Chapter 10: Staining Yourself

Emiya Residence:

It was a tense situation, both sisters were in the dining room. Both of them hadn't made eye contact for the past hour and the only thing that broken the silence was the sound of Rin's knife chopping away at tomatoes and onions. She looked at the time; Shirou still wasn't home yet. What worried her was that he didn't call his own landline to inform her that he would be late.

Archer? It's been two and a half hours since Shirou left, he's taking too long and I've felt spikes of prana. I want you to go support him and bring him back home safely… I have to stay and watch over Sakura.

Archer blinked, he stared at his master hesitantly, considering that other masters had the possibility to attack the Emiya Residence and that Matou Sakura was an unknown factor. Despite having command seals, what if the enemy was quick, skilled and efficiently disposed of her… Rin wouldn't even have a chance to react to summon him.

Rin, that's too reckless… We both know those wards you put on the house can easily be bypassed by any Assassin or Caster without triggering them. You should also remember that we don't know enough about Matou Sakura… His eyes wandered in Sakura's direction to see whether she reacted. She didn't…

I can't just leave Shirou to die, he's- Rin mind trailed off as she struggled to regain her thoughts

He's my partner… I don't want to be bad partner to him.

Archer twitched, gritting his teeth slightly as he saw Rin's face mellow. That girl was not thinking properly, at times like this it was far better to leave Emiya Shirou to fend for himself. He wasn't even by himself anyway! He had low quality but decently functioning magic circuits and a devoted Saber class servant that could replenish her prana and use her noble phantasm.

Rin, he is useless… If you keep him, you have a far lower chance of winning the war. Emiya Shirou is a burden and you know this; are you saying you care more about him then the war? Archer hid a smirk as he could see his master staring at him from the corner of his eye whilst washing fruits in the kitchen. She scowled at him, Shirou was useful and Archer's unwillingness to see him as such was simply irrational. She cocked her head to the side, perhaps this obstinacy was related to his legend somehow?

Just shut up and do what I tell you to! You are my servant anyway. Rin sighed heavily as Archer disappeared from view.

Aestus Domus Aurea,?:?:

Flaming sword, cursed lance… The noiseless battle destroyed the theatre piece by piece as large parts of it were torn asunder by the force emanated from each of their weapons. Neither Bazett nor Shirou could see them, but the two servants known as Nero and Cu Chulainn darted all over the enormous arena.

Just by fighting, they made the entire area hazardous as they were no longer limited by restraint as they were no longer in the true world. They were in her world, Nero's world… They were fighting evenly, but it would have been clear to any observer that Lancer was at a clear disadvantage, he was quickly being brought to his knees. Even without movement, he felt his energy sap in this foreign structure; not only that, but she was getting more and more difficult to fight by the second. The situation was bad for him, not only because of her increase in power, but also because the gulf between them kept changing which resulted in him misjudging most of her attacks.

Tension filled his brain as he watched his master slug hers across the face. Yes, it was his profusely bleeding master who was actually in worse condition then the boy who seemed to be nothing but bones and skin now rather than containing any blood. That boy had shown regenerative powers beyond his imagination from what he had observed between their fight before the witch had cast her wretched reality upon him.

"Shirou, stay behind me!" After seeing Shirou get hit several times and staring at a piece of his bone unraveled by one of Bazett's strikes, Shirou's servant could take no more of his being pummeled by his opponent. At this point, she was faster than Lancer so she easily disengaged from the battle and stood in front of Shirou.

Shirou himself was barely conscious and was beginning to have a horrible headache. His constant alterations of reality had begun to destroy his mind. By the time he had noticed the form of Saber cover his eyes, he had to concentrate hard to recognize her. Whatever was his consciousness had already retreated deep inside him.

"I'll be okay, we need to survive remember? I may be an incompetent master compared to her, but I don't want to be a burden to you." He told the girl whose name he had forgotten.

"Nonsense! I don't think you're a burden. I just don't want to place you in danger unnecessarily as this is a fight I can overcome without you." Saber retorted, but to Shirou that response was no good. He stared at Lancer who was watching intently, knowing Saber was still on guard. Bazett was also forced to freeze as she could not go up against a servant.

