A Certain Second Magic part 12

Rin gasped the first time Kuroko teleported them both. She could feel the world twisting around her.

Kuroko's power had elements of the Second Magic in it. But only elements, in the same way Shirou's Reality Marble mimicked elements of the First. Basically, her hunch had been correct. Esper powers were variants of a Reality Marble, only this world did not entirely conform to her world.

There was no Gaia to overwrite for one. Nor could she sense any trace of Alaya, although she could not be entirely certain of that. Local Magecraft was likely very different, assuming it existed at all. Although Kiritsugu had been fairly sure that it did.

Flicker, flicker, flicker. It was so FAST. One teleport after another, something in her world that would be considered magic of the highest order was being done routinely by a teenager. They sailed through the air almost as if flying.

Suddenly, Rin wanted to know everything about how this power worked. There was no internal temperature change with variations in altitude, so there must be some sort of mechanism to deal with the sudden changes in potential energy. And she wished she had some way to measure the effects of planetary rotation on the momentum they carried with each jump. Could Kuroko add or dump excess energy in the dimensions she was travelling through?

Rin desperately needed a chalkboard, a white board, hell a simple piece of paper, so that she could work out the potential physics breaking phenomena she was experiencing. Once she figured out how it was being done, there was a chance she could replicate it. Here in this world at least.

And…. Yes. Maybe in her world as well. It would take some work, and would definitely use some of the foundation equations underlying the principles of the Second Magic….

Not for the first time, Rin was happy that one of her mentors was Waver Velvet. Sure he wasn't the highest prestige Professor and his arrogance was legendary. But without him she might never have realized how valuable science, particularly physics was to her current studies.

'To defeat an enemy one must know and understand them. It is a fundamental part of magecraft, breaking another's mysteries by understanding how they work. So too the World. If you wish to surpass Gaia, you must understand Gaia….'

She was also glad that she had excelled in all areas of school to maintain her image. Even the parts she had seen as useless, she had studied. And it had paid off.

Flicker, flicker, flicker.

Kuroko turned to face her, "For someone out of town, you are taking this quite calmly."

Rin smiled, glancing at her watch as they continued to flicker in and out of the real world, "I am a researcher. This is a wonderful opportunity for hands on research."

Kuroko frowned, "I thought you were here to help Sissy."

"I am. But I think I might be able to help you as well. After this is over, I would like to talk to you about how your powers work. I have some theories, but now really isn't the time."

Kuroko was silent for a moment, their point in space continually changing. "If you don't mind, what exactly do you research?"

Rin smiled to herself. She'd had to think how to present herself. She had been warned that there were many who could sense lies, things that might draw a deeper probe into her business. So she had opted to make it technical, and hopefully boring. "High energy storage in crystalline matrices and dimensional refraction."

"Is that how you are going to help Sissy?"

"No. I am mostly supporting Emiya in this. But I might be able to help you. Or you me."

She looked at Rin.

Rin shook her head, "Now really isn't the time. How long before we get there?"

The world resolved itself in a train yard. There were around two dozen Misaka-homunculi . Kuroko's eyes were wide. "Multiple Sissy's?"

"Rin, over here!"

"Kuroko? What are you doing here?"

"Sissy? What is going on?"

Rin walked past Kuroko and Misaka to where Shirou and a teenage boy were hovering over a bleeding Misaka-homunculus. Rin stopped for a moment to stare at the Servant standing nearby. It was unmistakable. That feeling of barely constrained power.

She stood there stoically in black armor with washed out blonde hair. She held a sword of a dull grey-black, blue almost electric runes sparking along the blade. Her dull unhappy green eyes looked at Rin in recognition before turning away.

Rin shuddered. Saber Alter. The Saber turned and defiled by the darkness that lurked within the Holy Grail. How had someone as bright minded as Mikoto Misaka summoned something like HER?

"Rin, please. Please hurry."

Rin stopped staring at Saber and ran to Shirou. He was busy doing something with a piece of high tech medical gear.

He glanced up at her, "She is dying Rin. I don't think Kuroko can get her there in time. I think, I think if I stop resuscitating her she will die almost immediately. Please Rin. You have told me what you can do. Save her."

