridge. It was like your usual suspension bridge, only instead of multiple cable wires and a few towers holding the bridge up, there were multiple towers all connected by two arches. I was currently at the peak of one of the arches, with Tentacle #1 flying at me head on. Tentacle #2, if my quick-as-shit glance over the side could be trusted, was cutting off my escape going towards Caster. It seemed to be angled downwards, so if I tried to swing down it could dice me up mid-swing. Tentacle #3 was doing the same thing, only it was behind me. I was backed in a corner, basically: out of the frying pan and into the fire.

I guess it was time to get my ass out of that fire.

Instead of hooking to a tower, I jumped up, using the already-embedded hookshot as leverage to push myself up higher. I landed on the top of the slope, just as the tentacle rammed into the tower with a resounding clang. The metal vibrated, shaking me and almost knocking me off-balance. Luckily, I crouched low, regaining my balance. I took a quick peek over the edge, the dark waters of the Mion river reminding me that if I fell into its embrace, I'd never see the light of day.

I shook my head of these thoughts as the two other tentacles turned around, business ends pointed at me. I quickly fired the hookshot in front of me, pulling myself towards the end of the arch. It was like a slide, only it was perched a few hundred meters above the river and I was going down at twice my running rate. I could feel the wind in my face as I raced against the two tendrils that moved like double helices, slowly closing in to envelop me so I couldn't hookshot to safety.

"C'mon, just a few more meters!" I cried, as the tentacles came close enough to touch my ahoge.

Three meters.

Two meters.

One meter.

I leaped, sliding through a small gap left by the revolving tentacles and hitting the ground Reinforced-butt first. The appendages of prana didn't have the same kind of landing. They slammed into the ground, uprooting concrete and tiling as they plunged into the earth, fading away into mana.

I had no time to celebrate my successful escape as I was whisked into Saber's grasp yet again, still hot on pursuit of Caster. Speaking of Caster, she seemed to be growing angry. The tendrils seemed to be traveling faster, with more precision as they sought out our flesh. Fortunately, we were still all in good shape. Archer and Rin's team were a little too far from Caster to suffer her full assault, so they only had to deal with the holes and debris that her attacks on Saber left in the bridge, leaving them without a scratch. Speaking of Saber, he didn't seem so bad either, aside from the sweat pouring down his fatigued face and the still-bleeding Seals of his.

"Annoying thieves, take this!" Caster suddenly turned around mid-flight, a purple blob of concentrated prana forming in her hands. She thrust her hands away from herself, throwing the dark ball to the side, crashing it into a business building. Then the ball suddenly grew, expanding as if it was eating up the matter around it. Once it stopped, it was as tall as a fucking house. It was not at intimidating or as ominous as that Shadow we had fought the other day. No, it made up for that with sheer size. I felt like it could pick me up with its long ribbon like arms and toss me aside, just like what Caster did with Rider. Its glowing purple eyes accentuated its danger level; if we didn't take this thing down now, we wouldn't have a city left by the time the sun rises.

"Archer," I could hear Rin say from behind me, "can you take out that thing in one shot? We can't afford to lose Caster with Shi- Emiya-kun in her clutches!"

"Man, what a bunch of jokers. There's no way you can take out my Shadow Giant in one hit!" Caster sneered, sticking out her tongue like a little kid. Well, at least that was what I could make out from that distance.

Archer didn't reply. Instead he dropped to the ground as we closed in on the Giant, pulling out a dark bow. It was unlike the bows I've seen used by Archery club members. It was as black as obsidian, just as dark as the other half of Saber's pair of blades. In his other hand was a weird… sword. But it wasn't a sword. Yes, it had a handle and a blade, but it wasn't a sword. The blade was warped, coiled into a spiral, into a drill. Even from far away, I could hear him say something.

I AM THE BONE OF MY SWORD.

"Oh shit," Saber swore, finally turning to see his allied Servant wield his bow. Twisting mid air, he dropped me, forcing me to hook to a nearby building. I could almost see his mind race as his auburn eyes stared into my green ones. He must have made up his mind, as he held out his hand, a black bow suddenly appearing in it. He must have Projected the same bow, but just what the heck was going through Saber's mind? He was a Saber: not an Archer. Even so, he materialized the same twisted blade into his other hand, nocking it onto his bow as he said:

I AM THE BONE OF MY SWORD.

