I do not own any of the Fate series, the following is a non-profit fan-based parody. The Fate series is the property of Konoki NAsu, UFOTABLE, Type Moon, and Aniplex. Please support the official release.

I know it came out of order but I felt it needed to be done. So here is the *NEW* official beginning to my story Fate: Ascension.

Introduction

What happened?

I could feel the sweltering heat on my face, his breathing was labored.

Am I…...in hell?

Now I realized, my chest was crushed underneath the rubble, and I was far too weak to unearth myself. Darkness took me again, and when I woke again, I heard a man's voice off in the distance. I remember the look on his face, the tears in his eyes over finding someone alive in the rubble. A man filled with joy from the bottom of his heart. He looked so happy to me…...it was as though it had been him, and not me, who had been saved.

"You're alive, you're alive, oh thank god you're alive."

Even as I lingered within the reach of death, I was jealous of that man, so happy to have just found one person, and with that himself.

Oh, what a life you must have lived.

I was eternally grateful to him, but I never expected to see him again, and especially not the first person I would see when I regained consciousness in a hospital bed, excluding the nurse.

He was tentative approaching the boy, he didn't want to seem overeager, "Hi, you must be Shirou, I'm not sure if you remember or not."

Shirou couldn't say anything on account of the smoke inhalation damage but he did manage a nod to signify that he did in fact remember the older man.

"Great. That's great, now I hate to drop this on you, but I'd like to ask your preference: going to an orphanage or coming to live with me."

Shirou couldn't remember anything from what happened before the fire, his earliest memories were those moments he spent in the inferno, the smells, the sounds, the heat threatening to melt the charr him to the bone. He pushed the recollections away and gratefully accepted his request with the biggest smile that he could muster.

Kiritsugu felt his heart almost leap from his chest, "I'm glad to hear that, now we should get you dressed, the doctor's said you were free to leave as long as we observed some safety precautions. You should get acclimated to your new home as soon as possible. Also, I guess it's important for you to know right away." He looked to his left and his right before leaning in to the boy and whispering, "I'm a Mage."

Fate: Ascension

"Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"What do you do for work?" Kiritsugu looked down at his now adopted son, he had been watching the construction of the estate he was having built, he had decided to renovate the place he spent the last peaceful moments he had had with Irisviel, the sentimental value was too much to pass up. Shirou had been helping the construction workers by giving them the tools they requested. Such a great kid.

Kiritsugu chuckled, "Well I'm retired now, but before I helped people who had problems, I guess you could say I was a professional problem solver."

"Ohhh," Shirou looked at him with newfound knowledge, he then began to bounce around his dad, "problem solvers must make a lot of money, I wanna be a problem solver too!"

They stayed there for a little while longer, watching what would eventually be there home being built. Weeks went by, the workers were efficient and fast, benefits of the extra money Kiritsugu slid there way, might as well spend that Magus Killer money while he was living. Soon the house was deemed livable and the two moved in, but to Shirou's delight, he spent most of the first day running around the entire estate. Living with Kiritsugu was an enjoyable experience, while he wasn't Shirou's real dad, he did his best to provide the best parental knowledge he could.

"I want to know magic!" Shirou was bouncing in place now, he could barely contain the excitement welled up inside him.

"No." Kiritsugu was definite in his statement, the boy was making it extremely difficult for Kiritsugu to not regret revealing his magical powers to him. Shirou had been asking the question since he'd regained his voice, and Kiritsugu learned quickly that the child had near limitless persistence, using any excuse he could to bring up the subject. Shirou scraped his knee, he'd say he should learn healing magic. If Shirou couldn't reach something, which was often, he'd comment how knowing how to fly would be helpful. It wasn't until Shirou started to use more logical reasoning into his attempts that he finally broke the old man.

"The life of a mage is dangerous, there's more than a few bad men who might come sniffing around if they hear that I'm out and about. If they found you, and they realized that you knew my magic, there's no telling what could happen to you."

