Chapter 1: I Really Hate Vampires

"Bold speech" – Aria

"Bold thoughts" - Aria

Ryuudo Temple, Fuyuki City, Japan

Fire and death was all he could see, all he could hear.

The smell of burned hair and the fatty stench burning human flesh filled his lungs with every breath.

Around him flames raged, lapping at his heals as it consumed everything in its path with unnatural hunger. Stone was scorched, metal melted from the heat as wood and bodies were rendered to ash.

Evil, intense and full of malice, filled the air as All the Evils of the World screamed and thrashed as it died, cursing death upon all it could find, refusing to disappear quietly into oblivion.

Evil and fire fought to kill him, the fire seeking to burn him to ash as All the Evils of the World sought to corrupt his very being, warring with the divine presence within him.

His clothes smoldered, his skin cooked while the heat hurt his eyes as every intake of breath scorched his lungs.

A part of the boy wanted, nay wished for the sweet embrace of death, to just make the pain go away.

The boy refused to listen to the whispers that tempted him with the cool release of oblivion, the instincts of The Hunt that was at the very core of his being dead set on survival, refusing to become prey.

And so he walked forward, throwing away pieces of himself to survive the heat and the evil that sought to end him. When his body, weakened and near death tripped and fell he ignored the pain as his skin sizzled on the hot concrete, using what strength he had left in him to crawl forward, sacrificing more of himself to the heat.

The few memories of the woman who was his mother were sacrificed to the flames as he crawled forward.

His life at the orphanage where he had spent the majority of his almost four years of life was tossed away.

With every grunt, every time he dragged his small body forward through the flames more of himself was lost forever.

Until all of what was left of the boy who was named Orion #$%? was an empty shell devoid of memory, and the essence of The Hunt that was at the very core of his being that refused to separate from him.

Even with all he'd sacrificed though he was still but a mortal child and possessed the limits of one.

Eventually even his strength ran out, his lungs damaged by the smoke and heat leaving him out of breath. His young muscles had nothing left to give and he found he couldn't move anymore, no matter how much he wanted to live.

As every breath became harder and more painful his vision swam.

'I…want to…live…'

Sakura frowned as she walked through the flames dressed in a cloak, the bounded field that surrounded the cloak keeping the flames and the evils of the corrupted Grail at bay. She reached up and tapped the small earing she wore, a small red ruby attached to a fine steel chain, transferring a minute amount of prana into the simple mystic code.

"Nee-san," she spoke, "have you found something?"

She gazed at the destruction around her and bit her lip in worry. The plan to permanently dismantle the Fuyuki Grail System was going well after they had managed to convince the Clock Tower's Vice-Director it was necessary. They didn't have to worry about the three founding families either since her sister was the Tohsaka head. Illya herself had launched a successful coup of the Eizenbern family so they were no issue. Lastyly after the death of her adoptive grandfather at the hands of her sister and senpai after the end of the 5th Fuyuki Grail War the Matou name died after Sakura herself threw it away.

Even after they had started work on the Grail System there was nothing of what they feared, such as the Grail summoning Servants to defend itself.

'I should have known better than to think nothing would go wrong,'she thought with a grimace. While none of the obstacles they had expected materialized that didn't mean it stayed smooth forever. A group of rogue Eizenbern that escaped Illya's...violent coup of her family since they were away at the time of the assault attacked them in the middle of their ritual to dismantle the Grail System.

While their operation to dismantle the Grail had been ultimately successful, the Eizenbern attack had destroyed the jewel array her sister designed to restrain the Grail. Which lead to this disaster, luckily they had evacuated Ryuudo Temple beforehand so, other than someone possibly dropping in due to Second Magic, the only casualties of the fire are any Eizenberns that might have survived their battle.

"No," came the reply in her ear and Sakura could have sworn she could hear a grimace in her sister's voice, "but keep looking Sakura. I'm telling you I felt Second Magic here for a split second, knowing Zelretch he might have dropped off some poor kid in the middle of this for some obscure reason. And stay careful Sakura, who knows if any Eizenberns or their homunculi survived, they're like cockroaches."

"Right," she nodded, she knew how much a similar fire affected the man she loved, how it scarred him forever. If she could save someone from this, she would. "Be careful too Nee-san."

And so she continued her walk, the flames parting in front of her as the bounded field kept her safe, the rest of her strange extended family searching for elsewhere.

"Is anyone here?!" she shouted and searched over and over again until, half an hour later…

She saw him, a small boy no more than four years old with singed auburn hair lying face down on the ground, his clothes scorched, and his body covered in burns. Sakura gasped when she noticed a burning tori was about to collapse on top of him and time seemed to slow.

'I'm not going to reach him,' she realized in horror.

Not wanting to give up on the child she called for someone who could, "RIDER! Save him!"

The command seals on the back of her left hand burned as a fragment faded and space warped, transporting her Servant to the boy's location in an instant.

A figure of black and purple blurred out of the way as the burning tori fell down, forcing Sakura to shield her face as it crashed into the ground, sending heat and ash blowing towards her.

"Sakura," she heard the sultry tone of her Servant as Rider landed behind her, "he's alive but you should call Shirou." The usually stoic voice of Rider turned somber, "without Avalon...he's not going to make it."