"S… Listen to me, we can't win this if you keep protecting me. It'll take all you have in this theatre to keep them from getting to me. When this theatre runs out they'll win anyway so we have to win while your noble phantasm is still up! So don't worry about me." Shirou urged her, but she instantly became teary-eyed.

"Don't you understand?! I've seen you and you can't beat the one I'll be leaving you to face. I don't want to see my master get hurt over and over again because of his stupid recklessness and my own negligence of his safety. It will take a few minutes for me to beat Lancer-" Her breath ran out at that point and she was forced to start again.

"In those few minutes she can destroy you over and over again until you die. Even with my master's power, he will not be able to save himself." A free tear stumbled across her cheek.

"Watch me!" Her eyes widened as she nodded and wiped away her tears.

"I'll defile your corpse if you die, so bring her to her knees!" The Empress threatened him, turning to Lancer with renewed vigor.

"Prepare to die you stupid mutt!" Her sword blazed with scorching fury, all of it was directed towards the Irishman as he, himself prepared to stand against it once again.

"Likewise, you blonde bimbo!"

With Shirou

Memories of Emiya Shirou cycled through his mind, the short decade that he knew of was being hammered down at and broken into fragments of what he once knew. He turned towards his bloody enemy, his single obstacle of the night.

The seething pain ate him over and over again, broken bones didn't hurt him, open wounds didn't hurt him, and the twisting of his nerves didn't hurt him. Nothing was as painful as….

"Are you going to fight me instead of being tossed around like a stupid ragdoll?" His adversary said some words that didn't interest him in the slightest. Her bored expression failed to daunt him as he looked into his broken mind with determination.

"Reality Shatter!" His body convulsed as he fell onto the floor, in his hands were two twin blades that shined spectacularly; one yang and one yin blade. Or at least that should've been what happened. But Emiya Shirou had forgotten what they looked like and instead produced claws with an unperceivable color.

His body twitched as he struggled to get up, the memories of the blades attempted to drive him insane as his eyes clammed shut.

He could almost feel himself slaughtering and murdering thousands of people for every second he held onto the wretched thing. It made him sick, but he didn't feel as repulsed as he thought he should have… Was he enjoying it?

Every second the chain that held his memories seemed to become more and more fragmented, sensing danger he stood up and deflected a person's hand with the blunt end of the claw.

"Huh?" He looked at the claw dumbly, he had forgotten there were no blunt ends on the strange weapon. He had cleanly cut off her hand. How could he have been so stupid? His own hands were bleeding because there were no blunt ends, yet he thought that there were blunt ends.

"Ergh…" Bazett retreated for a second, clearly confused at what just happened until she saw blood dripping next to her. She slowly turned her head and finally realized that…

Her hand was gone.

Her hand was gone.

Why was her hand gone?

No it wasn't gone, it was right next to the boy with the dangerous looking claws that had cut it off, leaving her with a bleeding wrist. Even with magic the loss of blood was too dangerous and called for an immediate retreat. She couldn't, because the boy right in front of her was going to kill her and there was no hope of contending against his speed with all her comparatively measly abilities. She briefly wondered if this was what she looked like when facing weak insects.

"I…" Shirou stared the claws, horrified at the images that were being projected in his head.

"kill, Kill, KIll, KILl, KILL! Murder, ravage, destroy, seize, break, kill, slay, slaughter…"

Drop it! Drop it! Get away from my goddamn hands! His weak mental abhorrence failed to have much of an effect against the claws which seemed to have melded into his body; it felt not unlike a body part that was with him since he was born. No matter what, to a normal human, cutting off one's own body parts would feel unusual and incorrect.

Shirou didn't have time to dwell for too long, every second he used such a power, one more memory from his life would leave him, be it the girl's name, Sakura, Tohsaka, Kiritsugu or others. There was also an agonizing fire that he continued to see, the bodies of burning corpses screaming were distracting him from finishing the obstacle in front of him as soon as possible.

"Come to me you coward!" Bazett attempted to draw him towards her, seeing as it was her only choice of victory as she wanted to be able to react to finish him off, but even then she knew she was outclassed.

To her surprise, her enemy moved.

Shirou rushed for her, not bothering to use his claws as he knew they would kill her; he aimed his legs directly at her feet, but there was no logic to what had happened next.

"Kill, kill, slaughter, die, murder, fall, consume, ravage, steal- you liar, enjoyment, hypocrisy- you traitor, lust, embezzle, commit, deprive- deprived? Abortion?"