"Then just teach me ONE thing, one little bit of magic. Something easy so the bad guy won't come after me."

Kiritsugu sighed, he guessed that there wouldn't be any problem with learning the fundamentals.

"Fine, but- hey, stop, I'm not done talking yet." Kiritsugu laughed, Shirou had jumped on him the moment he said yes and was now jumping up and down in his father's arms in jubilation. Shirou's celebration died down with Kiritsugu's continued insistence that he listen. "Every magus is different, so you may find that your strengths are not aligned with mine, making me an unsuitable teacher."

Shirou didn't care, magic was magic, and he was about to become a mage. Kiritsugu held a battery of tests over the next few days assessing what the young boy would be capable of learning, eventually he concluded that Reinforcement magic would be suitable, interesting, considering the sheer difficulty of the subject that even he didn't have a full grasp of it, he was curious how his son would fare. It took a couple months to teach the nature of magic, how it was applied, where it came from, all the necessary curriculum that was the bedrock of every mage.

Shirou and Kiritsugu were inside the storehouse, this was designated as Shirou's place of study. "Ok Shirou, so the trick with Reinforcing magic is the amount of mana you use and the rate you keep that mana flowing into that object. Take this stick for example," Kiritsugu picked up a branch that was laying in front of him, he closed his eyes as the hand holding the stick began to glow, the bright lines that formed on his hand then spread to the stick, although the light was noticeably fainter when crossing to the wood. "Success requires a good understanding of how the inside of the object you're using is formed, mine isn't all that great which is why the light is so weak. However, this branch is still twice as strong as a normal branch. Now you have 27 circuits, not a bad number at all, but the quality of them is considerably poor. Not to worry though, in time I may have something to remedy that problem."

Shirou's eyes were transfixed on the glowing stick, "So cool."

"Here, I'll let you give it a go, feel your magical energy flow through you and into the branch. I wish there was more I could do to help you out bud, but that's the limit of what I know." Kiritsugu chuckled, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"It's ok, I'll have this done by dinner, just you wait my stick will be strong enough to stop a car!" Shirou replied.

"Well, I look forward to seeing that. I'll leave you to it, being alone usually helps me when I train, me watching you could throw you off." Kiritsugu made for the door.

"Ooooh you're probably right, get out before you mess me up dad!"

Kiritsugu left him to his training, using the time he had to get dinner prepared, but after dinner was cooked and set on the dinner table, there was still no sign that Shirou had left the shed. He went out to the shed to see that Shirou hadn't left the spot he was in, although there was a noticeably higher amount of branches laying about the floor.

"Shirou, it's time for dinner."

The redheaded child didn't even turn to face him, "Yeah ok, I'll be in in five minutes, just 5 more minutes."

Kiritsugu sighed, "Ok, 5 minutes, then I want to you inside, it's going to get cold."

The former mage went back inside, sitting down for the aforementioned 5 minutes, and yet there was still no Shirou, Kiritsugu wasn't angry, he understood the initial excitement of learning magic, who wouldn't want to spend all their time learning it? So the next time he went out to the storehouse, he brought with him a hot bowl of food and drink, along with a heavy blanket, telling Shirou to not stay out to late, but he knew that his warning fell on deaf ears. So after another few hours, Kiritsugu went back out to the shed a final time, this time to retrieve the now sleeping child, curled up in the blanket he had given him and a branch still clutched in Shirou's small hand.

"Well at least you didn't fall asleep on an empty stomach," Kiritsugu said as he picked up the empty bowl and cup, "what am I going to do with you, you can't live out here."

So Shirou continued his training in Reinforcement magic over the next couple of months, Kiritsugu was surprised at how quickly the boy was picking up the sparse instruction that had been given to him. Shirou was already on a good track, being able to make a stick strong enough to hold up when Kiritsugu brought it down over his knee, if only for a single blow. There was another problem though, Shirou was started to get hungry again, not for food mind you but for instruction, the child had a taste of magic and was now coming back for more.

