Let's get a few things out of the way immediately.

1. This story takes place after the Unlimited Blade Works route's Good End/Sunny Day ending.

2. I am a Type-Moon fan, but my knowledge is limited to the translated works and of course I am not beyond making mistakes. If there are any inconsistencies with the Nasuverse's established logic, please chalk it up to AU discrepancies (lol).

3. There is no way I can keep up with all the new Servant releases across the Fate spin-offs, so if I happen to contradict the depiction of a Servant in the franchise, refer to point 2.

4. Despite this being a Fate/Stay Night fanfic, I will mostly only deal with OCs. The connections to F/SN will become clear later on.

5. I am always open to discussion and answer questions (as long as they don't involve spoilers).

6. It's going to be long. I orientate more on the Visual Novels than on the abridged anime adaptations.

7. Have fun ~

Prologue

A single step can bear the weight of a thousand.

When the forest's cries hushed completely, he knew that something was wrong. Unnatural silence more unnerving than the howl of any beast surrounded him. The only noise his ears perceived was the low and pained breathing of the woman on his back.

Another harrowing step made him realize that his wounded leg was starting to give out.

Her breathing was shallow.

The next step sent a numb pain up his spine. The blood trail he left behind was evidence to his fading strength. The rocky dirt road was marked with the trail of his dragging feet.

They had found him.

Red eyes burning inside the shadows. Surrounded. Silent death.

"…come and get me already…" He growled between clenched teeth.

They had been following him ever since he had entered the forest. After he had pulled her out of the fire.

The crash! Flames corroding the very being of the passengers! An inferno made by human hands, fueled by chaos and mistakes!

His mind was fading. Flashes of the accident were passing by his eyes, yet he wasn't sure whether they hadn't truly been burned into his retinas.

They did not react to his taunt. Nothing affected their soulless eyes.

He raised his burnt left hand and put it to his chest. The magic crest was flaring up. Prana was pulsating in his circuits. The flame of life had not left him yet. He could still fight.

Awooooo

A wolf howled into the moonless night.

It began.

The shadows took form. They encircled him more closely. Beasts with fangs and claws. Perhaps they truly were just flesh and blood wolves. Even if they were, the way they were acting was unnatural to the core. Quiet, beckoning, free of malice or desire.

He forced himself to keep moving. In the distance he could barely make out the spire of the local town hall. The village he had seen from above had been closer than he could ever have hoped. If only his body was not losing warmth so rapidly…

Swipe!

In an unexpectedly painful effort he dodged the sharp claws assailing his back in the nick of time. His torn jacket was ripped open at his waist to leave yet another tattered hole inside it. Just a slight nudge forward would have allowed the scythe like claw to lacerate the woman's spine.

The sudden dodge had pushed him off balance and he stumbled on his feet. With a painful impact, only bracing with his bleeding arm, he managed to land without hurting her. He felt her bulging belly press against him. All his hazy mind could think of was to pray that the baby was not hurt.

Fangs buried into his supporting arm. The stinging pain should have made him pass out on the spot, but instead… the razor sharp teeth shattered! The shadow creature retreated into the pack without a yowl or cry.

He forced himself up on a large rock protruding from the leaf covered ground next to him. It displayed many sharp indents, similar to that of a wild beast's canine imprint.

Another beast jumped him from behind, but the man turned around and smashed its jaw with his soot covered fist. Against all odds the creature's skull was giving in rather than his human bones. The creature was flung straight into its brethren and rolled through the dirt.

The collision itself didn't even register in his brain, but the excess of energy was electrocuting his nerves. He could not last much longer. He gently sat the woman down from his back and touched her pregnant belly below her wide blue dress. From inside he could feel the baby kicking back. This small life was struggling as well.

"Link… Start." He whispered under his heavy breathing.

A symbol appeared around the woman's belly button.

The sound of steps tickled his ears. The monsters were moving about, but someone else had joined them. Those were the sounds of boots on the rough earth.

The woman slowly opened her teal eyes. Even this little action seemed to exhaust her immensely. Consciousness only returned ever so slowly.

"Dear…?" She asked with a distant voice.

"I'm sorry for putting this burden on you." He smiled apologetically and then pushed her over the edge of the hill. "Live with all your might! Only think of our child!"

The woman's eyes widened as gravity pulled her downwards and she started to lose control of her descend. She slid down the hill all the way to its foot while panicking.

"No… please no…!" She called out to him, but the darkness was getting thicker. She could not see him anymore with her blurry eyes.

Tears ran down her face as she forced her tired arms to drag her body away from the darkness. Each time she moved her muscles it felt like she had ran a mile. Her life force was draining. In her hazy mind she realized that she must have been under the effect of a grand ritual.

