Luviagelita finished her notes for the nightly patrol and then walked to the large map she had placed upon the wall. It had the locations of everything she had found as well as several possible leads. She also penned her routes each night in a different color, making sure that she was at least visiting every quadrant of the city within a week of patrols.
So far, she hadn’t found an abundance of intelligence, but it was still early in this war. She knew of two other Masters, although their identities were still being researched. It had been too dark to use a camera to try and photograph their faces from her vantage point, so she had to rely upon her memory to try and hunt down who they were.
The gunslinger was almost certainly an alchemist, that much was fairly certain. His reliance upon a device rather than his own circuits betrayed that much. What she could see of his face from underneath the hood of his sweatshirt led her to believe him of Arabian descent. Logically, this led her to believe he was from Atlas.
Atlas, however were not too forth giving about the members of their organization, especially not to one of London’s ‘problem children.’ It wasn’t a huge problem, though. The identity of the Master was not overly important when compared to the Servant. It was enough to know that the Servant she could only imagine to be Assassin’s master was an Alchemist.
From the information they had, neither one of the Servants could be identified either. She could barely see Assassin even with reinforcing her eyes, yet Rider had described him as a seemingly normal soldier. The only lead they had was that the fatigues the Servant were in were newer than those that Rider had seen in the Second World War. They were also too old looking to be modern, so that meant there was a high possibility he was from the Vietnam or Korean conflict.
Lancer was tougher. She had seemingly been a female samurai, wielding what Luviagelita had researched as a naginata. This weapon was stereotypical for a woman warrior in Japanese history, using its length to keep men at bay, where their greater size and strength were negated. Infuriating enough, though, was the fact that none of the most famous female warriors from that country supposedly used a naginata. So, either this was someone else, or perhaps she was hiding her identity by using a false weapon.
No other Masters or Servants had been spotted, so Luviagelita had visited several of the pubs this night, fishing for information. Well, that and to get something to drink and unwind just a bit. It had been mostly fruitless, as she had suspected, but there was one thing that stuck out.
Apparently, there were more and more reports of ‘ghosts’ at the English Gardens. People were seeing ghastly figures at night, wandering around and then suddenly disappearing. This very well could be the work of a Servant, so it was on the list of things for Luviagelita to stake out tomorrow.
It was well past four in the morning and Luviagelita was wrapping up for the night. She really wasn’t too fond of keeping this sort of schedule, but for this war there was little choice. She bade Rider a good night and began to head for her room. On the way, one of her men approached her.
“Lady Edelfelt,” he said. The man was dressed in a crisp black suite and would normally be wearing sunglasses if it weren’t the middle of the night.
“Yes, Kaarle, what is it?” she asked.
“These were taken today, ma’am. It seems the bait has been taken,” he said, handing her a manila folder.
“Oh?” she said as she opened it. Inside, there were two photos as well as a written report. She pulled the photos out and her eyes widened ever so slightly. So, Rin was here after all, and apparently alone. Luviagelita smiled, all the better to settle this once and for all.
*******************************
The man before her snorted, “That’s a pretty good guess for someone who just summoned me. Or were you actually trying for an Archer-class?”
Rin grit her teeth and balled her fist, “Oh, don’t you DARE pull your amnesia bullocks on me this time, Archer! You know who I am and I know who the fuck YOU are, Emiya Shirou!”
A moment of discord in the Servant. That was something she didn’t remember ever seeing. His hands flexed, opening and closing a couple of times before he spoke again. He apparently gave up and said, “Alright, then, Rin, are you to be my Master?”
She sighed and said, “Yes… I suppose I have no choice…”
“Although,” Archer said, kneeling down and picking up one of the boots in the summoning circle. “It looks as if I was not the intended target once again.” He gave her a wry grin that instantly made her blood boil with rage again.
“Well what do you expect?! I don’t recall Saber betraying me!” she yelled at him, crossing her arms under her chest.
His face was lost in thought for a second, as if he were mentally looking something up. There was a tiny nod and he replied, “That depends, really… She sure didn’t rescue you, either. She watched my fight and left you tied to that chair. Luckily Lancer was a bit more concerned. Maybe you should have tried for him.”
