AN: I would like to thank everyone who has either favoured or followed this story as I appreciate the support. I hope you enjoy the chapter.

Sakura with Rider beside her left to inform her grandfather of her success in summoning a servant. Rider walked silently beside her while sensually swaying her hips. Although Rider was a servant she was less a Heroic Spirit and more of a Divine Spirit; this meant that she could sense divine energy to a degree.

This naturally meant that she curious about Seeker as she could feel a faint trace of divine energy emanating from him. Now this meant that she found it difficult to trust him as in her past she had some distressing experiences with the Gods of her time.

As a result of these experiences she planned on keeping her eye on him until she had determined his identity and intent for the grail. She also planned on never leaving him alone with her master unless there was no other option. Nonetheless they were still servants to the same master, so for the time being she would be discreet in her suspicions.

She jumped up in shock when she heard a voice in her head "what's wrong my dear? You seem troubled." She heard from a voice that sounder eerily similar to "Seeker?" she questioned in a quiet voice.

"Indeed who else would it be, your fairy godmother?" he responded.

"How are you talking to me?" she asked ignoring his comment as she didn't truly understand it.

"Do you not recall me telling you and our mistress that I would contact you through the command seals?" he asked. "Ah which reminds me" he said connecting to their mistress "Sakura dear, please enter a room" he ordered.

"Huh, uh okay Seeker" she replied sounding startled, which was understandable really as she had been in a pleasant daydream. Looking around she entered the first door she saw, which just so happened to be a dungeon. She closed the door for privacy so her mysterious servant could materialise.

Seeker materialised behind her in the centre of the room. Tapping into Sakura's reserves to give a more authentic performance of him being a normal servant he cast a series of privacy charms.

"What was that?" his mistress asked in a confused tone having seen him wave his glowing hands around and the drain of her magic.

"Ah it's lovely to see you being curious and that my dear was me cast a few spells to ensure our privacy. Now I should have done this earlier but I seem to have forgotten. Give me your hand girl" he commanded holding his left hand out.

Sakura feeling compelled to listen to him for some reason placed her right hand in his.

"Not your right hand I meant your left, the one holding your command seals" he corrected with a sigh massaging the bridge of his nose. Ducking her head she switched hand and as he waved his glowing right hand over her command seals laughed. It was a soft laugh that Seeker found to be quite endearing.

"What's got you laughing" he asked with a frown.

"It tickles" she said placing her hand over her mouth. Looking down at her hand to see what he did, she let out a gasp staring at her hand in shock. Believing she had found a way to escape from the war she looked up at him only for him to cut her off before she got to say anything.

"Now what I've just done is placed a very powerful illusion over your seals to hide the extras from view." He told her seeing the disappointment in her eyes as he did so. "That means that although some of your seals look to have vanished they are still there, beneath the illusion.

"In spite of the fact that the illusion is powerful it does have a time limit of 24 hours, so I will have to recast it every day, preferably at night. Which" he told her casting a spell to display the time "should be a problem as it is 10 minutes past midnight."

Blinking in shock at the time Sakura hurried upstairs in a rush to reach her grandfather's office. The reason for her rush being that she feared that if she stayed up any later she would be too tired to wake up the next morning. Something she refused to allow as she loved helping her sempai making breakfast.

Her sudden rush however caught the two servants by surprise and Seeker only just managed to dematerialise before the door fully opened. Rider unfortunately was completely caught off guard and it took a few seconds for her to recover.

Running to catch up to her she was lucky that Sakura hadn't gotten far as she did not know reinforcement. Something that Seeker took notice of and decided to gather more information before jumping to conclusions as he did in the past.

As she arrived outside her grandfather's office Sakura leaned against the wall opposite it to regain her breath. While leaning there she decide to prepare herself for the meeting.

As she breathed in and out she slowly fell into the dark area of nothingness. An area that was free of everything. It helped in controlling her emotions to prevent any unnecessary outbursts. It would serve her well in the meeting she was about to participate in.

A meeting with her adoptive grandfather. The head of the Matou family. A monstrous being who could no longer be classed as human. Although that was a discussion for another night.

Her grandfather was not someone she wished to anger for a number of reasons. One of the main ones being that she wished to continue visiting the home of her love interest. The home Shirou Emiya, for not only was it the home of the one she admired it was also the only safe haven she knew. A haven that protected her from the cruel world.

A world created by her failures. Her failure to be a worthy daughter for her father and mother. To be worthy for her sister Rin, whose responsibility was to help her as her older sibling. Her failure to be strong. Her failure to admit her feelings for her sempai.

