Here we are once again, back with the last of these one-shots that I have written.

Okay, first things first, to BurningBlueBird, no, it wasn't Medea but you were correct in the fact that it was a Caster :3 I won't say who, though, I'm sure it's not that hard to figure out. Second, to SomeRandonBoredGuy, I don't actually know about that game so I wouldn't be able to say XP Oh, and to the recurring Guest, yeah, I think they're a couple of Kamen Rider Shirou in the respective crossover section, and maybe I will make a one-shot about one in the future O,O. Oh, hello Anon564! I'm sorry about your mental-fart, and Libra Saint Shirou, really? That's…actually not a bad idea, hmm…

But well, enough with that, for now I will leave you with this last one for now. Oh, but I warn you, it's a little dark, darker in comparison with the others, and it's the first one that is totally AU, meaning things change a lot from pretty much the very beginning.

Now, let's see once gain through the windows of the Multiverse, to a very rare anomaly. An Emiya Shirou whose life took a darker path from the very beginning. The burning and hellish beginning…

Prologue: Contract of Damnation-When Vengeance falls upon us…

Burning.

Everything was burning.

The screams of the damned echoed through the night, like a cacophony born from the greatest nightmare.

The night itself was lit by the burning flames of the inferno that was engulfing that part of the city.

And, like mocking all the pain and suffering that the city and their inhabitants had already suffered…

A black sun upon a tower of darkness seemed to flicker in and out of existence, towering upon the city.

No living being could stand without dying in this hell on earth…

"Ah…these Magi truly are something else. I can't remember the last time I saw a scene of carnage and destruction so beautiful caused by so little people."

…no one but the strangely smiling, middle-aged man in the black long coat. Dark sunglasses covered his eyes…and an aura so wrong, so unnatural that it would make any lesser man faint just from his presence, exuded from his being.

The strange 'man' kept walking through the hellish scene, a sick smile on his face as he watched how the fire ate away its victims, how all the pitiful humans failed in their attempts to escape their demise, the cursed flames eating everything in their way.

And this was what just a minimum fraction of what the corrupted Grail could do? Oh, how he wished that the ritual hadn't been interrupted. He would gladly free a thousand souls of their torment just to see the damnation that this 'God of Darkness' could bring…

It was then, that his eyes caught sight of something unusual. Something strange. Something impossible.

Fate's Wheel once again turned in a chaotic direction as the Man in the Black Suit stared with absolute disbelief at the figure of a lonely red-haired child, walking aimlessly through the remains of the burning city.

How? How was this possible? There were tons of humans stronger or faster than this kid in this part of the city, even a couple which had actually suffered truly dangerous situations (retired soldiers), but as all of them died pathetically at the hands of the cursed fire, this child still went on.

The 'Man' kept following him; fascinated, wondering how much longer it would be until the unusual kid finally succumbed to the burning hell.

Even as the fire burned him, the kid kept walking.

When his memories became a burden to him, the child abandoned them and kept walking.

When he tripped, feeling horrible pain, fear and hopelessness, the child got rid of his emotions, stood up, and kept walking.

Even after losing all hope, he kept walking.

Finally, to the Man's utter amazement, the black sun disappeared and the flames started to die out…and the child still kept walking.

Just a hollow shell now, moving by pure will and nothing else, having lost almost all of his concept as a human being…

Even after more than 500 perished to the cursed fire, this child had managed to survive.

But it had been pointless.

With those wounds, and even after having shed most of his humanity to survive, the child would only live for a couple of minutes at most.

…no, oh no, that wouldn't do. This child had managed something incredible: to catch His interest. Letting him die just like this would be a waste, especially when he could still do so much more…to amuse Him.

A smirk appeared in His face, idly wondering how many hundreds of years had passed since He last did this, and allowed His existence to manifest, letting the 'mantle' that shielded Him from the eyes of most of the normal beings upon Gaia to disappear.

The 'Man' stood in front of the little boy, who looked at him with dead eyes.

"Well, hello there, my dear child. It has been quite a lively night, don't you agree?" His smirk only widened when nothing came out in response. "Tell me, child, is there something in especial that you want? Anything will do. You just have to ask."

"…live."

"Hmm? What was that?"

"I want…to live…" hoarsely repeated the voice, the words sounding rasped thanks to his burned throat.