Metropolitan Hospital, Fuyuki City

"Mnn," the boy opened his eyes, his entire body feeling sore. Not knowing what to do, and surprised to still be alive he followed his instincts and tested his body. He hissed in pain as his body protested but he was happy to see that he could at least move all his limbs. His skin felt fine too, that surprised him the most.

Crooning his head around he noticed someone in the room.

Dressed in a simple black turtle neck sweater and blue jeans, her long purple hair pooling around her as she read a book, her inhuman grey green eyes framed by a pair of elegant glasses. The boy could tell she wasn't human, she was too beautiful for that, his instincts practically screaming it at him.

Strangely enough he recognized her somehow, her presence that screamed of blood and lust seemingly familiar. That was odd, he could tell he was…empty for the most part, he clutched his head as he tried to recall anything about his life and came out…blank.

How did he know her while his life, as short as it was, was lost to him?

It didn't take long for him to connect the dots.

"You…sa-saved…me…" Rider blinked at the raspy voice and her eyes shot up to the boy in the hospital bed, his bright silver eyes looking right into hers. He looked a lot better than when she saved him, his hair was shorter since the hospital trimmed off the singed parts but other than that he appeared fine. Thanks to the powerful healing powers of Avalon, even a Traced copy, he was in perfect physical shape for the most part.

"I did," she nodded calmly, "do you need anything?"

"Wa…water…"

Rider nodded and contacted her master through their bond, as the magus was out getting food for the both of them. 'Sakura he's woken up, he wants water.'

'That's good,' her master replied, 'I'll be back as soon as I can.'

The Servant of the Mount returned her attention to the boy, "do you remember your name?"

"…Orion."

"Just your first name?" he nodded and Rider, while her face didn't show it, frowned, they had been afraid of that. They had combed the city registry for any child born with silver eyes and there just wasn't any, not even in the whole of Japan. "Do you remember anything about yourself?"

The boy shook his head.

She hummed as she wondered what they should do, the boy had nothing, whoever he was died in that fire. Whatever the case the boy wasn't human, or wasn't completely human at least, even if she wasn't so sensitive to magical energy his sharp silver eyes were a dead giveaway. And as she stared into those silver eyes that looked at her curiously she noticed how…hollow they were.

And it was then she realized how empty the boy was, like how a certain magus she and her master loved used to be like.

It was then she came to a choice on what to do, it was somewhat illogical but Rider found she didn't like the idea of just leaving a boy so alone, a boy so alike to the man she was in love with to fend for himself She knew she should consult with the rest of the family first but her mind was already set.

And she always stuck by her decisions, just like how she had stuck by Sakua ever since she swore to serve her.

"I have an offer Orion-kun," she looked at him, "you have two options. Option one, stay here and go to an orphanage."He sat still, looking off to the side as if thinking it over for a few seconds before he turned back to her.

"…what's option two?" he replied in a quiet voice.

"Come with me and become my son, our family is a little…odd but I promise to take care of you."

He closed his eyes and tilted his head a small amount before he turned back to her, gratitude shining in his silver eyes.

"Please take me with you…Mama."

11 Years Later…

[NAME ERASED BY CLOCK TOWER], France

A young 14 year old magus walked through the streets of the small and eerily quiet village, the power was out but he had always had good vision at night and had no trouble walking the dark streets. His name is Orion Emiya and he wasn't a tall person for his age, being slightly below average height and of a slim build. His complexion was pale, which he always found odd due to his love of the outdoors, and he was dressed in a simple black shirt, black and grey digital urban camouflage windbreaker with a hood, blue jeans and black boots. His facial expression was calm, his silver eyes not betraying his heightened sense of awareness. A pair of sleek black glasses framed his face.

Passing a crashed police car he looked at his reflection in the door window and saw he had bed hair from leaning on the glass during a nap on the car ride over. He ruffled his auburn hair in a vain attempt to fix it before sighing to himself and, giving up, he pulled up his hood and continued his walk.

A minute or two later he froze and shivered as it felt like worms were crawling under his skin.

"Fucking zombies, hate fucking zombies," he mumbled quietly as he tried his best to ignore the feeling, to no real effect. Different magi sensed magical energy differently, his adoptive father smelled it in the air while Orion himself...felt it, for the lack of a better word. Sometimes he wished the way he sensed it was as accurate as his father's, as some said his father was kind of a magical bloodhound but considering his own already sensitive sense of smell this was not one of those times.

The stench of blood and rotten flesh filling the air already made him almost gag.

He reached into his windbreaker and pulled out a black archery forearm guard and put it on to protect the inside of his left forearm before pulling out a pair of close fitting black gloves.

"To the Hunt…" he murmured his Aria quietly and his magic circuits opened, the familiar warmth and small amount of pain he had long become accustomed to filling him. Quickly he channeled prana into his the gloves and they shifted. The glove on his left hand shifted into an oshidegake, a glove worn by practitioners of the Japanese art of Kyudo (way of the bow) that covered only the thumb instead of all fingers, protecting it from the fletching of the arrows his bow could shoot at ludicrous speed. The glove in his right hand became fingerless.

Reaching up he took off and pocketed his glasses and his mind slipped into a colder more magus-like mindset. Orion didn't require them to correct his vision, in fact the lenses had no corrective properties whatsoever. Instead they were a tool, a 'trigger' for a sort of self-hypnosis common among magi to separate the two aspects of their personality: the everyday mindset and the colder magus mindset. The difference between his two personas wasn't as pronounced as it was with other magi it still worked. While the stench of death and the sensation of the prana the Dead gave out still wasn't pleasant he no longer minded it as much.