“And who was the arsehole that PUT me in that bloody chair?” Rin countered. She then closed her eyes and extended her arms downward, trying to calm herself down. Getting into a verbal sparring match with her Servant was not going to help anything. But still… “How on Earth did this happen?” she asked.
“Actually, I’m not sure, Rin,” Archer replied. He looked around where he had been summoned, apparently looking for foci. All he found were Saber’s clothes, of course, and he then shrugged. When he turned back to her his eyes caught something and he asked her, “Rin… what is that ring you’re wearing?”
Rin blushed, not really knowing how to tell him and said, “It’s… my wedding ring…”
Archer’s face was unreadable, and he simply said, “That’s a nice stone.”
“Huh?” she asked, looking at it. It was sterling silver with a ruby faceted onto it. Her Shirou had it made out of… “Oh dammit…” …out of the pendant she had used to save his life. The one that Archer had as well. The stone had been recut into a smaller one that would fit onto a ring, but it was the same stone.
Archer nodded, but said nothing else.
**************************************************
“It seems she’s become fairly competent at getting around with that thing,” Isaac said.
Jessica had finally been able to leave that dull room thanks to this fascinating chair they had given her. When she moved the little stick with her good hand, it moved the same direction! It wasn’t as handy as when she could walk, but it was far better than being stuck in bed all day. Plus, this room was much larger and had more things in it. And it wasn’t ALL dull white.
“Yes, it does.” replied Hector. “This makes things at least a bit simpler.”
Isaac and Hector were in here with her most the time, and it was interesting to hear them talk. They still mostly ignored her, but she given up on them understanding that she knew everything they were saying. Whether they knew or not or just didn’t care didn’t matter too much. She mostly enjoyed that they broke the silence around here.
Berserker was here with her as well. He didn’t talk much, but he DID acknowledge her and seemed to care for her. He watched over her as she drove around in her chair and made sure that nothing bad happened to her. Every once in a while, they would talk about things, but never when other people were around.
Isaac and Hector were so dumb, too. They both had gone on many times trying to figure out who her Servant was but they never just plain asked him. She kinda figured it out from the beginning but wanted to make sure. His long hair and huge stature seemed a BIT obvious to her, but she hadn’t been able to read too many stories so it was lucky she knew the one he came from.
So, as the two of them bickered about who was right, she secretly laughed with Samson the Nazirite. She wasn’t going to tell them and neither was he. Besides, they thought that she had taken his sanity away like they asked, but that seemed even MORE ridiculous. What would this poor man do without his sanity? Not talk to her, for starters.
She knew all about this war she was supposed to fight in, and fight she would. If it came down to it, she knew she could take Samson’s sanity in order for him to get stronger, but that was going to be a last resort for her. They could control her all they wanted in here, but once she got out for the fight, she was in command.
She wasn’t dumb. She knew that this war was going to kill her one way or another. So why fight in it, one might ask? Well, it was the only purpose of her existence, after all. The only way to prove her worth and make her life mean something. She felt no obligation to these people that created her, but she did feel one towards herself. If she succeeded, at least they would have to acknowledge her deeds, even if she was dead by that time.
So, Samson and she were going to win this war, no matter what.
*************************
Shirou Tohsaka parked the crimson M5 at the hotel that Rin had specified in the voicemail she had left him in the middle of last night. Her voice had sounded haggard and she had mentioned nothing about how the summoning had gone, just that she wanted him here immediately.
As soon as he had gotten the message, he had finished packing his bag and the car and had begun the arduous trek across several countries to get to here. It had taken forever, especially getting through the always nightmarish Chunnel and Shirou was exhausted. It was already in the middle of the night again and he hoped that Rin wouldn’t be out on patrol.
He had tried calling her, of course, but his wife was anything but handy with anything electronic. He could only remember two times she had ever answered the phone when he called, and she had accidently hung up one of those times. Whatever the case, he would be glad to see her. It was pathetic, he knew, but being away from his lover was almost painful for him anymore.
Shirou unloaded the boxes of his and his wife’s things from the car and began lugging them inside of the hotel. He asked a stewardess where their room was to which she looked at him crossly and quickly said something about not understanding English. He sighed and found a map and followed it to the room Rin had told him.