"Ah. Is that it? Well, aren't you a simple one? Much people wish for much more, but well, I suppose that was to be expected from a kid." the 'Man' let a strange piece of paper to appear in his hand, written in finely stylized letters, with a red line at the end. "Just sign this and you will live, boy. Oh, don't worry, I can see that you're in no condition to write, you just have to…touch it. You will have your wish and I…your soul."

The ominous words seemed to echo like a distorted and sinister sound…but the child didn't seem fazed by them in the slightest.

The broken child that could only identify himself as 'Shirou' stared blankly at the paper, his broken mind unable to read the letters… and raised his hand, touching the paper with a part of his burned hand that was still bleeding.

He had abandoned all that make him a person to survive, after all, so why not his soul as well?

The moment his blood touched the paper, this was consumed in flames, disappearing without a trace.

The 'Man' smiled, raising a hand and letting a burning sphere of crimson and black to appear in it.

"I have a feeling that the two of you are going to be great friends."

Then, he plunged the sphere into the kid's chest.

The inhuman scream that broke the silence of the dead city make the only other living human in the vicinity froze, all the energy that he had lost in his seemingly hopeless quest to find a survivor suddenly returning as he quickly ran in the direction of the scream.

When he arrived at the scene, his eyes widened and then filled with tears of joy.

There was a red-haired kid, collapsed in the ground, sweat covering his body as he breathed harshly.

Emiya Kiritsugu arrived to the child's side, his absolute happiness being dampened for a second at noticing something strange.

There wasn't a single wound in the kid's body.

Not a burn, not a cut…nothing.

Then, the boy opened his eyes, looking around confused before staring directly into Kiritsugu's eyes.

His eyes filled with tears as a happy smile appeared in his face, making the Magus Killer's own happiness come back.

"Thanks god…you're alive." muttered the broken man while starting to carry the kid.

"I'm alive." answered the boy, his eyes wandering into the distance. "I'm…alive."

Until the day of his dead, Emiya Kiritsugu would wonder why, for a moment…

The kid's voice sounded as if another was echoing it.

"…that dream again, uh?" muttered Emiya Shirou while opening his eyes, the familiar ceiling of his old shed welcoming him. He idly looked to the side, his gaze falling upon the old-looking and non-functioning motorcycle that rested in the center of it. "I fell asleep while trying to repair it again, didn't I?"

The young man sighed once again before standing up, dusting his dark clothes while looking at the clock in the wall. Good, there was still plenty of time to make breakfast before Taiga and Sakura came.

The young Magus sighed before looking idly at the motorcycle again. If he kept alternating one day of practicing Magecraft and one day of repairing it, he would probably have it working again by the end of the month.

Well, it wasn't as if taiga was going to allow him to ride it before his twentieth birthday, at the very least. He still remembered with a half-smile the face that the woman had put when she had found how one if his grandfather's men had been giving him lessons, a year back.

He was banished from the kitchen for a month. And no one ever heard of that guy again. That was why it was only a half-smile.

It also didn't help that she had sworn rather loudly that if anyone was going to give him driving classes, it would be her. The teacher who managed to crack the ground with a scooter. Twice.

Shaking his head out of those unnecessary memories, the Emiya once again pondered about his recurring dream.

It was strange. He could clearly remember his father saving him from the fire…but he could never guess exactly what had happened before that or how it was possible for all of his wounds to had suddenly disappeared.

Memory loss aside, he could clearly remember something. Everything was vague, but he repeatedly would almost see it in his dreams.

A smiling shadow. A paper. Fire.

Except for the last image, he couldn't even begin to fathom from where the other two came from. And even that one was really strange. Unlike the evil, all-encompassing fire that he could always recall clearly, the Fire that accompanied the other two unknown images was in the form of a sphere, with a strange, crimson color in its center…

The Emiya sighed, walking out of the shed with a tired expression. There was no point in having thought like that at the moment. He still had to go to school.

For a moment, just before exiting the shed, his eyes lingered to the farthest side of the dark storage building, where a long and dark metallic box lay.

He tore his gaze away and walked towards the main building, not looking back.

Inside the box, a beautiful, blue and golden sheath rested silently, his glow long-lost, his beauty sealed away from the world.

One could almost hear it cry in sadness.

The red-haired adolescent walked silently through the halls, heading towards his classroom, when an unexpected person crossed his path, making him stop and give him a neutral stare.