Looking up he eyed his destination, the clock tower at the centre of the small town, and continued on his walk.

*crack!*

At the sound of breaking glass he froze and hugged the corner of the house before peeking...to see a group of three Dead shambling towards him. They were quite fresh he guessed since, aside from a few bite marks and places where the flesh was ripped, staining some of their clothes red, the three didn't look that bad. They sure as hell felt dead to his senses though.

Reaching into his windbreaker he grabbed three small red hilts, barely small enough for one hand, with short, straight, horizontal guards and held them in between his fingers. He channeled a minute amount of prana into each of them and three long rapier like blades materialized between his fingers, in a manner similar to wolverine.

They were Black Keys, powerful conceptual weapons used by the Church for centuries against the enemies of the faithful.

Weapons in hand he charged, punching forward and catching the first Dead by surprise, three Black Keys piercing his face.

*Rah!*

Orion jumped back, out of the way of a Dead trying to grab him. While...fragile the Dead, physically, were strong and he did not want to get caught by one. Still, they were quite stupid, and he ran forward, punching forward once more.

Two down.

Twisting around he spun, the Black Keys cutting their way out and with a swing he managed to slash the third through the torso, the corpses hitting the ground in a wet thump.

After making sure he was clear he dispersed the three blades and pocketed the hilts before taking a calming breath.

While he was adequate by the, admittedly high, standards of the Emiya clan in close combat it was not his area of expertise.

Eventually he reached the clock tower at the heart of the small village and murmured another Aria.

"For Artemis," prana flowed through his circuits and into the bones and muscles of his legs, filling into any 'flaws' and making them faster, stronger.

Simple spells like Reinforcement usually just called for his favoured short Aria, or even nothing at all if it was a minor application of the spell, but he found Self-Reinforcement worked better using that particular phrase. He and his family found it odd at first, invoking the name of a goddess shouldn't have any real effect. After all, the gods had long since disappeared, the Age of the Gods ending thousands of years ago. Arias weren't actually…magical by nature either, instead they were phrases used by magi to enter the correct state of mind to use magecraft and perform their mysteries. He wasn't a particular fan of, or attached to, Greek mythology either, only researching enough in the odd chance he was forced to participate in something akin to a Grail War so the name of a dead goddess should have held no importance to him. Considering Arias were supposed to be personal it made no sense.

It was a minor curiosity that remained unanswered for a while.

Eventually though his family discovered he wasn't wholly human, he was a demi-god, an impossibility in the modern Age of Man. The last he had heard of a demi-god walking the earth was during the 5th Fuyuki Grail War and they were all Heroic Spirits, dead legends of the past summoned by magi, and he knew he was very much alive. That meant only one thing, he wasn't of this world and by that he didn't mean he was a Type, an alien, but from another plane of existence entirely. Something confirmed by his family after telling he was found in a place where the Second Magic was used, the Magic allowed for travelling between parallel worlds.

After learning that and considering the words that tended to come to him for some of his Arias then it was obvious what goddess birthed him.

Orion shook his head clear, he had to focus. The entire reason he had even come here was due to the promise of a certain annoying parallel world travelling vampire.

"Fucking hate vampires…" he grumbled and jumped, his reinforced limbs and already above average physical strength launching himself up an impressive six stories. Reaching the apex he grabbed onto a window ledge, pulled himself up and jumped another four stories, letting him grab the edge of the roof and pull himself up.

As he stood at the top he looked up at the moon and the stars, the rural location of this particular job letting him see all the beauty of the night sky. He loved the night, he always felt stronger during it than the day and the bright full moon always invigorated him, even before his little...condition.

If only the air wasn't tainted by death and rot then he would have been happy.

Standing above most of the town he could finally hear some of his adoptive family, his siblings who had offered to help him. In the east he could hear the tell-tale crack of gunfire, one of his older brother's gun mystic codes, while an explosion thudded on occasion, one of his older sister's jewel based spells probably.

He held back a cringe as he remembered he promised to reimburse her jewel expenditure since she was helping for free. He seriously doubted she was holding back and was probably going to go through a small jewelry store's worth of precious gems tonight since she wasn't paying for tonight.

He turned to the west and he saw his eldest sister, the 20 year old Sofia Emiya, the eldest of the Emiya children. She was making quick work of The Dead that had infested this village that had killed and/or turned every resident. To a normal person she would have been a blur but not to him. She was wearing a blue cardigan, grey jeans and a long white coat that flowed behind her and her golden blonde hair was tied up into a loose ponytail with a black ribbon as usual. Combine that with the intricate sword of steel and gold she wielded and her regal blue eyes and she was the very epitome of her famous (or infamous) moniker.

The Princess of Victory.

As always the Princess of Victory delivered, cleaving the walking corpses in two with a single swing of her longsword as she moved with such force that the pavement shattered beneath her feet. The young magus couldn't help but be impressed every time he saw her in action, if he was in his normal mindset he would've been in awe at her skill, even as a demi-god he stood almost no chance against her.

Comparing her, or his older brother Saito's, swordsmanship to his skills with the Black Keys was like comparing night and day. He stood no chance against them.

"Well," he turned his attention to the Dead, some were partly decomposed already while a few looked…fresh, that were fleeing from her. "Might as well do my part…" taking a deep breath he imagined a bow, his bow, and recalled everything about it, his mind going over the steps his father had taught him.