His legs gravitated towards her neck senselessly as he kicked, it was meant to be a harmless kick… Completely harmless… Something that was meant to disable and had no threat to life. There wasn't any sense in the fact that his leg had moved, he could only describe it as being possessed. Possessed by a murderer or a demon? Or maybe he enjoyed this? No… That couldn't be, he was aiming for the legs! How did it go to her neck?

Bazett's neck crumpled due to the force and was messily ripped off, leaving a dead, limp body behind and blood gushed from her head.

He fell to his knees, trying to deny what had happened but couldn't, his mind was truly in firm acceptance and he didn't know why. Something he had already accepted could not be denied in any way or form. He had killed someone, he was a murderer! He was no better than a murderer and could not be a hero of justice! He was a monster who failed to save anyone! He collapsed standing, paralyzed in his own truth.

Dark marks ate through his body to reach his neck and concentrated themselves there, the sword that was supposed to be Emiya Shirou was already corroded by the toxicity of his own actions.

With Saber

It was seconds before Lancer noticed the departure of his master, he frowned angrily despite knowing that he had no real right to be angry at Shirou. He was angry that he had no concluding fights in the 'Great' War, angry that his master died, angry that he failed his master, the only thing that he wasn't angry about was his short battle with Saber.

Noticing he was out of prana, he ended the high speed battle and froze his entire body. Saber herself failed to notice this as she was so focused on winning and defeating him that there was no rest for her plan to creatively butcher him.

"I'll have to go now, it was fun…" Lancer remarked with a smile, Saber pierced him with a thrust as she couldn't stop her attack in surprise. Her eyes turned to Bazett's severed head as she nodded seriously.

"I'll warn you though, that master of yours is… Something feels off about him. No, it's not that there is just something off about him, he's… more of a monster than I am." That was the last thing he said before he disappeared into nothingness. Saber nodded, but that was more out of respect than anything else. She wasn't sure about Lancer being a good judge of character, but knew that it was always bad to completely disregard advice.

"Shirou!" Saber rushed as the Aestus Domus Aurea collapsed behind her, she stared into his wide eyes slowly upon noticing that he wasn't responding. His eyes were open, but he wasn't responding.

"Shirou? What's wrong? This isn't funny anymore…."

No response.

I can't bring him to his house like this, I can't face Rin or Sakura if I bring him to them like this, I've failed you Shirou, it was a waste of you to summon me. I can't do anything for you except pray that you wake up.

She looked around frantically and with her blurry vision, she noticed a figure approaching her but could only tell of movement. Not of shape, looks or size… Just that it was approaching, the low prana she was operating on was almost nothing at this point since she had squeezed almost every drop out of Shirou through the Aurea and even now it was difficult to maintain her vision.

At that moment, she recognized her opponent and gritted her teeth as she manifested the sword of blazes and stood ready to destroy the person.

Emiya Residence:

While Shirou and Saber were within the golden theatre, Rin had other problems. Sakura had started writhing uncontrollably for just a few seconds and because she was making no noise Rin didn't react immediately, but as soon as she started screaming, she dropped what she was doing and rushed to her side.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH-" Sakura's mouth was promptly covered by Rin as she attempted to restrain her. It wasn't enough though since Sakura's movements were too much to handle for a normal Rin who was forced to reinforce herself through magecraft discretely in order to stop her movements. Despite all of the reinforcement, she could still feel Sakura pained struggle against something that she had no knowledge of.

Sakura fainted shortly afterwards as whatever was paining her seemed to take its toll and became unbearable for her. Tohsaka used this opportunity to check if she had a command seal to rest her suspicions. Even though she was prepared for it, she still gasped as she didn't want it to be true. Sakura definitely had command seals. A very long one that ran across

She gritted her teeth, Zouken was at fault and he had something special coming for him. She didn't forget her role in Sakura's torment though, she should've been there for her. She wasn't the sister a girl like Sakura deserved, she was a wreck, a failure at everything that wasn't magecraft. It was her own luck that she was born to be slightly older than Sakura.

"But because I was older, she had to suffer… What kind of messed up logic is that?" Tohsaka spat on the floor, it just made her so angry at the world itself.