"Emiya." muttered the bespectacled boy with clear hostility, his eyes looking at him as if he was expecting Shirou to suddenly try and attack him.

"Ryuudou." neutrally replied the non-Magus, a hint of tiredness in his voice. Something understandable, given that he was one of the only two persons in the entire school towards who the student council president directed this attitude with no reason. "Can you please finish your inspection quickly, please? I don't want to be late for classes."

"…yes, that would be certainly troublesome. Go on, Emiya." ignoring the cold and distrustful stare that Issei was giving him, Shirou kept going, already used to it after almost two years of high school.

He was just passing by the stairs that connected each floor of the school building when a certain pig-tailed girl appeared atop them, stopping to look at him with mild surprise.

"Good morning, Tohsaka." greeted the young Magus while giving the school idol a tiny, polite smile.

As always, the girl stopped dead in her tracks and let her eyes wander towards him, for a second seeming almost startled by his presence.

Then, the second was over and she just gave him one of her own greeting smiles in return.

"Ah, good morning Emiya-kun." the girl's eyes traveled a little back the hallway, where Issei's figure could be seen looking intently at the two of them. "Oh, good morning to you too, Ryuudou."

"Tohsaka. Great, it's true that problems always come in pairs…" pointedly ignoring the Student Council president's comment, Shirou walked away without looking back, not noticing how Rin kept staring intently at his back.

The Tohsaka heir always wondered what it was about Emiya that make Ryuudou act like that with him too. She knew that the monk-in-training could somehow see through her own fake-Idol persona, probably thanks to his inheritance from the monks in the temple, but with Emiya it just made no sense.

The guy never faked anything. Always silent, only talking when needed, polite enough to help if he saw someone in need…but that was it.

Which was the reason why she still found strange how the bespectacled boy seemed to always be on edge around the red-head. It was almost as if he was expecting Emiya to jump and rip out his heart out or something.

Plus, the guy also had been keeping Sakura company for a long time now…

She shook her head, dispelling that line of thought from her mind. Whatever the case was, she didn't believe that Emiya was a bad guy, especially after what he did to Shinji that time, so she would stick to being polite around him like a passable acquaintance.

She pointedly ignored, like always, all the whispers and rumors that kept spreading about her and the only guy who managed to make her stop and stare at him with 'interest'…

Pfft, yeah right, like that could ever happen.

For some reason, the presence at her side make a sound that could be interpreted as a sneeze, confusing her.

She knew that Servants didn't catch colds, and Archer didn't seem like the guy who would just fake a sneeze for the heck of it.

He remembered that night because the moon was shining brightly.

Shirou had been sitting on the veranda, waiting. Kiritsugu has gone away again in one of his mysterious trips, but this time it had already been too long.

Even so, he was waiting out there, because 'something' inside of him was telling him that his father would be back soon.

He had bolted to the entrance the moment he heard the door open, and he has almost felt his heart drop: There he was, the man that had saved him, covered in blood and gasping for breath.

And a strangely big gun tightly gripped in his hand.

He had helped him inside the house, but Kiritsugu had told him not to worry when he had tried to get the first aid kit. He had told him to help him clean himself and to destroy his blood-soaked clothes so neither Taiga nor anyone could find them.

He had grimly nodded and run off with the clothes after helping his father into the shower. Then, he had grabbed one of the especial 'trash-cans' prepared for a situation like that, inserted the clothes inside and set them on fire.

While washing them burn away for a moment, a part of his mind had told him how unnatural it was for a kid to do something like that. But then again, he had never been a normal kid. And his father had been a Magus and an assassin, also.

He had returned to the bathroom and gently helped Kiritsugu into some night clothes. Then, he had to aid him to walk to the veranda, where he had half-collapsed, looking at him with a strangely wide smile, something that he had been doing since he arrived.

The obvious weakening of his breaths had been a cleat indicator that, despite the fact that the man seemed to not have any injury whatsoever, his time was running short.

"I…saw her. I managed to saw her…through the window, from a distance…" had half muttered the man, his eyes unfocused as if looking at something really distant. "I think…I think she saw me too…Dammit…I was so close…"

He didn't know who he was talking about, but that wasn't important at that moment.

"Shh, it's okay dad, don't worry. You need to rest now. You will be better in the morning." had said the little red-head back then, his heart clenching at the obvious lie.