She glanced at the boy. She recognized him as the one who had been fighting alongside Shirou at the park. There was no point in hiding it from him, so she quietly told Shirou, "You know our magic doesn't work well here."

Shirou looked down at the girl dying beside him, "I know mine doesn't. But, but you were able to stop that monster."

The boy quietly said to Rin, "It's Touma by the way. And if you are a magician, now would be the time to show it. I know your kind like to keep it secret, but ma'am, she will die without help."

"How do you….?"

Touma looked away, "I have met a few magicians here and there. Mostly Anglicans. I don't know what sect of the Church you are, if you can, please heal her. She shouldn't die like this."

Shirou looked up at her pleadingly.

Rin looked down, "Shirou, the only way I could cast those spells was by casting it on my own blood. I don't know how that would work here. I don't…." Rin's mind raced.

Maybe she was going about this the wrong way? Maybe it was possible. She had enchanted her blood because it was part of Gaia, and she had been drawing power from her own world. She had cast the spell inside herself.

Or had she. Maybe she had cast the spell back on her home world and projected the effect on this one….

Shirou's voice was soft, "Rin?"

Yes. If she was going to do this she would do it right. "Shirou, stay there. Keep the girl as stable as you can." She looked over at Touma. "You said you have worked with this world's mages. Can you draw a circle?"

"A circle?"

"What the hell is going on here? I thought we were going to teleport my, my," Misaka closed her eyes, "I thought we were going to teleport my sister to a hospital."

Kuroko quietly said, "Sissy. Why did you try to keep this to yourself."

Misaka glared at her, "Now isn't really the time. I, I, Didn't want you to get involved. Last time, last time you got hurt. I, I didn't want to see you get hurt because of me again."

Saber's cold voice broke in. "What do you need, Rin."

Misaka looked at her Servant in surprise. "You know her?"

"Yes. She is a competent if sometimes careless Magus." Her voice softened, "She would be a valuable ally."

Misaka asked, "Magus?"

Touma's eyes tightened, "A magus? You aren't affiliated with the Church?"

Shirou shouted, "Will you all stop this! Everyone help Rin. Or this girl is going to die!"

Rin looked over at Saber, "We will need to talk after this is over."

Saber nodded, "Indeed." She looked away. "Is, is Sakura with you?"

Rin shook her head.

Saber sighed.

Rin gathered herself. Grace. Poise. She was a Tohsaka. And given the time and tools she could do almost anything.

Even this.

"Alright everyone. This is what I need you all to do….."

-End Scene—

Interlude-

Shokuhou Misaki was not used to being afraid anymore. Once she had broken free of the project to build Exterior she had been the master of her own fate. It had allowed her to remain safe at Tokiwadai among her massive group of 'friends.'

She didn't have a large group of real friends. Her powers and her popularity guaranteed that. In fact, she hadn't realized that her roommate had really been willing to die for her. Misaki hadn't forced that on her. She hadn't thought she had needed to.

Now the girl was dead, torn apart by a massive bullet meant for Misaki.

Maiya Hisau pulled the still stunned Misaki into a windowless room, "Stay here. You should be safe. I will be back."

Misaki glanced at her Dorm Manager, a person with massive secrets and hidden talents. Talents that Misaki's gifts had long since laid bare. Not that either fully acknowledged the other. Maiya was immune to Misaki's commands, but unless she concentrated could not keep the Level 5 from reading her thoughts. That resistance was one of the reasons why she had been assigned to this dorm.

The woman did not have the frightening presence of the other Dorm Manager, but was in her own way feared. She was not an Esper, but she was incredibly fast and ridiculously strong. Rumor in the dorm had her as an experimental cyborg.

The truth was even stranger. The woman was an exile from another world. A magician in fact, capable of using ambient magic to augment her strength and speed. Plus her memories were dark, filled with bloodshed and war. The woman had been an assassin and mercenary in the past before coming to Academy City.

Why someone like that would be a Dorm Manager of all things had often escaped Misaki.

Until today.