"C'mon old man, you said yourself that I was 'impressive', you don't know anything else that you could teach me?" The boy spoke between mouthfuls of food, the two were now sitting at the dinner table eating breakfast.

Kiritsugu's eye twitch at the comment about his age, but didn't voice his displeasure. "I don't know if I have anything else that is suitable for someone your age."

Shirou peered into his bowl of rice, "It doesn't have anything to do with my dreams does it?"

"I won't lie to you," Kiritsugu had stopped eating and was now paying full attention, "it does give me pause. I don't want you to learn something that could make you a danger to yourself or others." Shirou had made a number of late-night visits to his dad claiming to have nightmares, but what he described to Kiritsugu, and the frequency of only that dream, it made him worry. PTSD was common for someone who went through what that boy did, but how vividly Shirou described his dreams of the fire, it almost brought him back as well, the description was so good, too good. "You know, I have bad dreams too. Dreams of bad things that have happened in my life and sometimes they keep me up at night, just like yours."

"Really?" Shirou looked up at his dad, a look of surprise and comfort on his face. He was happy that someone knew what he was going through.

"Yeah, eventually all those bad things changed me, I'm not sure if it was a good change or bad though, feels like another lifetime ago. I don't want the same thing to happen to you Shirou, I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

Shirou stood up and raced into his dad's arms, embracing him in a hug, "Then help me. You know better than anyone else," Kiritsugu could feel his shirt getting wet, and hear the sniffling coming from beneath him, "what it's like to wake up in a place like that. I- I'm scared dad, it's always the same and I'm always alone. I know we can't stop the nightmares but, at least teach me, so I can know that I'm strong enough to make it through there on my own."

The father and son locked eyes, tears were streaming down Shirou's face. It broke Kiritsugu's heart, he relented.

"Ok, I'll teach you something that should boost your confidence, but you have to let me know how these dreams are progressing, the doctors said that night terrors are 'normal', but I don't want to to miss something if it's affecting you any worse."

Shirou sniffled, "OK." They stayed there for awhile longer, soaking in the silence, they felt that here with each other, they could keep their demons at bay.

It was a warm day today, and the sun was shining, yes, Kiritsugu thought it was a perfect day for sparring. When he revealed to Shirou that he would be learning hand-to-hand training he had initially had it planned for himself to train him, but for some reason he was feeling especially weak lately, so much so that he had to observe the session from the comfort of a chair he brought outside. He decided that he would leave the matter of training Shirou to a young girl he met at a local kendo tournament, Taiga Fujimura she said her name was. She proved to be knowledgeable in multiple facets of combat, as well as being a generally nice girl to be around, so he had no qualms about her being Shirou's tutor. It was only icing that she was more than happy to babysit Shirou, they hit it off instantly, when he was off looking for Illya. Shirou proved to be no match for the woman who had earned the moniker the "Tiger of Fuyuki", to say she consistently shredded the poor boy wouldn't have done her justice, but if Shirou was going to learn, he wanted it to be from the best.

"There was a rock in my shoe." Shirou said from his position on the ground.

Taiga stood over him, hands on her hips, "Yeah and my kendo stick in your face, which one do you think knocked you out."

"Ms. Fujimura, you're mean." Shirou pouted, standing up and dusting himself off before getting back into a defensive position.

"No," she rushed in, Shirou jabbed his kendo stick out which she slipped to his right before sliding her right leg under his for the trip, sending him crashing back down to the ground, "you're too hesitant. You must think quick and react even quicker. Also, you're too soft, you're mind and body should be as solid as this stick, otherwise you better get used to the ground, you'll be spending a lot of time there."

Shirou looked over to his dad, who did nothing more than shrug his shoulders. His attention was brought back to Taiga as she directed his gaze back to her with her kendo stick.

"So, you ready to go again?"

Shirou glared at her, which then turned into a grin, he might get beat, but he'd never give her the satisfaction of him quitting. "Of course."