Yet despite all this and more she still had hope. Hope that one day Shirou would love her. Hope that he would save her. Hope that Rin would be punished for abandoning her. Hope that she would be free.

But none of that matter in this moment. So having prepared herself she with Rider to her right stood straight and walked up to the door and raised her hand. However that was as far as it went as all her nerve had run out on her.

Leaving her alone and afraid with a queasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. But she was distracted from such feelings as she felt a stinging sensation or her backside. This resulted in her face heating up.

"I recommend you rid yourself of the thoughts that are clouding your mind. You are a strong young lady and you obviously have a wish. Something that will forever be out of your reach unless you move forward. I'm going to tell you something an old friend once said 'Abandon your fear. Look forward. Move forward and never stop. You'll age if you pull back. You'll die if you hesitate'.

"I shall stand behind you for as long as necessary. So discard your fear. Quit hesitating. Raise your goddamn hand and fucking knock!" She heard from the strong voice of her servant within her head.

Feeling much more confident and empowered from her servant's pep talk. Sakura raised her fist and sharply rapped it on the door thrice. Feeling the drain from her command seals Sakura felt more confidence than she had ever felt before. Something she attributed solely to the fact she knew she had at least one person behind her, even if he was her servant.

Seeker smiled as he saw the effects of his words on the shy girl, feeling proud of himself. He also noticed how her shoulders seemed lighter as if a burden had been lifted. He also realised that she reminded him a lot like a certain grandchild of his.

Small, young and afraid. A quit and timid child on the outside, but with a core of steel on the inside. Not to mention she was quite developed for her age.

Something that had him resolving to help the girl grow out of the shell that she encased herself in. Although he kept the fact that it was too early to accurately judge her character at the back of his mind. But that was something he could easily fix given some time.

Be that as it may though he still planned on enjoying himself even though he planned on helping her. After all he knew that this universe contained some fairly powerful beings that he could fight against and if the servants prove to be dissatisfying he would try them.

Another reason for coming was that he didn't get to visit this universe much. It was really too much of a hassle dealing with Akasha and the other Masters to get here. He found it to be annoying but understood that it was among their favourite universes. Another reason he didn't get too angry about it was because it was the home of Time.

But now that he was here he was planning on letting loose. It was simply too bad if the others had a problem with this as they had let him in without much fuss. Besides they didn't truly understand the troubles of being the Master of Death. It was one of the harder Master roles along with Love, Sorrow, Misery and Life.

Alas it had seemed that he had to end of his musing as a voice from the other side of the door called out. Hearing the call, his mistress opened the door. As the door opened to reveal the person on the other side he felt a searing wave of animosity rush through her.

Deciding that his mistress needed some help he gave her some support in controlling her emotions. He felt that it was acceptable as the man was detestable and because Sakura was still young.

The only thing Sakura could think of was how much she hated the man opposite her for all the suffering and pain he had caused her and continued to cause. However she quickly calmed herself down, burying her emotions deep down; something she found to be almost effortless which surprised her.

The man before them had his hands clasped behind his back with a walking stick in his right while facing the window. Turning around the man looked at his mistress in a way that thoroughly disturbed him.

Zouken Matou was a cruel and sadistic monster that enjoyed the suffering of his grandchildren; especially that of his adopted grandchild Sakura. And it showed in his soul. It was truly a soul tainted by sin.

He was a short, bald old man. His head was like a deformed wrinkly potato, which had roughly been moulded into shape by a five year old. His scleras were black like the abyss, with small white pinpricks for his irises. He did not appear to have any pupils. His neck was bent giving him a stooped look.

He wore a green kosode with hakama pants that were of a darker shade of green. Hanging on his body was a black haori. Gripped in his right hand there was a dark brown walking stick. "So this is your servant girl. What class is she?" he said looking at the blindfolded servant in perverse glee.

"She is of the Rider class grandfather" answered Sakura in a quiet, submissive tone.

"Huh is that so. Well remember girl if you fail to fight in this war I'll have the crest worms activate and you wouldn't want that would you?" he sneered at her weakness when she lowered her head. "I look forward to seeing what your servant does in this war. Now be a good girl and get out of my sight"

Leaving the room with a slightly rushed gait, Sakura hurried away to get to her room to sleep so she could wake up early the next day. But she never reached her destination as she collapsed. Luckily Rider was able to catch her before she fell, proceeding to hold her in a bridal carry with her head resting on the elder woman's shoulder. As the world turned black around her she felt Rider's worried sightless gaze on her.

Rider gazed at her master in concern. Before remembering she needed help, causing her to look left and right in hope for some support. And Fate provided her the guidance she required in the form of an old man, that happened to be her fellow servant.

