The Raven and the Mage

Summary: Raven and Beast Boy move to Fuyuki City as they go into semi-retirement. Raven keeps a promise she made to Kiritsugu to train Shirou in magecraft and to teach him heroism, but will it be enough for him to survive the Fifth Holy Grail War and hopefully, reshape his twisted ideals of heroism.

Author's Note: I know Raven is considered immensely OP in Teen Titans, she's going to be just as OP in the Fate/Stay Night universe as her magic could be considered True Magic. The Titans won't be directly involved in the Holy Grail war, but that doesn't mean Slade can't be Shinji's bodyguard. And also, Malchior will be involved because...I always wanted to see Saber fight a dragon! Excalibur VS. Dragon Fire Breath, WHOO!

Prologue

Rachel Roth heard the footsteps approaching her from behind, they echoed in the empty room.

"Thank you for seeing me again, I'm amazed you're still willing to help me," Kiritsugu Emiya spoke to her.

"The Mage Killer seeks the help of a human half demon hybrid, it's ironic," Rachel laughed.

"Raven, please, can't you help me?"

"With your emotional turmoil, yes, but why haven't you asked me?"

"Ask you what?" Kiritsugu was confused.

"Rescuing your daughter Illiya? I'm surprised you haven't asked me to take her from the Einzbern family."

"I…I can't ask you that, I'll get Illiya on my own," Kiritsugu pulled out a cigarette.

"You still haven't said why you won't ask me to rescue your daughter," Rachel repeated.

"It's because you're…a hero of justice, and I'm not," the heavy-hearted Mage sighed. He lit the cigarette and took a deep breath.

She laughed, "A hero of justice; that sounds so grand. Rescuing your daughter would be easy for me, my powers rival that of any Mage and the Church is afraid of me, but why do you feel that you should be the one to do it?"

"I'm her father, that's why," Kiritsugu sighed. "I just need your help with…the dreams, that's all."

"If that's what you want, I can do that, please sit down," Raven gestured to the chair. "Do you want some herbal tea?"

"Yes, please," he replied, taking the cup of tea she poured for him.

He put down his cigarette and drank the tea.

The Mage Killer stared at her sadly, "I have a question to ask you."

"I know," Raven replied. It was the same question he asked every time he came to visit.

"You have 300 people on one ship 200 on another. 500 total passenger and crew, plus Rachel Roth. Let's assume that these 501 people are humanity's last survivors. Giant holes simultaneously in both ships. Rachel alone has the skills needed to repair a ship. Now then, what ships would you choose to fix?"

"You give directions to people on both ships, and help them fix their boats."

She saw him start to cry. "You make it look so easy, saving the world."

"Saving the world is hardly easy, Kiritsugu, but it's not impossible, I've done it, my friends and I have saved the world so many times, I've lost count. We've even prevented the End of the World. It only seems impossible to you, because you believed that that eliminating the evil and leaving the good works, but no matter how many people you killed, there is always evil in the world. Saving the world means you save everyone, not just the good people."

Raven reached up to touch his face, "You keep thinking that if you'd done things differently, perhaps if you'd killed Shirley when she became an Undead Apostle, you would have saved your village. Let's say hypothetically that you had, you loved her, and you would have lived with the guilt of her murder. Then your father Norikata would have just found someone else to help him with his experiments and perhaps they would have suffered the same fate, he would have repeated the process until the entire village was wiped out or the Executioners discovered him. Those experiments would have continued with or without you killing Shirley."

"But I did the right thing and she died, I wanted a world where no one cries, where we can all be happy."

"Like I said, Kiritsugu, those experiments would have continued if you'd killed her or not, sometimes doing the right thing has consequences we don't expect, but you know that already."

"The Holy Grail, you think I did the right thing in destroying it."

"Yes, it's not the all-powerful wish-granting device they think it is. It was corrupted long ago. I sensed the evil presence inside it when I arrived in Fuyuki five years ago."

"I just don't understand how you with all your power, and your friends couldn't save anyone in the Fuyuki fire."

"It wasn't because we didn't try; you of all people know how fast that fire spread. We're metahumans, not gods."

"Your friend Nightwing is completely human," Kiritsugu noted.

"Yes he is, but he keeps pace with the best of us, in all our sparring matches, he wins most of them, you don't need magic to become a hero, you only need the determination and mindset to be one."

"I know," Kiritsugu took another gulp of his herbal tea. "All I want is to redeem myself by raising Shirou to be a good person, and…I don't want the dreams to haunt me anymore."