The Magus Killer looked at him with a smile again, putting his hands upon his chest.

"No Shirou, I won't. I'm…sorry, son. I love you." his eyes had closed, his respiration going slower by the second. "The Thompson…Contender…the gun. Grab it and…under the third tatami in my room…with the rest of them…" Kiritsugu had seemed to make an effort to talk normal once again, his eyes opening as he put his hand in his chest. "This…it gave me more time…to try to save her…and to be with you…but now…I don't need it anymore."

And after saying that, he had put the shining, blue-golden scabbard out of his chest.

Shirou hadn't said anything, no surprise reaction coming from him even as the man who had raised him handed the shining sheath to him, a smile still in his face.

"You once said that you can't save everyone. That 'Heroes' like that don't exist." the boy had finally said, looking directly at his father while gripping the Noble Phantasm tightly. "You were right."

"…yes, I was."

"I can't save you…but, at the very least, I can make to ones who do things like this regret it, right?"

The Magus Killer had looked at his son with wide eyes, seeing the tears that fell from his eyes shining against the moonlight.

"Shirou…?"

"You said that this world was filled with monsters. If I can't save everyone…if I can't protect the innocents all the time, then I can at least make the monsters paid when I fail, right?"

"…those are…pretty dark words, Shirou…" his eyes closed one last time, a last smile in his face. "But… when you said then…like with all the other things you have said…I think you can do it…without falling… into the darkness…"

Those were the last words of Emiya Kiritsugu.

Emiya Shirou looked upon the still form of his father for a second more before breaking down, crying and sobbing.

And the moon still had been shining with that calm light…

Shirou's eyes snapped open, the ceiling of the shed greeting him.

It has been quite the time since he last dreamed about his father's death

Idly, his eyes wandered to the farthest corner of the room, where the glorious form of Avalon rotted away in the darkness, a glorious relic of old put away and never touched again.

He couldn't stand the sight of the scabbard of King Arthur. It wasn't only that it brought back memories of Kiritsugu's death, but also that the gorgeous view of Avalon always managed to give him a feeling of…'discomfort' that unnerved him to his core.

He always wondered if the feeling that the holy sheath gave him had anything to do with his oath. Four years ago, while talking to his dying father. To protect the innocent…and, when he inevitably failed, punish the monsters that were responsible for their suffering.

The oath to avenge the innocents.

The fact that he had promised to himself something like that was just another piece of evidence that he wasn't 'normal'. But that had been clear for him and his father since the day they had tried to determine the root of his Magecraft.

Element: Sword.

Origin…

Vengeance.

Kiritsugu seemed utterly surprised by that. Neither Shirou nor he had been able to determine what the meaning of that was, nor how it could affect his poor Magecraft abilities.

"…Trace, off." softly muttered the last Emiya, letting his 27 Magic Circuits rest. His father had told him that it was an oddly high number for a normal person to have, but he never thought about it too much.

His eyes once again wandered through the shed, this time to the side where a fake-plank covered the metallic container where the other last memento of his father rested.

The especially modified gun, Thompson Contender. He had found the container where it was supposed to fit and put it away that fateful night. The day after his father's funeral, he had hid it in the shed. The only things that still remained inside were the weapon itself and two strange bullets.

"Sempai? Are you there?" he heard a feminine voice calling from the house.

"Shirouuuu, we're heeeere!

"…yes, I'm coming, Sakura, Taiga." he answered loud enough to be heard before rising to his feet, dusting off the dark clothes he preferred to wear.

He headed towards the kitchen with a little smile, leaving behind the darkest parts of his life and going to greet two of the almost nonexistent people towards which he wasn't totally cold or indifferent.

"Sakura, if it was Shinji again, just tell me. You don't need to cover him." coldly commented Shirou while looking forward, his purple-haired kohai walking a little behind him.

"N-no, sempai, I really just hurt myself because I slipped! Nii-san didn't do anything to me!" nervously answered Sakura while covering the bruise mark in the back of her hand, a little blush in her cheeks.

She still remembered when he had suddenly appeared in her life, four years ago, back when she only saw the world like a hollow shell. A group of bullies had thought it would be funny to pick on the weird and silent twelve years-old girl, and had cornered her while she passed by the old park in Shinto.