"Calm down brat. You panicking is not going to help our master at all. Now if you listen to me we'll make it to her room and I'll see what's wrong with her as I have some experience in healing. Do you agree?"

Silently nodding her head to signify her acceptance Rider listened to his directions following them to the letter. This lead her to arriving before the door to the room which Seeker claimed to be her master's. Slowly opening the door she looked around the room.

It was a very simple and clean room. Directly in front of her was a large window with some plants resting on the window sill. To the right was a wardrobe and desk, while to the left was a table and futon upon which she placed her master. As she closed the door she searched the room for her fellow servant only to see him materialising next to their master.

She witnessed him wave his glowing hands around and felt a few bounded fields come up around them, what impressed her was how difficult they were to detect as she was very sensitive to magic. Then he walked around the room and physically searched for any bugs, though she didn't know why as from her grail knowledge magi and technology did not mix.

"Not all magi are going to be unable understand technology and I believe in being vigilant so that I'm not caught off guard. There is always someone better than you so I believe it's best to be prepared, no matter how unlikely it is that someone will defeat me" he answered her unasked question. Only once ensuring there was no way for another to observe them did he act.

"Okay those are temporary and won't last for more than a few hour but they should be sufficient for now." He told her referring to the wards he set up. "Rider I need you to make sure that no one spies on us, as from what I have noticed you have above average senses. I have some experience with healing magic so unless it's something severe I should be able to heal her without any specialist equipment" he told her.

Seeker looked upon the girl for a few seconds before retrieving his old holly wand for the delicate magic he was about to use. Sending a body numbing spell paired with a body binding charm at her he began to diagnose her.

Sending plethora of spells at her to narrow down his search radius he found some very disturbing information. Wishing to confirm the information he created a hologram of her, with some complex motions. The hologram revealed her naked body and showed him her insides, it being a very complicated healing spell that made him thankful for his countless eons of life.

Spinning it around to view it from all angles first to check her outer body. Next he started to pull the hologram apart to check her internal body. Unfortunately doing so only confirmed what his spells told him. He had found them, the worms that had grown in her body and merged with her nerves and her heart.

"Well now isn't this absolutely wonderful!" he exclaimed throwing his hand up into the air. Seeing the curious look on Rider's face he decided to explain what he had learnt. Although he was surprised at how much she was able to convey even with a blindfold on.

"You see my dear Rider it appears that the cause of her collapse was pain. Now that wouldn't really be such a big deal on its own as I know some spells and potions that can alleviate or help to deal with the pain. No the problem is what is causing her pain. I assume you remember the old man and the crest worms he talked about" he explained, while waiting for her nod to continue.

"Yes well those crest worms it seems are his familiars. Now I'll spare you the unnecessary but disgusting details. From what I was able to find the worms are in her bloodstream slithering around her body and are merged with her nervous system as you can see here and here" he said pointing at the relevant sections on the hologram.

"Wait are you able to see through that blindfold?" he asked realising a flaw in his explanation. He sighed as she shook her head. "Right well it doesn't really matter I suppose. So to continue the good news is that I should be able to expel worms in her bloodstream and body given some time. And now that I've softened the blow it's time for the bad news, I can't remove the ones that are connected to her nerves at this time.

"Well at least not without killing her. But there's not much to worry about all I have to do is acquire some equipment and I should able to deal with them." he finished with a smile.

"Now since that is done and dusted let's get to know each other. You see I'm a firm believer of teamwork, but to have good teamwork we are going to have to trust each other. And what better way to earn trust than to talk" he said seriously although he had a glint in his eye.

"I am fine with us not communicating much, thank you for the offer though. Besides aren't you going to be in spirit form the majority of the time, I see no need for teamwork if I shall be doing most of the work" she replied turning away to go sit on the window sill. As she sat there doing god knows what, Seeker was thinking of productive things they could do for the war while their mistress was asleep.

One of his thoughts was scouting the competition and city to find strategic buildings to launch attacks from. As knowledge was most certainly power for one who wielded magic as he did.

While he also thought of obtaining some allies, he decided to hold that thought until his mistress woke up. Hopefully makings allies would help to build up her confidence.

Deciding to change her into more comfortable clothes first, he looked through her wardrobe. Finding a set of pink chequered pyjamas he made a switching spell to change her. Folding what he assumed to be her uniform he set them down beside her.

"Ah well I can't force you to work with me if you don't want to, so suit yourself. Would you like to stay here and watch over our mistress or would you prefer to scout the city instead?" he asked.

"I'll stay" she answered curtly.

AN: If you have any comments or have spotted any mistakes please inform me of them in your reviews.