She needed to escape the area of effect no matter what! If life force was being drained from the affected… if it took equally from all in it vicinity then the baby would be the first to die.

Minutes passed with nothing but the sound of the body dragging over the ground. She had no idea how much distance she had made. All she could do was move ahead. Left arm… right arm…

Her legs were numb. In her panic and despair she had not realized that they were broken. Crawling like a pathetic slug across the forest seemed natural now. The baby had stopped kicking inside her. Her heart was crushed in fear.

Then her fingertips touched something solid. Not crude like the trees or rocks of the forest. Symmetry. Civilized. Prepared and crafted by tools.

She had reached the entrance of the village. And her hands were touching the cool pavement of the main street.

"H…elp…" She forced out a cry between coughs. Her lungs felt ablaze. This wasn't just because of her waning life force. The fire… the hot smoke… it had hurt her more than she realized in her numbed mental state.

Silence engulfed the streets. No lights were glowing inside any of the windows. This village was as quiet as a cemetery. Even on such an unsettling night, some people should have been awake. Some noise should have been made. Even a single light should have been shining through a crack.

She could feel the effects of the ritual diminishing the further she dragged herself, but it was still there. For normal people this might have been… deadly.

But not for a magus. Not for her. She still had to do as he had told her. To live with all her might!

She raised her arm up to the wooden fence of a close-by garden. With almost super-human will she pulled her heavy body up only by the strength of her arms and leaned against the splintering wood. If she just made it inside one of these houses she could…

Ba-thump!

A shock went through her abdomen. Like a small burning cut she could feel it.

The baby was coming. Labor had set in a while ago. Before the accident. How could she have forgotten? The pain had been so constant that she could not register it anymore.

She could not give birth right here… she needed a safe and warm place…

They say a mother's will to protect her child can give her unspeakable drive and power. To go beyond the limits of human feats. Something primal and fierce was taking over and forced the muscles and sinews to bear more weight, more strain than possible. The heart pumped more blood than the veins could usually bear.

The woman moved along the fence. Her sole objective to reach the doorstep of the house. And just as she extended her hand to reach the doorknob… she fell over. Instinctively she rolled on her back, to not harm the baby.

One last time she stretched out her hand for the entrance. The tip of her fingernails touched the cold surface.

Then she passed out.

Not too far away from the village, under the moonless sky, a man fell to his knees.

Dozens of gashes and cuts covered his torso and arms. His face was bruised and dirty. His hair that had been singed before was now blood crusted.

The magic crest's glow faded away.

As his right arm spazzed out in the throes of pain he fell forwards and lowered his head in front of the shadowed figure that had been watching the battle unfold.

The beasts were never thinning their lines, not matter how many he killed. This fight had been hopeless all along. Even the last spark of resistance was fading from his soul.

The person finally looked down upon him with cold eyes.

"A nuisance to the end." The deep voice declared.

Then they raised one arm.

And without so much as a realization the battered and beaten man noticed that his chest was impaled. He had not seen the weapon, nor the way it had penetrated his body. He had been dead before he could even recognize his end.

"The trials are not yet over." The words echoed across the circle of darkness surrounding them. "I may have a use for you yet." The eyes glanced to the side. Towards an empty spot. Nothing was there. Nothing…

"Hrrrgh!" A painful gasp escaped the man as he opened his eyes in distress. Cold sweat ran down his face and he immediately went into a defensive position behind the tree he had been leaning on. His hands moved to his knife without hesitation.

"W-what has gotten into you!?" The voice of a young man made him turn around and he pressed the edge of his blade against the boy's throat. "It's me! Satu! Please do not hurt me Mr. Collingwood!" The tanned boy begged with fear in his voice.

Collingwood's bloodshot eyes checked the boy's soft features and basic garbs for any signs of danger. No hidden weapons, scrawny arms, barely reached maturity yet. If he was an assassin he did quite well with this disguise.

He sighed and retracted his knife. Of course he already knew this boy, so he shouldn't have been so alarmed.

"You… had a bad dream?" He asked with concern and pushed back the low hanging bangs from his face.

"Something like that." Collingwood replied curtly. He was still rattled from the vivid images of that… dream. Whoever that person in the shadows might have been, they had looked directly at him. He was certain of it.

"Mother has many charms that ward off evil spirits and nightmares." The boy said with a raised finger. He was entirely serious.

"…" Collingwood went through his sweaty hair and shook the last traces of adrenaline out of his body. Nightmares were nothing new to him. This one had just been especially abstract. As he lowered his hand he looked at the blue mark that crossed his skin and bones. Perhaps that dream was connected to this sign?

"The sun is low. The villagers will return to their homes and lock up soon. We can visit mother now."