'Same aria, same bow… just what is my Servant thinking?'

"Caladbolg!" they both yelled, firing their arrows at the same time. Tendrils of wind gushed out, cast aside by the aerodynamic form of the two arrows. I could barely hear my thoughts. It was like being in the middle of two wind tunnels; all you would do was get crushed in the middle. And that's what happened: everything got crushed once the two drill-like arrows crashed into each other. An explosion, which shattered the windows of the surrounding buildings due to the force. The ball of flames expanded, almost engulfing an entire intersection's worth of space. If it wasn't mid air, we'd have a lot more collateral damage on our hands. I soaked all that in. Just… what happened? They used the same bow, the same arrow, the same aria, and the results were insane. It seems that I wasn't the only one intrigued.

"Hahaha, you never seem to fail to entertain me, Saber! You saved my Giant and I - well, and the lives of you, your Master, and my Master, to be honest - and with the same set of weapons too. That's why I like ya!" Caster cheered, clapping her arms together. Reinforcing my eyes, I could see Shirou in her grasp, pale at the destruction done to his city. "Now I just have to give you a gift for all your hard work, Saber! Okay, that was a fun little chase, but I have to go now. Toodles!"

She and her Giant disappear into thin air as I slowly descend from my perch on this random building, bringing Shirou with her. Damn! We failed. My knuckles grew white as my grip on these hookshots grew tighter and tighter out of frustration. We almost had him! If we had only played this safe, with one of the pairs restraining the beast while the other pair resumed the chase, we could have had a chance.

As I descended, Saber and I regrouped and approached the other two. Saber didn't look so hot. While he was physically okay, his mind seemed cluttered, frustration clear on his sweaty face. On the other side of the Servant spectrum, Archer was as calm as ever, looking like he didn't really care where Shirou went off to nor was he surprised to find that they canceled out each others attacks with the exact same things, but I had no time to think about him. I instead focused on his Master, sending her a sharp glare. She made sure to send one right back, blue eyes versus green.

"Rin, why did you let Archer do that?" I argue as the hookshots faded, letting me cross my arms over my modest chest. "You would have gotten all of us killed!"

"But if you just went around the beast and nabbed Shirou, we would have killed the Giant, maybe even Caster, and we'd have Shirou back with us!" Rin angrily replied, not even noticing her slip of the tongue. "Aka a complete victory! But no, you were simply too slow to keep up with my plan."

"If you had given us a few more moments to do so, then yeah, you'd be right, but no. The moment she spawned in that Giant, you go all bombs away with your Servant. Geez, what a horrible time to have bad communication. Making these small mistakes must be a bad habit of yours, huh? And you're a smart girl too. What a shame." Saber and Archer got the bright idea of backing off from the catfight that was about to ensue.

"Excuse me? If it wasn't for me and my Gandr shots, you would have had a lot more than three measly tentacles on your tail at the bridge, but you didn't notice," Rin countered. She got me there; maybe she kept Caster's other tentacles focused on her, Archer, and Saber. How should I know? I was a little too busy trying not to get killed. Before I could voice my complaints, the pig-tailed magus continued, "I guess we can't work together after all, Altria! I'm calling off this truce. Archer, we're leaving."

Archer, instantly appearing by her side, picked her up and took off, disappearing into the night before I could put in a word. I was so angry right now. Fists balled up, I turned around and looked at my Servant, who was staring at the spot Archer used to be at with a sad look.

"Saber, you have a lot of explaining to do, but first go get Clarent, then go home. We'll start planning out Shirou's rescue soon."

XOXOXOX

"What are you doing, Saber?"

We were back at the Emiya household. I was sitting seiza-style on the cushion, hands balled up in my lap as I waited for my Servant at the low table. Damn, the results so far were horrible; I almost died - again. On the first night, it was Lancer trying to turn my organs into shish kebab with his cursed spear. Right after that, the albino Einzbern girl showed off that pumped-full-of-steroids Berserker of hers. The night after that, Caster attacks us with those dark minions of hers, and the femme fatale suddenly reappears by her Master's side while mine refuses to do so.

Which reminds me: I've been abandoned a lot too. Saber involuntarily (?) ignores my Command Spell and as a result leaves me for dead at the hands of the purple-haired Servant, and Rin decides that victory her way is worth more than her promise to my brother and calls off our truce.

And I lost Shirou...