Later on in the month after numerous more ass kickings, Shirou was instructed by Kiritsugu to meet him in the shed. When he entered, Kiritsugu was sitting on the floor and in front of him lay a gun.

"Hello Shirou." Kiritsugu smiled at the boy, trying to disarm the situation from seeming too weird.

"Hey dad," he approached tentatively, "if this is about the dishes, I did them before I came out here."

"No Shirou, come and sit down" The boy followed his instruction and sat on the other side of him. "I said you would only be learning hand-to-hand combat and while you have been progressing, there may be times where a kendo stick won't be enough." He picked up the gun, "This is a pistol, and when you press this button, a clip will fall out the bottom. In this clip is bullets, now I'll show you where I keep the bullets and the guns, what's most important is that you only use it when your life is in danger. Pulling the trigger here will fire a bullet from the clip, it's also important you know that I keep two separate bullets, normal bullets and origin bullets. I'll tell you where each are kept, remember to only use origin rounds if you know that a mage is attacking you."

"But..why would a mage attack me? I'm a mage myself."

"I'm not….the most popular mage, let's leave it at that."

Life went by for the father and son, with Taiga coming around often enough for them to consider her part of the family. Kiritsugu by this time had stopped looking for Illya, the Einzberns made it nigh impossible to locate the castle, and his health hadn't gotten any better, on the contrary it appeared to worsen by the day. By this time, Kiritsugu figured that his encounter with Angra Mainyu had left a nasty curse on him that was directly related to his condition, and so he began to make arrangements as he felt his time drawing near. He felt like he hadn't slept in weeks, even if it had only been 3 days of sleepless nights before he swallowed his reality enough to inform Taiga that she would be Shirou's guardian if anything were to ever happen to him. He wasn't sure what he would say to Shirou, or if he would say anything, the thought chilled him to the bone and made his stomach feel 50 pounds heavier. So he didn't contemplate that, instead he worked diligently to prepare what would be the final piece of Shirou's training, something he had been preparing his son for since he agreed to teach him magecraft, the Emiya Crest. He had already been preparing Shirou since he was adopted, giving medicines with special herbs and his own crushed bone under the guise of vitamins, he had to get Shirou's body accustomed to what was going to come next. The transfer of Magic Crests' had a high rejection rate even among those who are related, but since the Mage Association stripped most of the Crest away with his father's Sealing Designation, the fragment that he had left should be less harsh in the inheritance, or at least he hoped. Kiritsugu used the guise of healing magic as the reasoning for the appearing marks on the child's back.

"Is it a tattoo dad?" Shirou would joke, only this time when his son asked, Kiritsugu decide to tell the truth.

He smiled at his son, "Not exactly, this Crest will give you access to the spells that I've come across and used in my life, along with a few from my family line, but in comparison to a normal Magi's Crest, yours is still in its infancy, meaning you're going to have to add more to it to make it as good as everyone else's. I'm hoping this will help with your dormant circuits, hopefully some of mine will help bring them along."

Shirou nodded his head, confusion written on his face. "Ok, and what happened to 'healing magic'?"

"I'm afraid that was a lie, one I was only able to keep up because of the size of the Crest. You see most Crest's take years to be transferred, otherwise someone might well…...explode. Your body somehow accepted the initial portion of the crest, a sliver of a fragment. That was all I needed to go underway with the rest, as you wished I am making you into a mage, and every mage needs a Crest. It's not done yet, you only have the Time Control magic that I know at the moment but in time, you'll now everything I know."

"Wow…. Thank you," Shirou bowed to show his respect, "I promise you won't regret this, I'll put it to good use."

Kiritsugu placed a hand on Shirou's shoulder, "You've already made me more proud than I could ever be."

It would take some time for Shirou's own circuits to root into the crest, but the kid was talented, there was no doubt about it, Kiritsugu had no doubt the kid would go on to do great things. Nonetheless, the entire ordeal left Kiritsugu exhausted, he on multiple occasions came close to cutting the training altogether, what would he have done if Shirou had died? The curse of Angra Mainyu had been killing him since the day he destroyed the Grail, and he was now weak and decrepit, and his circuits had almost entirely failed him. This child was all he had, and he had thrown him into the world that had taken everything he loved from him.