"Go ahead. I will follow right behind you." By force of habit Collingwood stepped behind the boy and followed carefully. As they moved through the thick of the bushes and trees he looked out for any signs of anomalies. Ants were flooding through the leaves and into their hill, a frog was croaking in a small water hole, the birds above were chirping in strange tones… Everything was normal.

The setting sun was creating a red tinge in the sky which reflected in the rain drops on all the leaves around them. If he had felt any passion for nature he might have called it a beautiful sight.

"Does your hand still hurt Mr. Collingwood?" They boy started his usual small talk routine. He was never content with a few minutes of silence. His accent was also particularity grating to the ears.

"It has subsided already." He replied in the boy's mother tongue. This didn't pass him by, but he kept replying in English.

"Very good! Mother will look it up in her book and then lift the curse, I just know it." He reassured him again.

Collingwood pushed his branded hand into the pocket of his brown garb. The coat was old and worn, but much more pragmatic in these rain forests. He had been living in the backwater regions of this continent for so long that he almost felt like they were more familiar to him than his old home in England.

"I doubt it's a curse." He said curtly. Idle conversation was not his favorite. But Satu was very stubborn. So he contributed with the correction at least.

"Mysterious brand appears on your hand while sleeping? Sounds like a curse to me." He said with a serious nod.

The villagers in this region took curses and dark magic very seriously. For good reason as Collingwood knew. The boy's exposed back was covered in lizard like scales. His gaze became softer as he watched him swipe away a few vines with his bandaged arm. The boy was incredibly compassionate. Despite his condition he worried about such a meaningless trifle.

Collingwood felt unchanged. The sign on his hand resembled a three layered and interwoven star. It was dark blue and stood out immensely against his light skin. He had considered covering it with a glove, but then Satu had already noticed it. It was a shame that they had similar hunting spots.

"The village is right around this hill! Be careful that nobody sees us together." He reminded him.

"…" He averted his gaze from the back of the boy. It was obvious that Satu was saying it for his sake. The boy and his mother were treated as outcasts. An unnecessary concern. Collingwood never had any intention of getting chummy with the village elder and his followers. As far as they were concerned he was a barely tolerated intruder.

"Mother will be overjoyed to have dinner with the three of us again." Satu suddenly sounded quite cheerful. His smile was genuine and kind.

"I don't intend to impose on you…"

"Nonsense! It makes her very happy."

Collingwood ceased resistance and simply went along with it. Eating a few bites with them would not delay him too much. If he slipped out before midnight he would still manage to return to his cottage before morning.

"Mother said that she likes you a lot. You are an honest man, she said."

"She is too trusting for her age." He commented dryly. A lady in her 70s should not have been so open to strangers. Especially not with her circumstances.

"I think trusting others is the foundation of happiness." Satu declared with a raised finger and a smile.

Collingwood stepped on a fallen over tree and sighed. No matter where his travels took him, naïve people always seemed to cross his path. In spite of the fact that he had the hardest time dealing with that type. He pulled himself up on a vine and jumped over a hole in the ground, but mid swing he noticed something unusual.

"Smoke…" He said quietly and pulled Satu back by the shoulder.

"What?" The young man blinked a few times in confusion.

"Look. Black clouds behind the hill. The wind is carrying them to the east, which means the smoke originates from…"

"The village!?" Instead of taking it as a warning to be careful the news made him rush ahead even more.

He clicked his tongue. If he rushed after him blindly he would only expose himself to danger. It wasn't his business what happened to the village. If it was a fire that had taken a hold of the wooden houses with their straw roofs, then there was no saving that place. The flames would spread in seconds. The villagers would have to rebuild, but it shouldn't have been a death sentence.

Satu ran and slid over the hill with a desperate expression…

Collingwood leaned on his leg and closed his eyes.

If the village was destroyed he would lose a trading post. Yes, that was an acceptable reason. At the very least he should help the villagers to gain their favor. As unsympathetic as the elder was, he always repaid his favors.

Carried by a purpose he moved around the hill from the opposite direction that Satu went in. Just like he had said before, they shouldn't be seen together.

After passing the hillside he witnessed the inferno with his own eyes. The huts and houses weren't just on fire; they were being consumed in a fiery blaze! And worse than that…

"Ahhhh!" Screams. Sobbing. The last gasps of fading lives.

Villagers were spread over the dusty paths. Most of them were already dead. Others were still crying in agony with stakes pushing out of their bodies. This was a massacre.

For just a moment his mind returned to the dream he had earlier. The scene was completely different, but the feeling of helplessness and death was the same.

This wasn't good. No natural disaster was responsible for this bloodbath. And by the looks of it no normal people either. A military force would have simply rained bullets on these poor people and have been done with it. These attacks resembled torture more than anything. Nobody was granted a swift death.