He stretched his left hand out, his hand grasping a weapon that wasn't there.

Judging the concept of creation.

Hypothesizing the basic structure.

Duplicating the composition material.

Imitating the skill of its making.

Sympathizing with the experience of its growth.

Reproducing the accumulated years.

Excelling every manufacturing process.

"Trace On" prana flowed through his circuits and silver light gathered in his empty hand as prana gathered, forming the outline of a bow before the weapon fully materialized.

It was a simple looking black modern-style recurve bow, lacking all the fancy accessories many modern competitive shooters favoured but he knew it was far more than just a bow. Made by his older brother's skills in alchemy from a blend of titanium, aluminum, polymer plastics, carbon nanotube sheets and reinforced by runes that were carved all over the weapon, inset with silver. It was a monster of a bow that, with some Reinforcement, could shoot relatively straight past two kilometres and survive firing all kinds of exotic arrows.

He smiled as he felt the weapon's comforting weight in his hands, he really couldn't thank his father enough for teaching Tracing to him. His status as an incarnation and his Reality Marble certainly helped as well.

It was super handy not having to carry his preferred weapon all the time in public.

With a thought he Traced a ya, a Japanese arrow that differed from western arrows in that it was longer measuring around a metre including the head. He injected prana into the arrow, more runes along its shaft glowed white as the head softly glowed yellow and he felt the mental connection with the arrow in his mind. This was one of his Shatter Arrow mystic codes.

Taking aim at a group of four Dead in an alley he nocked the arrow and drew, bringing the bow up and lowering it into position while drawing at the same time in the Japanese style, drawing it farther than western forms, all the way to the ear.

He loosed the arrow and it shot towards its target 300 metres away. Orion exhaled and knew it would hit and snapped his fingers, his connection to the arrow sending a signal and the arrow flashed.

Where there was one arrow there were now five thinner and slightly shorter projectiles that flew straight and true, impacting the group of Dead and the alley in a cacophony of small explosions like a cluster bomb.

Switching targets without waiting for the smoke to clear, Dead and Ghouls were fragile and he knew he killed them, he saw another target. It was a young girl, probably 7, the same age as his youngest brother, shambling away. The body was in terrible shape, rotten and peeling flesh revealing some bone underneath. In his normal, albeit still somewhat calm mindset, the sight would have pierced his gut, young children, especially girls getting caught up in things like this always did for some reason, even if adults usually elicited no reaction other than a bit of pity. Now though it almost had no effect on him, he pitied her yes but she was dead and, logically, he knew he could do nothing to help.

He Traced another arrow, this one was made of tungsten-carbide and had a wide broad head. It had no magical properties but was still very very much lethal.

Drawing it, he took aim at her, his mind already registering her as nothing but another target.

The young magus slumped down and sat on the roof, dispelling his Traced bow in a soft flash of silver prana that faded into the air and charged his gloves with Prana again, changing them back to their original form. Reaching into a pocket he pulled out and put on his glasses, the look in his eyes softening slightly but his facial expression remained the same as it usually was, calm and stoic.

"I don't know how they do this so often," he wiped his brow, while he sometimes accompanied some of his older siblings on their hunts in Japan he didn't…work nowhere near as often as his globe-trotting siblings. This being only his 4th Apostle hunt, if you counted the one he merely observed when he was 10 as his first.

It had been roughly two hours of shooting straight and while his od reserves, the body's reserve of magical energy, was still good to go, benefits of being a demi-god he guessed, he was mentally tired. His arms were a bit sore too and the fingers of his right hand started to hurt from drawing the bow string on such a powerful bow so many times. How many and arrows how many kinds of arrows had he Traced and fired? Honestly he didn't know.

*As the wish concealed in my left hand remained a wish…*

Hearing his ringtone he fished into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone, unlike most magi who shied away from modern technology, most didn't even know what the hell a VHS was, he was quite proud to say he wasn't that bad.

That said he still sucked with more complicated stuff, hence why he carried an old but thin flip phone instead of a smart phone.

Touch screens both scare and confuse him.

How his older brother mastered this 'internet' so quickly he had no idea.

Flipping it open it read 'Onii-sama' and he answered it, "hello Onii-sama, did you get to the target or was it Sofia-nee? I lost Sofia-nee an hour in."

"It was Aoi-nee actually," came the response, "she was getting cranky and chucked like seven rubies at the guy, evaporated him off the face of the planet."

Orion sighed to himself, that was going to cost him a shit ton of money to pay back. 'Well at least I know why city hall exploded.' He was a little upset he hadn't managed to snipe their target himself but he was glad that at least Zelretch said he would handle the clean-up…or more likely just make someone do it, very few people could say 'no' to the crazy vampire without serious repercussion. The town looked like a war zone, the tower he's sitting on the only undamaged building, and corpses and gore littered the streets.

Yeah he had no intention to clean up this mess.

"Like mother like daughter…" he couldn't help but murmur, away from the phone just in case his brother was on speaker. "I guess I'll meet you at the hill, where we met with Sofia-nee."

"Understood."

Orion took a deep breath, savouring the fresh evening air as he finally reached a fair distance away from the town. They were in rural northern France so there was none of the smells of the city. Combine that with how he always liked the night and he was one happy magus.