"Dad are you ok? You look really sick, you haven't looked good for a couple months, we should take you back to the doctor, let them look at you again." Worry was written all over Shirou's face.

"Oh I've already been to the doctor," Kiritsugu lied, "they gave me some medicine that should have me back to 100% before you know it." He smiled, it was fake of course, but it was all he could muster for the boy he loved so much. "Shirou, I'm going to go rest for awhile, why don't you take it easy for today, rest is just as important as training."

A groan escaped his son's lips, "But that's soo borrriiinnnngggg."

"I won't hear another word of it, I'm ordering you to take it easy. That also means no contact with Taiga."

It was like the guy was reading his mind, Shirou thought. There was nothing to be done about it though, what dad said was law, and Shirou didn't dare risk losing the opportunity to learn more from delinquency. So Shirou decided he'd spend the day in town, watching the locals and enjoying the weather. As he walked along the streets, he came upon a vendor that caught his eye. An elderly man stood among numerous hanging vegetation, and Shirou could smell a natural freshness emanating from the cart. Shirou approached the cart, he read the sign that said "All Natural Herbs, Add Years Into Your Life!"

"Excuse me sir." Shirou said.

"Why hello there young man, what can I do for you today?" The vendor's gray eyes were friendly and his smile was warm.

"So these plants, they heal the sick?" The boy asked.

The man laughed, "Well, it won't cure anything, but given the right conditions and applied correctly, they can do wonders for your health."

Conditions…...Applications….. The wheels in Shirou's mind began to turn rapidly and in an instant he had cracked an idea that might help his dad.

"I'll take some aloe vera, yarrow, St. John's Wort, and houseleek please."

The vendor bagged up the listed items, "My that's a big order, kids your age are more interested in buying candy than greens, but I promise you'll grow up bigger and stronger than them." He finished his sentence as Shirou handed him the correct change for the items. Shirou thanked the vendor for his service before making his way back to the estate, bag in hand and mind full of ideas.

When he returned to the estate he made a beeline to the storehouse, there he would perform his experiments. Shirou figured that if he could strengthen the physical properties of an object, there might be a way of doing the same with the healing components in these plants.

He picked up a piece of yarrow, "Trace on." A mantra he came up with during his Reinforcement training, Shirou found that doing this better allowed him to actualize the properties of whatever he was strengthening, but he never expected so much knowledge to be ingrained in innate objects. He could make out every minute detail, the shape and substance, even the entire history of an object. Now the question was, how does any of that help him here?

If I can judge the concept of something's creation and hypothesize it's basic structure to recreate the materials needed to imitate the process of growth... all in my mind...is it law or based on my own mind? He didn't want to try something that could put to much strain on him, Kiritsugu said it was dangerous to wander into different subjects of magecraft blind. Shirou had been reading up on material transmutation to help with his Reinforcements though, so what he was doing wasn't completely out of his wheelhouse, there had to be a work around.

Shirou could only imagine up to the point of an object's creation, after that he began to feel a severe pain somewhere in his head but not like a headache, it was...strange. But if everything needed was inside his own mind, could he not duplicate the composition material of a substance with more immediate healing properties? Kiritsugu had provided Shirou with a book on healing magecraft as recompense, though pouring over the text proved to be a monotonous task. The aria needed to fully recreate healing magic was way beyond him, but healing magecraft did seem to work in detoxification. So if he used it on this yarrow, even the minuscule amount that he was capable of, like he was cleaning any impurities out of it, then maybe it would be enough when integrated with other plants under the same conditions.

After two hours of intense work, with another three spent gasping for air on the floor from overexertion and frustration, all that was left was to test it, Shirou still had a few bruises from his last spar with Taiga so now was the best time. So he slid the lid off the bowl he had acquired from the kitchen bit and took a drink from the bowl. The sensation was like chewing wet grass, he would have to process the ingredients better and get a better flavor for it because grass wasn't a flavor people liked, but all in all it was a success, the pain from his bruises had subsided slightly.