She was just going to close her eyes and ignore everything until they finished when the cry of one of them had make her open them again.

The four of them where down in the ground by the time she finally caught sight of the red-haired boy standing in front of her, hands closed into fists and an inhuman fury filling his eyes.

Then, he had quickly grabber her hand and dragged her away from the groaning older kids, one of them even crying for the pain from the kick to his balls.

He had dragged her a couple of blocks away from there and then had turned to face her.

She had been surprised, from the change in those golden eyes. Before, they had been furious, like the eyes of an angry beast about to kill its preys.

But there was only worry in then when he looked her over, searching for any injuries.

He had asked if she was hurt and she had told her that she wasn't.

He had then smiled, a little, simple smile that set her dull heart ablaze, and accompanied her all the way back to her house.

Since then, she would often go to the park, always seeing him walking aimlessly around, looking at the dead grass and trees with a frown, as if thinking deeply about something.

Then, he would always tell her to come out, and both of them would sit in one of the benches, silently enjoying the company of the other.

One day, she had asked him why he would always go to that gloomy and silent park. He had answered 'Because here is where I was born.' She hadn't asked further or replied at that.

The next day, she had asked him why he had helped her that time. He had looked directly into her eyes, making her heart jump, and answered simply once again

'Because you're an innocent. I protect the innocents…until there is no other way…'

The day after that, he had asked her name. She had asked his in response.

From that day on, Sakura and Shirou were friends. The first friends any of the two had ever had.

She had eventually been invited over to his house, where the crazy and energetic Fujimura Taiga had 'welcomed her into the family' with open arms.

The rest had been story, she happily spending time with them, with him, a shine of light in her nightmarish life, learning to smile again and even making him smile more in return…until a day, almost a year ago, when she had arrived home a little too late and Shinji had gotten angry with her.

She had ended up slapping her.

The next day, a Sunday, when Shirou had seen her like that and after a mumbled and really poor excuse, he had exited the house without a word.

She had been rooted in place, seeing that same long-forgotten fury from when she met him for the first time shining in his eyes.

When he had come back a little later, he had bluntly told her that she was staying to sleep that night. She had been so shocked that she didn't even protest.

The next time she saw her brother; he was missing a tooth and looked scared out of his mind. He didn't even talk to her for a week, always looking at every corner as if he feared that something was going to jump him at any second.

He also never touched her again, in any way.

That was why she was preoccupied now. Shinji didn't need another life-scarring moment, not when she was being sincere. The reason for the bruise in the back of her hand was a much darker one, and something that had been worrying her for days now…

"…you're telling the truth." slowly muttered Shirou while stopping, almost making her jump. "…be more careful from now on, Sakura. I don't like seeing you hurt."

"Ha-hai, sempai." answered the purple-haired girl, trying to hide her blush.

None of them noticed the white-haired girl looking at them from the distance, her red eyes silently fixed upon the young Magus.

Illyasviel observed in silence as the figure of her brother disappeared into the distance, a thoughtful look in her face.

A cold look in his face most of the time. A little smile that seemed to shine the most because of that.

She had never again believed in the lies of his grandfather since that day four year ago, when she had seen the figure of his father shooting away at the battle Homunculus just three hundred meters away from the castle, before being injured and forced to flee.

And now, she was truly close to the subject of her worries, the only person in the world that could give her the answers she sought before her short life ended.

The man at her side looked at her worriedly, his blonde hair and beautiful face seeming almost inhuman.

"Is everything okay, Master?" asked Berserker to the half-Homunculus.

"…yes, I'm okay." she finally answered before turning away, deciding that she would finally contact him later that night. "Let's go back to the caste, Jekyll-jiisan. We have to prepare a gift for when I finally talk with Onii-chan!"

"As you wish, Illya." smiled the Dr. before grabbing his Master's hand and turning away, both of them walking towards the place where Sella and Leysritt were waiting.

They were a truly unusual sight to any bystander.

The darkness of the night covered the entirety of Homurabara High School.

Even so, Emiya Shirou wasn't bothered by it in the slightest. He just stared silently at the sky, from the roof of the silent school. This was one of the places to where he would often come when feeling restless. The silence helped to calm his mind.

But tonight he wasn't here searching for relaxation.