Remembering why he was miles away from Fuyuki though made him drop the happy mood…not that most people could tell from his almost constant calm and stoic facial expression.

Reaching the top of the hill he saw three figures waiting for him at the top of the hill.

Sitting on a tree stump was his older sister Aoi Emiya-Tohsaka, the 17 year old magus resembled her mother at her age. With long raven black hair tied into twin tails with white ribbons she really was a clone of a younger Rin Tohsaka. The only thing that set Aoi apart from her mother at her age was her heterochromia with one of her eyes her mother's cool blue while the other was her father's warm golden brown.

Standing beside her with his hands in his pocket was her 'twin' and the only other adopted child of the Emiya clan, the 17 year old Saito Emiya-Tohsaka, the same brother who made his gloves and bow. He looked similar to his sister with blue eyes and black hair, Orion still remembered being surprised when he heard his Onii-sama was adopted too.

Aoi was dressed in a white shirt, black tie, a plaid uniform-esque skirt, black stockings and black shoes while Saito was dressed similarly, switching the skirt and stockings with a pair of black jeans. Living up to their childhood nickname of 'The Twins' they both wore a long red coat that Orion knew hid numerous mystic codes. Beside his older brother, sitting on the ground, was a guitar case Orion knew had one of the rifle mystic codes his brother was testing out tonight.

Leaning on a busted street lamp and talking to the other two was Sofia Emiya and like Aoi she resembled her own mother. She had a frown of her face and he guessed his two other siblings were trying to console her, she really did take after their father in the 'wanting to help everyone' department and Orion knew she was depressed since there were no survivors.

As he approached his sibling seemed to notice him and turned in his direction with warm smiles, Sofia waving at him.

"Thank you for your help Onee-sama, Aoi-nee, Onii-sama," he greeted them all in his usual soft tone.

Aoi's brow twitched and she frowned, "Chibi how come you never use 'sama' with me?!"

"Now now," his older brother walked over and ruffled his hair, "it's obviously because you call him by that name." Orion felt his cheeks flush slightly in embarrassment as his brother treated him like a child but didn't stop him, after the stress of tonight…he didn't mind being treated like a kid right now.

"Hmph," Aoi flipped her hair over her shoulder and walked over, reaching into her coat she pulled out a bound tome that looked positively ancient. "We already ransacked our dead friend's workshop. Here, this is what the Wizard Marshal wanted you to retrieve right?"

Saito walked away, standing beside his 'twin', as Orion took the book that he had been asked to retrieve, holding it carefully as he examined it. It was made out of some kind of dark leather, and had several locks placed around it. On the top left corner, scribbled in silver sharpie of all things, was a message.

'If found please return to The Clock Tower, London. Property of Wizard Marshal Zelretch.'

He raised a brow at that, did he really think he'd get something like this back? If this had notes on the Second Magic the knowledge inside...many magi would sell their own mother for a shot at accessing that.

Or, actually, considering most people exposed to Second Magic went insane…maybe the old vampire did know what he was doing?

Well, either way, Zelretch had to help him now, if anything the vampire kept his word.

To open up a portal to the world he had come from so he could go and try to find his birth mother.

Clock Tower, London, UK

Orion hated the Clock Tower. Not the institution, as scummy, evil and absolutely insane as some of the people in it could be, as cruel and inhumane the experiments it funded could be, he knew something had to keep magi in check and the Clock Tower was better than nothing. Besides it wasn't like the Mage's Association's two other branches, Atlas and Sea of Estray, were exemplars of morality either.

No, what he hated was this place, the sprawling complex known as the Clock Tower, home to the institution of the same name. A truly massive complex, partially buried deep underground London and partially above ground in some of the oldest buildings in the city, a city within a city really. He hated this place, he really did. In name the Clock Tower was an institution that focused on the research of and preservation of magecraft, not too dissimilar to mundane universities in concept.

In reality though it wasn't like that at all, in reality being in the Clock Tower didn't feel like being surrounded by students and professors, instead it was like being in the ocean.

An ocean infested with sharks, waiting for the smell of blood in the water, always circling, waiting for a sign of weakness.

Magi were, for the most part, selfish and ruthless by nature, especially the oldest families. Political power plays and backstabbing abound in the Clock Tower and as he walked down the halls of the Department of Mineralogy he eyed everyone he came across warily. No one would attack him in the open, he knew that, but he made sure to walk and appear as calm as possible, thankful he didn't show much emotion on his face anyway.

Due to his preference to stay in Japan and young age he was an unknown in the Clock Tower for the most part, even if technically he was a member. Unlike Sofia and Aoi or his brother Saito, the three Emiya children that had regular contact with the Clock Tower, he didn't have a fearsome reputation to protect him. Sofia was a successful freelancer who took jobs from Clock Tower and Aoi and Saito, especially Saito, became infamous for death and destruction in their early years in the Tower as they worked to establish a reputation to protect them.

Orion, while having the protection the Emiya name gave him, had nothing to his own name that the nobles of the Clock Tower cared about. They were racists for the most part after all and didn't care about what happened in Japan, where the jobs he'd tagged along and helped with took place.

To them he was possible prey and being (presumably) born of a hunting goddess he knew how a hunter thought, a hunter facing new prey would wait and watch, observing for weaknesses. He was a possible weakness for the Emiya clan and the Lords and Ladies of older families were eager to shut the rising power of his family down.