The rest of the day went by rather uneventfully, eventually Shirou did take Kiritsugu's advice and rest. As Shirou lay in the bed, his mind began to drift out of consciousness until eventually he was asleep.

He was sweating, he could feel heat. Shirou kept his eyes closed, he knew it was just a dream, but he didn't want to see, not after he had had such a great day. A scream rose to his lips, he could feel the fire at his legs, peeling away the top layer of his skin, the layer underneath splits open, and fat begins to leak out.

Shirou awoke in a flop sweat, he could hear his heart beating throughout his entire body. He lay there for a few more minutes, making sure he was alright and more calm before he made his way to the kitchen to get a glass of water. Along the way, he saw his dad sitting on the floor overlooking the courtyard, his attention on the night sky.

"Dad?"

Kiritsugu looked over to his son, who stood in his pajamas. "Bad dream?"

"Yeah." Shirou and Kiritsugu have had many nights like this, and the question almost seemed ridiculous at that point.

"Oh Shirou, why don't you come enjoy the night sky with your old man then, it always takes my mind off my troubles." And so the two sat there on the wooden floor overlooking the courtyard, looking up into the star laden sky.

"Shirou," Shirou looked over to his dad, who still looked up at the moon overhead, "you are…...the best thing that happened to my life, even though we aren't flesh and blood, you've accepted me as your father, and have given me the opportunity to experience the happiness the comes with such a privilege."

"You saved me," Shirou responded, "you cared for me, trained me, fed me, and put a roof over my head, your compassion is all I know. There's no need to give me acknowledgement, but thank you. Hey, hey old man!"

"Huh?" Kiritsugu snapped out of his reverie.

"If you're going to fall asleep, it's smarter to do it in bed."

"Oh...right. Im fine." He could still feel Shirou's eyes on him and decided to continue speaking. "When I was little, I wanted to be a hero."

"But you helped all kinds of people in your work, besides it's not like you couldn't be one now."

"Unfortunately, I gave up on that dream a long time ago, in a past life, a couple past lives ago. It seems the wish has an expiration date, when I grew up it became harder and harder to call myself one, I wish I had realized that sooner."

"I see, well you can't dwell on what can't be."

"Yeah, i guess you're right." Kiritsugu sighed.

"Besides, don't you remember what all this training is for, why Taiga is kicking my ass on a daily basis."

"Language young man, maybe you're spending too much time around Taiga." he scolded.

"Right, sorry," Shirou chuckled. "But seriously, you're an adult now, so you can't do it anymore, and I've been trained by the best. I can do it, I will do it, all this that you've taught me, if I didn't use what I know to help other people, that would just be a waste of my talent, besides there are always people who need saving. Do you have any regrets about not being a hero?"

"I never got a chance to save many people, but…..I had, I have a daughter, Illya. She was taken from me, for a promise I broke trying to again be the hero, but in the end, she was gone, I could never find her, and I still didn't manage to save anybody. Actually… I did save one." He smiled down at Shirou, who returned in with glee.

I hated the weakness he showed in that moment. I looked up to the man, who turned out to be just a broken man full of regrets.

"I'll carry on your dream, I'll be the hero that you couldn't be, that you wanted to be, for the both of us. I'll make our dreams a reality."

I had to, for the idea of the man that I thought I knew. For the real Kiritsugu Emiya, a man who couldn't save anybody, no matter how hard he tried.

"All right, you'll do that, and I can rest easy." Kiritsugu looked up at the moon once more, now nothing more than a speckle of light in the encroaching darkness, "I can rest easy now." He would just rest his eyes for a second, Shirou would wake him up if he dozed off too long.

"Kerry, what kind of adult do you want to be when you grow up?"

A young Kiritsugu looked up at his friend Shirley, "I want to be a hero."