She wasn't shocked when she found worms in Sakura's body, it was just that what she had been trying not to look in the eye finally stared straight at her.

"I need the priest for this… Nothing and no one else will work. I don't know if Shirou's ability will work, and I sure as hell am not going to Zouken to fix this! So, the priest it is… But not now, first I'll wait." Rin found it surprisingly awkward talking to herself, since Archer wasn't around.

She felt so disgusting, why did Sakura's body make her feel filthy? It was because she knew that when she stared at it, she was partially responsible… She didn't want to make her disgust known to Shirou or anyone else at the moment, but she was constantly thinking of one thing.

Shinji raped her…

Her innocence died long ago, and all that was truly left was some kind of suffering. Staying with Shirou for all these years was the only good thing that had ever happened to her, and that was why she was coming back over and over again without any cause or reason.

What's funny was that Shirou knew Sakura more than Rin, herself, yet all he knew was that Sakura was raped, whereas she only knew of her suffering. She should have killed Shinji when she had the chance, despite Shirou's twisted ideals… Perhaps the part that planned to let him go after torture was as idealistic as Shirou?

A dream of the shadow pervaded the younger sister's mind as she lost control again, her now black hopeless eyes shut themselves painfully as Tohsaka snapped out of her own thoughts and rushed to her aid once again, attempting to alleviate the pain.

It was no use, however, the murdering evil was already imprinted firmly upon her mind so she couldn't relax. Shaking from side to side, the younger sister's horrific dream would not stop for anything as a dream of murder could not be quelled so easily.

Sakura choked on her own spit as the evil would not stop… The pain would not stop… What should never have started continued again and again...

But Tohsaka's attention was immediately diverted as her servant rushed back into the residence at his fastest speed, using excess prana from his master.

"So, what?" Tohsaka asked eagerly, wanting to find out more about the situation. Her worry was easily reflected in her voice no matter how professional she tried to keep it.

"What are you talking about?" Archer sneered at her, she glared at him and slammed her fist on a table.

"Don't play games with me now! What happened to Shirou? Why didn't you bring him back? Where is he? Is he hurt? Is something wrong with him? I want to know why he's not here!" The seventeen-year- old lost her cool, her anger could be felt as the room burned with heat rushing across it.

"Ah, calm down… Something like Emiya Shirou isn't worth losing your cool like that-"

"I'll lose MY goddamn cool whenever I want! Now STOP STALLING and tell me what happened!" Tohsaka RIn was this close to using a command seal.

"Listen, all that happened is that I reached the point with massive outbursts of prana near the shopping district and despite a battle clearly taking place there, with craters clearly made by a servant and previous bloodstains, there was no one there."

Tohsaka's heart fell slightly, but she knew better to trust the red-clad servant of the Archer class… Archer had been after Shirou for a long, long time…

"You killed him, didn't you?" She almost stated it as a fact, but it was in such a small voice that Archer almost couldn't believe what was coming out of her mouth and temporarily dismissed it.

"That's not true-"Unfortunately he was cut off by Rin's outburst as the Tohsaka began to lose her sanity.

"You… Stop lying to me, I know that ever since you've met him, you wanted to get rid of him. What was the 'Great Genius' Tohsaka doing when she sent Shirou's murderer to him? Maybe Shirou would've been better off without me causing more and more trouble for him." She turned to Archer as small droplets of water began to form in her eyes.

Now the situation was getting out of control for Archer, it was becoming too much to handle if Rin was nearly at the verge of crying. He had finally been summoned to a world where Emiya Shirou existed so he really didn't want to be forced to commit suicide.

"Now, now I'm telling the truth, how do you know I cut him down? He could've been kidnapped… We don't know what happened, just that no one was there…" Archer suggested frantically, trying to calm his irritated master down.

Tohsaka Rin didn't understand, she should've told him to stay and should've kept him inside the house. Kidnapped? It escaped her mind, she was so set on the worst thing she saw and it would not be good to alienate her servant at every possible opportunity, but there was one thing that she had to do above all others.

Make sure Archer was telling the truth.

Her command seals started to glow, Archer fearing the worst saw only one choice with all of his experience, and that was… something he had planned from the start.

He moved towards the shut-eyed Rin with such blinding speed that it was almost miraculous that she finished first.