For some reason, he approached the room with an almost oppressed feeling. He shook it off and knocked at the door. There came a clattering of locks after a few moments and the door swung open. Shirou raised his eyes expecting to see aquamarine eyes and flowing raven hair. He found himself instead…
“A…Archer?!” Shirou cried out and automatically took a step back. It should have been impossible, but the alternate version of himself was there glaring at him from inside the door frame. He was now the same height as the Servant and his features were very similar. The main differences between the two of them were the pigmentation of their skin and color of their eyes and hair.
“Emiya… Shriou…” Archer said slowly. His stare was unwavering as he peered at Shirou.
Shirou collected himself and then sighed. “Ah, actually that’s not entirely right,” he replied.
Archer’s eyes narrowed, apparently trying to see if he was lying for some reason. Shirou just looked back at him and waited for him to decide and eventually Archer simply asked, “What?”
Shirou smiled and said, “It’s Tohsaka Shirou now, Archer.”
The man’s seemingly eternally stoic face cracked and he actually chuckled. “I see,” he said. “She’s completely quelled you has she?”
“Yup,” Shirou replied with a chuckle of his own.
“Good,” Archer said, probably a bit more seriously than he meant to convey. It was obvious that he was insuring there was no possible way that Shirou could follow in his footsteps. Although that had already been decided long ago.
“So… can I come in or what, Archer?” Shriou finally asked.
The Servant snorted and nodded, moving out of the way. Shirou grabbed the luggage and pulled it into the room. He noticed that Rin wasn’t there, and had a pretty good idea where she was. For the moment, though, he concentrated on getting the luggage in and closing the door.
When he had finally gotten everything in and at least mostly out of the way, he finally wanted to confirm with Archer. “She’s out on the balcony, isn’t she?”
Archer nodded.
“Smoking?”
Another nod.
Shirou sighed and then said, “Alright.” He went over to the large window door that led to the balcony and slid it open. He slipped back out into the freezing winter night and found his lover with her back to him, staring out at the city. The dim orange glow of her cigarette was the only light besides what came from the street below.
He walked up to her without saying a word and wrapped his arms around her. She stiffened for a split second before instinctually knowing who it was. Her head leaned back against him but she made no move to speak yet. Instead she took another drag of her cigarette and blew the smoke out slowly.
“So, I’m sure you saw how I fucked up,” she finally said. Her tone was bitter, just as it always got whenever she was beating herself up over something.
“Rin… you didn’t mess up,” Shirou said to her softly. “We saw last time that Archer is more than capable.”
“Capable at getting us both killed, yes…” she retorted. “And Saber was still much stronger, you know.”
“Strength isn’t everything, and I don’t think he’s going to try anything this time, Rin. He’s already made sure that I’m never going to become him,” he replied to her.
Rin arched her head backwards to look up at him and asked, “Since when do you defend him, Shirou? It used to be me defending him and you persecuting… Now we’re reversed…”
Shirou chuckled at that and answered her, “Well, as I got older, I understood more. His idea is still wrong, but I can at least understand it now. And I have a feeling that you are just venting your own frustrations out on him.”
“I am not,” Rin said, reaching back and hitting him on the arm. “It’s just disconcerting going into another deadly conflict with someone that’s already turned their back on you once.”
“True, but this time we’ve got some serious backup. Sensei says she’ll be here within a couple of days,” he replied. “That puts our team to two combat Maguses, a Servant, and a Sorcerer. That’s a pretty hefty handicap.”
Rin looked away as she said, “That’s true… but we don’t know what we’re going to face out there, my Shirou.”
Shirou nodded, stating, “Of course not, but we’ll just have to have faith in ourselves.”
Rin smiled and through down the cigarette butt, stomping it with her boot. “Well, I have faith in you, so that’s something I suppose,” she returned, spinning around to face him. She leaned up and wrapped her arms around his neck and took him in a kiss.
Despite the distinct taste of cigarette intertwined with her normal sweet flavor, Shirou gladly accepted the kiss. No matter what came, together they could face anything.