Eventually he reached a door quite familiar to himself, on the door was the label 'Rin Emiya-Tohsaka' and he knocked lightly.

The door clicked open and he was greeted by the sight of his older sister Aoi and her red coat, "hey Chibi. "

"Aoi-nee," he gave her a small bow and she stepped aside to allow him in to her mother's office before shutting the door. Glancing around he noticed his brother was missing, that was odd, "where's Onii-sama?"

"There was…an emergency. Nothing too big though, it wasn't some emergency job," he nodded and was relieved for that, he loved his family.

"What happened?"

"His fiancée was hospitalized, again nothing majour, but he decided to take a flight to Japan last night. You know how the two love birds are but Saito-kun was sorry that he couldn't see you off and wish you luck."

"I understand," and he really did.

"Are you sure you…" she sighed and it was obvious from the frown on her face that she was worried about Orion, "can't you wait a few days? I know you want to find your mother but this is dangerous, I'll lend Saito to you once he gets back. Just wait a week."

He shook his head in the negative, "no. I need to do this alone."

His older sister sighed and shook her head, "you may not be my brother by blood but Papa's stupid stubbornness sure has rubbed off on you."

Orion looked up at her and gave her a rare smile, not a small one but a real happy one. "Thanks."

"Haha," she chuckled, "that's not a compliment, Chibi."

He looked around the empty office space, "where is everyone?"

"Already in the back," and as he walked to the back he felt himself pass a bounded field, he felt the familiar prick in its mind as it tried to identify him as friend or foe before disappearing. He smiled a small smile as his suspicions were confirmed.

Aunty Rin was using one of her personal workshops for this, he wasn't sure she even had a worskshop in the Clock Tower before, he had always assumed she was like her two children. Aoi and Saito lived together in the suburbs and Orion knew they both had workshops at their home but didn't have them in the Clock Tower out of fear of enemies trying to break in. A magus' workshop was usually one of their most private places, the act of even attempting to break into one viewed as an offense worth killing over.

Orion's only workshop back in Japan had lethal defenses too.

For her to let him into one of her workshops…he smiled, as ruthless as the members of the Emiya-clan could be they all cared about each other…even if Aunty Rin and Aunty Luvia tended to beat the shit out of each other sometimes. Normally no one was let into someone else's workshop, for his Aunt Rin to do so really showed how worried she was for him.

He was grateful for that, Orion didn't fully trust Zelretch and if he were to use a portal opened in one of the old vampire's places then he would be uneasy, not trusting Zelretch to not play a 'prank' on him.

Eventually they reached a large room and from the scrape marks on the floor the he guessed the room wasn't so empty previously. In the middle of the room, surrounding a rip in space that was glowing a myriad of rainbow light, was a group of people that made him smile.

His family, the Emiya clan, or members who could have come at least since his various Aunts and siblings traveled the world on business frequently and some couldn't come due to not being members of the Mage's Association. That was why he wasn't surprised not to see his older sister Sofia here as, while infamous, she accepted jobs and received payments via proxies, usually other Emiya family members.

"Well," Aoi started as they reached the group and she ruffled his hair, "stay safe Chibi…oh what am I saying? Adopted or not you're an Emiya and we attract trouble like moths to a flame but I know, in grand family tradition, you'll make it out and come back to us."

"I will," he nodded before his father, as well as the father of all the Emiya children, walked up to him, a luggage bag in tow.

Shirou Emiya, the Steel Magus, and current head of the Emiya clan walked up to him, his trademark warm smile on his face. He was fairly tall, with unmistakable white hair splashed with red and eyes were the colour of steel, the effects of using Tracing on his body. Luckily for Orion his demi-god heritage meant he wasn't affected by Tracing like his father was, something about his divine parent's essence fighting the damage…or something.

He didn't really understand it very well though, since his magecraft studies didn't touch the subject. Orion wouldn't have minded though, his father was badass.

"Hi Dad," he greeted his father in his usual quiet voice.

"Hey kiddo," he put the luggage bag in front of him, "you sure you want to go alone?" Shirou crouched to be closer to his eye level since Orion really wasn't all that tall for his age, "I don't like your first solo outing to be like this." He sighed and rubbed his head before giving his son a grin, "well I guess I readied you as best as I can. Just…use what I gave you carefully."

"What did you give him, Shirou?" came a voice that made both Emiya males shiver. A woman with blue eyes and long flowing raven black hair dressed in a suit and skirt came up from behind Orion's father, eyeing the Steel Magus with a raised brow and a too sweet smile. She was Rin Emiya-Tohsaka, head of the Tohsaka family and the mother of Aoi and Saito. "Nothing stupid I hope?"

Shirou flinched, "now Rin dear-"

"Mhm?" Orion shivered, his Aunty Rin was scary when she was mad. He looked around and saw nothing to hide behind if she started shooting Gandr curses. He gulped, getting hit by a ball of illness was not a fun time, even a weak one. Being married to women like her was probably why his father, for all his strength, was 'whipped' in the opinion of Orion and his siblings.

"J-Just…uh, you know, insurance."

"Uh-huh, what kind?"

"I…uh…brought him into Unlimited Blade Works and…uh showed him some arrows he can Trace for emergencies."

The head of Tohsaka gave a long suffering sigh before turning to Orion, "just don't go blowing up city blocks willy nilly, okay Orion? Be smarter than your father here."

"Oi!"

Orion just gave a small smile, "yes Aunty Rin."