"I have to comfort my Master in her time of need," Saber replied, dusting off the apron he just donned. I looked up at him. His golden eyes were no longer the cold orbs of steel he usually had on; they held a slight warmth in them. That warmth was accentuated by his minuscule smile. Pointing towards the kitchen with the ladle in his hand, he continued, "And this is one of the only ways I know."

"...Thanks." With a nod of acknowledgement, Saber went into the kitchen, the sounds of sizzling pans and a knife hitting the cutting board starting to fill the rather empty room. "We have a lot to deal with, huh, Saber? Save Shirou, fight off all those other Masters - now including Rin - and your super-secret plans... it's like we're surrounded by enemies."

"I guess so. Thinking about it, we sure do have a lot of enemies, don't we?" I could almost hear the grin on his face as he continued to prepare his masterpiece, and that grin had nothing to do with his food, I can bet you that. Maybe it was an inside joke.

"Yes, it seems so," I replied, and I could have sworn the grin got bigger. Shoving those thoughts aside, I continued, "By the way, what happened to your hand? Did Rider try to inscribe a doodle onto or something?" I saw his shoulder flinch. He looked over his shoulder, staring at me with those eyes of his. They were back to normal: so full of steel a magnet could stick to them.

"Forgive me, Master. It seems that because of my hasty summoning, I can't respond to your Command Spells, though I can still sense the prana flowing from you, so the contract is still working... As for why it looks the way it does, I have no idea." While the other things he said were probably true, that last part was a lie. 'I have no idea' my ass. If he really had no idea, he probably wouldn't have brought up the design of his wounds. I did dismiss it as a simple doodle. Still, I had a feeling that pressing him wouldn't yield anything, so I held back.

Then I processed the information. Not being able to empower him beyond his abilities, summon him to my side instantly, or patch up fatal wounds for him during battle was a huge disadvantage. Oh well, at least we still had that prana transfer. It would have been even worse if he couldn't receive mana from me: he would probably only be able to use a limited amount of spells, maybe just a single Noble Phantasm, before fading. Man, I feel bad for the poor sucker who had to deal with that.

"Moving along, just what are your plans for this war, exactly?" I asked up front. There was no point trying to trick the answer out of him. I was his Master and he was my Servant; he had no reason to hide his intentions from me, aside from his oh-so important hidden identity.

"It's a little hard to explain without revealing too much about myself, but I intend to save someone. She's going to end up going berserk if I don't do anything to stop her." At this moment, Saber goes out of the kitchen, his arms lined with delicacies galore. He put all the dishes down, the alluring smell of the treats causing my tummy to rumble. I could feel my mouth water at the mere sight of his creations, but I patted my cheeks, forcing myself to focus on him. "There's only one problem: she's an enemy Master."

"...I think I misheard you, Saber," I muttered, gripping my chopsticks so tightly that they would have snapped if I hadn't flooded the darn sticks with prana out of instinct. Just who was he talking about? Rin? She didn't seem in danger, but who knew her, really? That mask she puts up, while it still leaks out anger and frustration sometimes, is really good. It's hard to get a good read on her most of the time, so it's possible that under tough and confident exterior lies a crazy girl waiting to burst. Or maybe he's worried about the white-haired girl? She knew Kiritsugu; she could have known my Servant too. Heck, it could be someone I've yet to encounter. "So you're going to betray me?"

"Of course not. I can save her while still taking her out of the war. I would never betray you." Again with those warm yet cold eyes of his. It was like he wasn't telling me that because I was his Master or something, but that was impossible. We've only known each other for a few days, after all, so we were far from the "trustworthy friends" stage. This Saber is a weird Servant. "But enough of that. Let's dig in."

I resigned to interrogating him the next day. I brought a small bite to my mouth and swallowed it. Smiling faintly, I replied, "Delicious."

Oh, and to that guy who thinks the name "Altria" is stupid compared to "Arturia"... you're right. Arturia hints at her true identity while still giving her a feminine feel. Altria lacks that Arthur-ness. The reason why I still went with Altria was because I had just read the story behind it and thought it was cute. (For those who don't know, apparently the katakana for A-ru-to-ri-a is supposed to romanise into "Altria" and not "Arturia", which we thought was the correct spelling all this time.) After a while of writing "Altria", it just kinda stuck.

Next chapter: Altria is determined, Rin is pissed, and Shirou is still with Caster. Oh, and what has Ilya been up to?