While Misaki's friend had shielded her from the first shot, it had been the actions of her Dorm Manager that had saved her from the rest of the attack.

The woman left, leaving Misaki alone. With her talents she could sense no one within a hundred meters of her location. Why would Tokiwadai have a bomb shelter? Misaki didn't know, but if she lived she was going to find out EVERYTHING about this school and its administration. She wasn't used to being blindsided like this.

She was used to knowing almost everything.

She sat down and curled herself into a ball, absently rubbing at a scar that had formed on her wrist a few days ago after a particularly vivid dream.

The dream had promised power. It had promised safety and glory. It would grant any wish.

But the real world didn't work that way. There wasn't any real magic. Oh, magic was real, but it had costs and obligations just like Esper abilities did. Nothing was ever simple or pure.

To participate in this game was to court death. She had read a few of the thoughts of her assailant. It had been difficult, but she had managed.

The mark on her wrist allowed her to summon a Servant, and more than being a Level 5, it was the reason she had been attacked. And that inhuman creature, that Emiya, would keep attacking her until she and all the others were dead.

To call a Servant was to risk death, to have a need to defeat the other Servants, to possibly kill their masters. She didn't like killing people. She never had. Once someone was dead, they could never be used again. Memories could be adjusted, personalities altered, but death was final.

And that moment of death as the mind effervesced…. It haunted Misaki. If she could avoid killing she would.

But she was not safe as she was. She needed support.

She would summon a Servant.

Her mind went over the ritual. She would need blood. A lot of blood. Silver and iron weren't available to her, but they were not necessary with enough blood.

Her friend's dead body lay outside of this room, stashed there by Maiya. The woman hadn't had time to place it elsewhere. So Misaki quietly stalked out of the safe room and to her friend's body. "I am sorry."

And she conducted the Ritual.

End Interlude.

Misaka was shaking. Magic was real. She had summoned a dead warrior from another world to be granted a wish.

Rin had explained the basics of the Grail War and her history in it. Saber had quietly agreed with what Rin had said.

Moreover Rin and Saber seemed to know each other. And if Saber was a summoned hero, what did that make Rin? And why did Touma NOT seemed too shocked about all of it.

Oh, bits had shaken him as well. But….

Touma sat next to her, "Are you going to be okay?"

"I don't know." She wrapped herself in her arms and shook slightly. She had saved one of her Sisters, but apparently the assassin that had tried to kill Accelerator had killed two others. Emiya had gone with Rin to help another one. Kuroko had taken the one partially healed Servant to the hospital.

And Misaka had been hustled into someplace safe along with Touma. Saber had insisted, and her Sisters had helped her.

Misaka's lightning did not work on Saber. Just like the boy beside her, she was immune. Only it wasn't just her right hand. Saber was resistant everywhere.

It had been a long time since Misaka had been manhandled so easily. Saber was fiendishly strong.

Touma wrapped his arms around her, "It will be okay."

Misaka couldn't help the blush forming as he held her. He felt so warm and safe.

The fool naturally had to ruin it.

"I wish Index were here. She might know what is going on."

"Index?"

He smiled at her, "Yeah, she is the nun who lives with me."

Misaka pulled away and glared at Touma, "She, she LIVES with you?"

He looked sheepishly at Misaka, "Yeah."

Misaka was about to lash out with her lightning, when she realized that she couldn't. He was holding her.

That stupid power of his!

"Alright, buster, tell me everything."

"Eh?"

"When Rin did that magic thing, you weren't shocked. Maybe a little surprised, but not like me and Kuroko."

He put one hand on his head, "About that…."

Unfortunately for him it had been his right hand. Misaka began to spark dangerously, "You will tell me."

Touma looked at her and sighed, "Such misfortune."

Misaka growled at him, "Tell me. Do I have to chase you around the city to get a straight answer?"

He smiled resignedly, "I guess there isn't really much point to hiding it from you. I mean it is dangerous, but you are already involved and…."

"Get on with it already!"

Touma sighed, "Right." He looked at her for a moment and began, "It all started when Index fell onto my balcony…."

End Part

A/N- Any guesses who Misaki summons?