His father slumped in defeat, which he found amusing.

As his Aunty Rin stepped back to talk to an elder looking man dressed in black near the portal another one of his Aunts approached.

"Fufu," she laughed as she tucked a lock of her long plum coloured hair behind her ear, her eyes of the same shade watching his father with his head slumped down, murmuring, with obvious amusment before turning to Orion. She was a beautiful woman, aside from the odd hair colour she lived up to the stereotype of the yamato nadeshiko, the ideal standard of Japanese female beauty. Sakura Emiya, sister to his Aunty Rin and, just like her sister, married to his father. "Be careful," she hugged him lovingly and Orion hugged her in return.

Out of all his Aunts she was the one he was closest to, a second mother really.

After a moment they broke off and Orion knew who this last person who wanted to wish him luck was.

Soon enough, seemingly appearing from thin air, she materialized into her physical form.

She, like his aunts, was a very beautiful woman but he thought she was the prettiest. She was gorgeous, tall and had a developed figure that made the heads of men turn wherever she went in her physical form and long silky purple hair flowed down almost to her ankles. She was dressed in her usual attire of short black form fitting one piece dress that left little to the imagination, black thigh high boots and long black detached fingerless gloves while a dark violet leather blindfold covered her eyes.

They were called Gorgon Breakers and sealed her Cybele, the Mystic Eyes of Petrification.

She was an Earth Goddess at one point during her life, a heroic spirit from the Age of the Gods summoned as a Rider class servant in the 5th Fuyuki Grail War.

Her civilian alias was Alexa Alexandra and most who knew who of her nature as a servant called her Rider; to Orion though she was his savior, his adoptive mother, his Mama.

Humanity knew her by another name as a legendary Gorgon from the tales of Ancient Greece.

Medusa

Rider 'looked' down at her only son, even if her Gorgon breakers blocked her vision she could 'see' the world around her well enough. Her face was similarly stoic like his, something she was sure had rubbed off on him and not something naturally in born to him. That said that was a guess, she had no real opinion of his assumed mother since she had never met her world's version of the goddess in life, and who knows if Orion's mother was any different.

The Servant of the Mount admitted she was nervous, unlike her older daughter who was very much an adult, she viewed Orion like a baby.

She closed her eyes and removed her Gorgon breakers before de-astralizing a pair of eye glasses, they were Mystic Eye killers that would contain her mystic eyes' petrification powers, and slipped them on. Rider was a logical being first and foremost and both knew and understood that her son, as person who had chosen to walk the path of the magus, had accepted to walk with death, like all magi. His life was dangerous and he had hurt himself seriously in various experiments.

From the moment he had asked his Aunts and herself to teach him magecraft she knew there was always a risk for him to just…not come home one day, that one day she would have to bury one of her babies.

If this would be the last time she would see him, she wanted to see him.

So she opened her eyes, exposing Cybele, the beautiful grey green eyes that had been the end of many foolish 'heroes' who wished to harm her sisters centuries ago, her son and everyone else in the room kept safe by her glasses.

Rider crouched down in front of Orion and gave him a small smile, and as cold as she could be on the outside usually it was a smile full of love and motherly warmth. Her son blushed adorably and she noticed him give her a small smile of his own and she saw tears form in his eyes, a rarity for her usually collected son, and he hugged her, holding on to her tightly. He was a logical person much like herself and she knew that he was aware of the very real dangers in what he was about to do. She returned the embrace and wrapped her arms around her small son.

She sighed contently, she still remembered how hard life had been for her during the brutal 5th Fuyuki Grail War, never would she have imagined she would be happily married (granted she knew that sharing a husband wasn't common) and a mother to boot.

"Orion," she spoke softly and embraced her son in return, "be careful, the gods are dangerous…and know that even if Asuka couldn't make it she loves you too. Never, hesitate to ask for our help if you need it. While all your aunts and siblings couldn't make it we all love you, never forget that." He nodded and after a few more minutes they stepped apart and she stood up.

"I'll return Mama," he said to her with conviction, an Emiya through and through.

"I know you will."

Orion nodded as his Mama stepped to the side, staying in physical form, her presence helping to calm his nerves somewhat. He dried the left over moisture on his face with his sleeves, careful to lift his glasses out of the way before taking a calming breath and walking over to the glowing portal.

He couldn't help but watch it with wonder, here it was in front of him.

Magic, not magecraft like he practiced but real True Magic, to be specific it was the Second Magic.

Known by the name of Kaleidoscope, the operation of parallel worlds, that among other things allowed for the travel between different realities. His Aunty Rin and Aunty Luvia were practitioners but he had never seen it in action before, even if they were family and closer than most magi families they were all magi at the end of the day. Secrecy, even amongst each other, when it comes to magecraft research was common, Orion himself didn't really share how his mysteries worked either.

He approached his Aunt and he eyed the old man she was talking to.

His full name was Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, one of the few to hold the rank of Wizard Marshal, and a Dead Apostle, a vampire, as denoted by his red eyes. Zelretch was, unlike his two Aunts who still held the title of 'magus', a True Magician who had mastered a Magic. He was the first one to reach the Second Magic. Most importantly for Orion though was that he could control what reality he could enter unlike his Aunts who were currently only able to open portals to random realities, unless they've visited it before.

"…you know," he heard the old man, grumble to his Aunt Rin, "I wouldn't have done anything funny if we did this in my workshop."