His legs stayed firm. He didn't even feel nauseous. In the past he had faced horrific sights. He had learned how to shut out his emotions and only focus on the task at hand. For now he would have to find Satu and his 'mother'. These people were beyond saving, but at least the boy should get away from this scene out of hell.

Collingwood sprinted between the gaps of the burning buildings and followed the mark he had put on Satu when he touched his shoulder. A novice spell with barely any accuracy, but it was enough to tell which direction to turn to. It was ironic that the boy who feared magic so much had been so close to a genuine magus this entire time.

As expected, the boy had gone for the hut of the village crone. His 'mother'.

Against all odds her hut was not set aflame. In fact it seemed bizarrely unaffected by the entire ordeal. The front door was swinging back and forth with a squeak. The hinge hadn't been oiled in a long time.

Satu's mark was close. It was almost certain that he was inside. Just a few steps more and he would see his hunched over back.

"…shit." He whispered with a hand on his chin. Call it a premonition, but he could already tell that he wouldn't like what came next. Like in an old horror movie he slipped into the hallway and followed the noises. The sounds of sobbing. On his way to the main living area he noticed dirty boot prints all over the wooden floor. Several people had entered here in a hurry. And according to the marks, they had also left again.

With a suppressed heartbeat he fully opened the door that had already been ajar.

"Tayca… Tayca... uwaaaah!" Satu's heartrending voice penetrated the stale air. Over and over he repeated the word 'mother' in his tongue.

Collingwood bit his lip. The old lady had passed away. But not peacefully. She had been robbed of her human dignity and crucified against the wall. For a second he remembered her old raspy laugh. A moment when she handed him a plate with food on a stormy night. The books she had always stuck her crooked nose into.

Without a word he pulled Satu away from the dripping corpse. There was no point in letting him stay with this gruesome sight. He protested at first, but his resistance was much too weak to struggle free.

Outside they covered their faces from the incoming smoke. The dark clouds were spilling their way, right with the wind.

He nodded the boy to follow him out of the village.

"I need to perform the rites for her!" He yelled over the sizzling sound of the flames.

"You can do that after we made sure the people who did this are really gone." Was his short reply before running towards the forest.

"I… I cannot believe this. Why would anybody do this… why?!" Satu cried again and fell to his knees just as they reached the hill.

"Executors. Hunting for possessed people and abominations." Collingwood said gravely.

"Y-you know these murderers?"

"Haven't had the displeasure of meeting them face to face yet. I am more used to Enforcers." He gritted his teeth. If these were really Church hunters it was obvious who they were after. For now he shouldn't betray his thoughts to the crying boy.

He was also bothered by something else. This was a remote backwater region. Nobody should even have known of Satu and the village crone. No matter how good they were at sniffing out heretics…

The ringing of a bell snapped him out of his thoughts.

Satu didn't react to the sound. He couldn't. It was only in Collingwood's head.

"My barrier has been breached." Back at his cottage someone had trespassed. The alarm was very clear about it. This couldn't have been a coincidence. "Satu, you will follow my instructions exactly as I give them to you."

"Mr. Collingwood what are you-"

"Quiet. Move towards the old cave where I hunted down the puma that killed off the elder's cattle. You remember its location I assume. Then you wait inside the cave for two days. Should I not arrive there at that time I want you to keep moving south until you reach the next village. There you will need to find a road that leads to the eastern forest. I left an old base behind around there. It has some basic shelter and tools, so you will be able to survive on your own."

"But-"

"There are no survivors. They never leave witnesses. You slipped between their fingers, so they will definitely return for you. Currently they are at my hut. So you should have time to escape."

"H-how do you know that?!" He held on to Collingwood's rugged coat.

"I have my ways. Now hurry!" He pushed him away forcefully.

"I cannot leave tayca without her last rites!" He refused with an angry expression.

"…" He scratched his stubble and became increasingly impatient. This kid wouldn't budge. He would get himself killed. But this wasn't his damn obligation! He owed them nothing. And the longer he stayed here the more likely the Executors would find his workshop.

"I want to… I want to understand the murderers. They must have had a reason…" Satu folded his hands and swallowed his tears.

"Listen. I will take care of your tayca. I learned the rites when she gave me a lecture a while ago." He suddenly crouched down and put both his hands on the young man's shoulders. "You know I never go back on a promise." His amber eyes met with the boy's.

For a few seconds he hesitated.

"Thank you Mr. Collingwood." He wiped his tears and nodded. In the end he trusted him after all.

"I have to return anyway, to get the book on breaking curses from your tayca. With that we are even." He turned away and walked off without looking back.

"Please come to the cave as soon as you can!" Satu waved after him and then ran off into the opposite direction.

Collingwood went through his dirty dark brown hair again and sighed. He really couldn't deal with the naïve types.