Sighing deeply once again, the young Magus turned back and started heading back towards the inside of the building. He didn't understand what was that feeling of 'wrongness' that seemed to cover the entire school, but he was pretty sure that it seemed to come from somewhere around the same school. Sadly, he didn't have any more information now, so he would just have to…

He froze, hearing the sound of clashing blades. Eyes wide, Shirou ran to the rooftop's edge and looked down, a scene out of this world greeting him.

A white-haired man in black-red clothes/armor, wielding black/white twin swords, fighting against a magenta-haired girl in some sort Gothic Lolita outfit…that had horns and a freaking dragon-like tail.

She was also wielding some sort of spear/halberd, but that really wasn't as distracting as her inhuman traits.

"What in the world…?" shockingly muttered the Emiya, his eyes widening even more upon seeing the figure of Tohsaka Rin standing at one side, watching the battle with a hardened expression.

He was starting to step back to flee from the scene, clearly feeling the unnatural power of the two inhuman fighters, when the dragon-girl suddenly turned to look at him, her blue eyes narrowing.

Shirou was already running before she even opened her mouth.

He had just arrived at the top of the stairs that went down into the building when he was brutally kicked in the back, his body rolling down the stairs and crashing painfully against the school's third floor.

"Well, well, what do we have here? A little pig who thought he could eavesdrop?" the young Magus ignored the pain filling his body and raised his head, looking at the playful smirk in the dragon girl's face. "I'm sorry, little boy, but it looks like you chose a bad day to stay until late."

"Lancer, stop playing and kill him." mentally ordered the voice of her 'Master', making the girl growl with annoyance.

"Yes, yes, as you say, you damn fake-priest." answered the Servant while ignoring his Master's curse for saying his occupation out loud. "Oh, shut up, it's not as if the kid is going to tell anyone. Honestly, this will be like, what, the fourth person you make me kill like this?"

Shirou, who had been trying to get away by ignoring the pain and trying to half-run, froze dead in his track upon hearing those words.

In the news, that morning. A family had been murdered in Miyama. The police didn't have any clues except that they were killed by some sort of impaling weapon…

Like a lance.

Something inside of him snapped. This thing…this monster…she had murdered them. Innocent people, killed without remorse.

Let me out.

He could feel it, even as the dragon-girl kept talking with someone. Something inside of him was burning, making his blood boil, anger filling his being as images flashed through his head.

Fire.

A tall shadow.

A paper.

Let me out.

Again, where did that voice come from? He had heard it, before…when the bullies in the park had tried to hurt Sakura, when he had punched Shinji and threatened him, daring the boy to test the consequences if he ever harmed Sakura again, and many times more…

Let. Me. Out.

He had contained it before. Ignored it, pretending it wasn't real…

"Trace, on…" he muttered almost without realizing it, turning to face the bored-looking girl, who seemed to have finished talking with the 'priest', whoever he was.

"Ugh, why did it have to be a boy? If it was a girl then this won't be such a pain…" Lancer raised her weapon, smiling sinisterly as she neared the frozen Shirou. "Please, keep standing still so we can finish this soon, okay, pig?"

She was smiling. She had killed them, she was going to kill him…and she was SMILING!

Let! Me! Out!

The image of Kiritsugu bloodied body flashed before his eyes.

And then, the image of the fire, of an unknown man in a dark suit…

"It's time to pay your debt, Shirou." the man smiled, red orbs shining behind his dark glasses.

This time…

"Bring me the Grail."

…he didn't feel the need to hold back.

LET ME OUT!

"Goodbye, pig." muttered Lancer with boredom…before all her senses screamed danger at her, just a moment before the boy ignited in flames. "The hell?!" she cried while jumping back.

"What?!" mirrored Kotomine the shock of his stolen Servant, but both of them froze, their eyes widening upon the bizarre and disturbing sight before them.

The boy's clothes burnt off first, turning to blackened ashes in seconds before disappearing. That wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the fact that his flesh followed next, not burning but melting off of him.

His skin, muscles, organs, everything seemed to be melting off of his skeleton, leaving just the burning, unmarred, white of his bones behind. The fire actually seemed to flow inside of his hollow eye-sockets, turning them into two bottomless pits of burning damnation.

Even after so many years as an Executor, Kirei had never seen anything so wrong, never felt so much terror, like when the burning abomination impossibly raised its head and looked directly at the terrified Lancer.