"Uh-huh," his Aunt didn't sound convinced, "like those times you promised not to 'do anything funny' during me and Luvia's training?"

"Ah-ha-ha, well-"

"Or that time you sent me and Shirou into that world where the local version of Shirou had a damn alien harem?!"

"Now Rin-" truly, his Aunty Rin was a fearsome woman. Not even one of the most powerful being in the world could argue with her and win.

"Shut! Up! I'm not taking chances when it comes to you," she then glanced at Orion, "and my family." She waved him over, "Orion come here I have something for you." He nodded and walked towards the both of them, leaving his luggage at the portal's opening, which was making no noise which kind of surprised him. His Aunt dug into her pocket and handed him a necklace of a rainbow coloured gem attached to a fine silver chain which he took and examined, "keep that on you at all times and never take it off. Sakura made it so the chain won't ever rust or fall off so you can wear it in the shower or while fighting, it's even safe to sleep with."

He looked up at her, "and the gem?"

She gave him a smug grin, "something Shirou and I put together as a precaution against this crazy vampire-"

"HEY!"

"-messing with our family. Think of it like a…tracking device I…or Luvia, can use to pin-point your location with the Second Magic. It's in the proto-type stage so it will still take three months for me to find you. After that I should be able to open a portal to wherever you are."

It was at this point that Zelretch chimed in, "I only promised to get him there, getting back is up to your family. Think about it as an assignment Rin."

"Thank you Sensei," she sighed and turned to him again. "Well you heard the ol' coot. So Orion be careful, you'll be virtually cut off for three months from help." She then fished out a phone similar to his own and gave it to him, "that's connected to another phone," she jerked her thumb at his Mama, "and Rider has the other. It can't send text messages…whatever that is but it can send calls with a minor application of Second Magic. Shirou also got it to make video calls."

Orion blinked, his head tilting slightly to the side, "what's a…video call?"

"I don't know," she blushed with a sigh, "Shirou just taught me how to use a blu-ray player, I'm as clueless as you are." She ruffled his hair, giving a rare warm smile, "be careful."

"Yes Aunt Rin," he blushed a bit but didn't move, while he wasn't particularly close to her compared to some of his other aunts he still loved her. When she was done he walked towards the portal and his bag before turning to Zelretch and speaking in his usual quiet tone, "while it was annoying to work towards the payment…thank you."

"Bah," the vampire waved him off, "don't sweat it. You know what? From the kindness of my heart," he gave the Magician a, more than usual, deadpan look, "oh don't give me that look. Anyway I have been there before so I'll give you some advice. Number one, the Greek gods have moved to the USA."

"What?" and here he was looking forward to visiting Greece.

"They have their reasons. Second there are forces at work in that world to hide the supernatural from the normal so don't go off killing witnesses every time you use magecraft, the gods won't like that…probably." Orion frowned, he'd never killed a witness before, he was very good with hypnotism. "And I suppose that's it, the portal will drop you off in the US."

"…no help on how to find Artemis?"

"What fun would that be, brat?"

Orion heard the clanking of chains behind him and he turned around to see his mother holding her nail daggers, a pair of long nail shaped daggers connected by a long steel chain and she was glairing bloody murder at the vampire.

The young magus decided to calm her and sent her a small smile, "Mama it's fine. I'm The Hunt incarnate, finding her shouldn't be too hard."

"…" the heroic spirit sighed and she smiled at him, her weapons disappearing as they astralized.

Orion turned to face the portal again and grabbed his luggage and walked towards the portal, he had to admit he was curious, what would this world be like? What new prey was there to hunt?

Before he stepped in though he turned around and gave his family one last glance, "see you all later."

And he stepped through, his vision filling with white light.

'Hmmm,' Zelretch hummed to himself as the portal closed, feeling he forgot something...oh right.

Wasn't one of his old artifacts missing? He had tract it to the world the young demi-god had just went to if he remembered correctly. Should he have mentioned it earlier?

...

Nah, what fun would that be?

He was sure Orion liked surprises...or was that one of the other Emiya kids?

Nevada, USA

'I feel sick,'Orion tried not to puke as his head seemed to swim. After a moment, as his head cleared, he felt the dry heat of the desert and the hot sun bearing down on him.

Opening his eyes he saw he was…in the middle of nowhere. Nothing but sand, dirt and flat desert as far as the eye can see, a single paved road in front of him.

His eye twitched, of course, the stupid vampire would find a way to fuck with him somehow!

"Damnit! Fuck you, you stupid vampire!" he screamed at the sky, his rage overpowering his normally cool façade, "ZELRETCH!"

Next- Chapter 2: Liberal Use of Hypnotism

AN

Author Question: Who should Orion be paired off with? I'm currently siding with pairing him off with Thalia or an OC huntress. What do ya'll think? As a reference for the timeline he will be participating in the quest to save Artemis alongside Percy, Zoe and the gang. His arrival taking place several months to a year prior that event.

So yeah...this story happened. The idea just couldn't leave me. This will be like 'Fireteam Tokyo' in that I just write it whenever and will be using this chapter to gauge interest. This was fun to write though and I look forward to involving more of the Emiya clan and bringing some of the PJO gang for an adventure in the nasuverse.

I'm not an expert in the world of PJO though so I do plenty of research but if I make a mistake, or something that seems off, feel free to point it out and I'll make appropriate corrections.