"Tell me the truth!" Archer's body stopped…

"Did you physically harm Shirou in the past 8 hours and do you know anything specific concerning his current location?" Her question came with incredible speed, but Archer was sure his movements were faster, he was a servant after all. Was this hesitation?

"No, only speculations…"

"Well you're off the hook, command seals don't lie so I'll believe you." Rin smiled happily, but this immediately turned into a frown when she realized the problem of Shirou was not solved. She was weary of Archer's sudden movement and wondered whether he was actually scared, she supposed he had the right to be but that didn't excuse movement against his master… She'd be sure to get back to Archer once the problem of Shirou was solved.

She paced around the room where Sakura lay in agony, attempting to figure out the disappearance of Emiya Shirou, no answer had come yet but she was expecting one soon.

Where could you have gone?

Return safely and

Don't be dead, Shirou…

If you are,

Then

Sakura will cry

And

I…

Won't forgive you.

END

It's been a long time, I've almost forgotten what this story was about. I sat to write many times, producing a different version of the chapter each time… When I realized that none of them made sense I scrapped them, but they're still sitting on my hard drive.

Tell me what you think about the chapter!

Extra:

Saber held off Lancer with stunning ability, her agility could not easily be matched by the servant of the spear, since as time went on he tired more and more.

She knew it clear as the day that rose and swallowed the night, she knew that while in her theatre she was unmatched and the poor hero who had been chosen to battle her would not be successful. Her worries were not of herself, but rather of her master who had not been taught the art of battle and was getting pulverized by the spearman's brutish, hunky, ugly…

It just angers me when I think about that completely pathetic woman! Even the little girl in Shirou's house has a better sense of style!

Her eyebrow twitched at Lancer's evasion of all of her ranged flame attacks, of course a hero with any experience would be expected to dodge those until she reached a higher level, but she was hoping they at least singed him as it would have made him lose that idiotic grin plastered to his face.

I don't know how comfortable I feel about leaving Shirou to fend for himself against that ape for much longer…

Wait a little longer

Protect him

Kill her

No I can wait just a little longer, Shirou's been holding out for a long time and he's not gonna drop out if I leave him for three more minutes. So just wait three minutes and I'll come for you.

The bone on his body ate at her conscious, but hadn't this been someone who regenerated from many broken bones and large amounts of blood loss?

"I caught you off focus!" Lancer's spear made a thrusting motion, but at this point it was useless…

She had already reached a speed that surpassed his own and there was nothing that a tiring Irishman could do about it, his most powerful ability was useless as Saber could approach and destroy him the moment he attempted to prepare the other version of his greatest attack.

As much as he hated it, the most he could do was stall and wait for his master to finish off the strangely dangerous boy. Besides, the battle itself was too much for him even without her unfair advantage. Her way of fighting was fluid, dynamic and fast-paced while his felt rugged, boring and slightly worthless in comparison.

After a certain point, he could no longer bear it… He just stopped. It didn't feel fun to fight someone who had such a high speed advantage that you could only go on the defensive and stay that way. Furthermore, he couldn't even attack her because of this, and she was even distracted.

"Two, maybe three…" He counted, almost yawning at his end.

It wasn't a surprise that Saber was already next to him, one blow fully managed to knock his spear out of his hands and another with the hilt grounded him. At the present moment, he was sure that Saber was the servant with the strongest offence in the entire Grail War.

"Goodbye, Dog of light." A merciless slash bisected his body into two almost equal parts, he almost laughed from this.

"So, one exchange and three blows… Looks like I was right."

Saber stared at her internal clock, it had been three minutes. Unfortunately, she could no longer really retain the Domus Aurea for much longer either so it disappeared from her sight. She looked around, but

There

Was no one to be seen?

She gave the entire area another look, but soon after the 12th time she realized that she was somehow…Alone.

Suddenly, she stepped into a puddle of blood.

The puddle was enormous and kept growing bigger.

The blood was black.

It was not blood.

But what she could feel upon stepping into the puddle were hideous curses, more ominous than the black prana that Shirou had emitted, little more was evil like this.

What stopped her from lashing out was that despite all the filth and dirtiness she felt from the abomination of a puddle, was a small sensation.

Are you there Shirou?

None of her wishes were fulfilled though as oblivion took her into what seemed to be a deep slumber.

BAD END 8

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