That was wrong. No matter what that thing was, Lancer was still a Servant, a being capable of confronting even Dead Apostles on her own…

But even so, this…thing terrified her in every sense of the word, almost as if her very existence screamed at her of the danger that this monstrosity represented.

The abomination took a step forward, and darkness seemed to cover his body, letting a black and gray bodysuit/armor cover his entire body, minus his skull and his terrifying, burning ivory hands.

Then, it spoke.

"The innocents…will be avenged."

Suddenly, the same swords that the Archer had been using appeared in his hands. The moment they came in contact with them, though, they twisted, deforming into hellish version of themselves as they ignited in the same unholy flame that enveloped the monster.

Far away, in the Emiya house, the motorcycle stored inside the shed suddenly burned to life, the metal twisting and changing under the unnatural flames.

As the same flame reached forward, to grab the container of the Thompson Contender, the last bit of light inside Avalon died away.

Shirou felt…free. Complete. His half-detached mind felt clearer than ever, actually.

The monster was in front of him. Innocents had suffered. The Spirit of Vengeance had been still for too long.

The abomination roared, the inhuman and unholy sound shattering all the windows as it launched itself forward, the twisted forms of Kanshou and Byakuya leaving trails of sparks in their way.

The voices of countless of wronged souls answered him, coming from the city that had killed them in so many and horrible ways, the monsters responsible always going unpunished.

No more.

It was time for the innocents to be avenged.

SaintInfernalNeos presents…

A Fate/Stay Night X Marvel Comics Crossover…

Can someone who is dammed save anyone?

If not, can he at least save himself?

The path in front of him is filled with suffering, darkness…and loneliness.

But the only hope for them to be saved…is that he walks down it.

A broken and chained demon. A cold boy that doesn't believes in salvation.

Will this Spirit of Vengeance be able to avenge and save at the same time?

Or will he only doom them all?

Avenging Blade-The Sword Rider.

…yeah, that's it. The last one of these is up.

So, okay…Ghost Rider-Shirou. One of my favorite Anti-Heroes.

This idea actually never made it to the Mechanics of In Flight Forum, because, as you can see, it offers a grim and dark setting, something that's not my style, and it actually surprised me how much details I put in this, from a totally different background in general to using other Servants for almost everyone (Lancer is from Fate/Extra CCC, for those who don't know and want to search for her, and Berserker, well, his identity is obvious, but he REALLY is actually a Nasuverse Servant, from Fate/Prototype. I was surprised myself when I saw it while searching in the wiki).

As it had been showed, this story is really AU: We have a darker and colder Shirou, who has been distorted in a different way thanks to having Zarathos inside him for so long. He took Kiritsugu's words to heart, and knowing that saving everyone is impossible, he will devote himself to punish the guilty, avenging the innocent who couldn't be saved.

If you think about it, the vengeful Zarathos inside the cold and sad Emiya Shirou fits the fucked up world that is the Nasuverse behind all the laughs quite well…

Yeah, when you suddenly throw something like him in the middle of the shit-storm known as the Holy Grail War, you can expect shit to get real and a lot of suffering and really dark things to happen, self-hate between them when Shirou realize the monster that lurks inside of him.

Oh, and Lancer's reaction go Sword-Rider!Shirou? That's actually not exaggerating, when you take into account that Servants are spiritual beings and Ghost Rider main power is burning the freaking SOUL. Servants are basically like solid souls, so you can take her reaction as something of a natural instinct, like a little animal in front of a Predator. Even if the animal can actually flee, fight back or even injure the predator, it doesn't change the fact that its instincts are screaming danger at him.

This story is in truth the one that I wouldn't want to continue the most, even if it's in fact the one with most potential, or that's what someone told me, but its setting is just too dark for my taste, and as I have put it, it can only grow even darker from here on.

And with that, I have successfully published all the one-shots that I had done. For now, I will go back to write mainly the Emerald Blade, but I won't put this as 'Complete' because I'm planning from time to time put something here, maybe a wild idea or a little continuation of something older, after all I have seen many people asking for more of one or another of the past one-shots.

When I come back here, the next one that I make will be a comical one, to make up for this grim and dark one. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoyed the read, and if someone is willing to take this one or any of the others and continue with them, just talk with me. I'm happy if I can inspire someone to start writing OwO

Until next time, this is Saint, signing off!