"I'll do what I can for you," Raven reached out and placed her hand on his head.

Kiritsugu heard her utter a chant, "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos."

Raven delved into his memories, they were horrifying and terrible, but she accepted them, embraced them, she had seen many terrible things in her life, and she knew she could bear all his emotional pain and suffering.

Still, the most tragic aspect of his life was the death of his ideals, if fate had not been so unkind to him, Raven had no doubt that Kiritsugu would have become a hero, a man worthy of the Justice League if he had taken up such a cause, if his ideals hadn't been torn apart by his father's experiments and the death of the girl he loved, no, that wasn't it. Many heroes were driven by tragedies and they used those to drive them to do good for the sake of others.

No, he'd twisted his idealism into cynicism, and he thought the Hoy Grail could make his idealistic wish come true. It didn't happen that way.

She saw his memories, felt the agony of despair and hopelessness. She absorbed the emotional energy and accepted it, as an empath, she could sense all his emotions and she'd been overwhelmed the first time he came to her, nearly collapsing after he left, but she'd grown used to his emotions as he came to see her, every so often, she would heal him, taking away the deep depression and guilt.

But it didn't last, Raven noted, and he was coming more often, and he was growing weaker, not because of her powers, but because of the "holy grail".

Raven was reminded of Jason Todd, but Kiritsugu was far more troubled, and had far more emotional pain by comparison, still, he seemed to have found redemption in his adopted son Shirou Emiya that he spoke so often of.

Raven hadn't actually had time to meet him yet. Her hero work kept her quite busy, and she was newly married to Beast Boy, Garfield Logan, although he often joke that he'd happily have their honeymoon in Japan, but they knew they couldn't afford that, not on both their salaries anyway.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos. Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos."

Raven felt Kiritsugu relax, she removed her hand from his head.

"Thank you, Raven," Kiritsugu gave her a grateful expression.

"You're welcome, Kiritisugu, I suppose I'll see you when you come back to Jump City again."

Kiritsugu put his cigarette out. "I won't be coming back again Raven. I'm dying. Could you do something for me?"

"What do you want me to do?"

"Train Shirou in magecraft, I'm unable to do that now."

"My magic is from a completely different dimension, and doesn't follow equivalent exchange. I don't know what I can possibly teach him."

"You can teach him….to be a hero, will you come back with me and meet him?"

"Yes, I will," Raven replied.

Suddenly, the door opened, and Beast Boy poked his head inside. "Raven, put the pedal to the metal, we gotta go!"

"What happened?" Raven looked up at Beast Boy.

"It's Slade, he's back!"

"I'm coming," She glanced at Kiritsugu, "After this business is over, I'll come back with you."

Kiritsugu watched her leave, "My life was meant to be one solely of loss."

Raven left quickly, she had a city to save. She would meet the young Shirou soon, and she hoped she'd be able to help Kiritsugu, even if it was something as simple as teaching a little boy magecraft.

A few days later, Raven arrived at the Emiya manor; she was surprised at how large and spacious the house was. Apparently, Kiritsugu was rich. She saw the door open and a red-haired little boy greeted her.

"Is your father here?" Rachel asked.

"He said you were coming Miss Rachel, he's in the backyard." Shirou showed her to the backyard where Kiritsugu was sitting, staring up at the moon.

"You must be Shirou, it's very nice to meet you," Raven smiled.

"It's nice to meet you too," he gave her a smile.

The sight was a perfect picture of beautiful melancholy.

"Hello Kiritsugu," Raven greeted him.

"Hello, please sit."

She sat beside them.

"Hey! Hey, old man! If you're so tired you're gonna fall asleep, go to bed!" Shirou scolded

"Huh? Right, I'm fine," Kiritsugu reassured him.

He glanced at his adopted son, "When I was little, I really wanted to be a hero."

"What are you talking about? You don't want to anymore? Did you just give up?" Shirou asked.

"Yeah, unfortunately. Seems that wish has an expiration date. When you grow up, it's hard to call yourself one." He laughed, "I wish I'd realized that sooner."

"I see, I guess there's nothing you can do about it," Shirou told him.

"Yeah, right, I guess not," Kiritsugu sighed. "It really is a nice moon tonight."

Shirou shut his eyes, "Fine, since you can't do it," he looked over at Kiritsugu, "I'm gonna be a hero for you."

"Hmm?" Kiritsugu was surprised.

His voice as confident, "You're an adult now so you can't do it anymore, but I still can! Just leave it to me! I'll make it happen!"

Raven felt the emotional burden Kiritisugu carried with him lift, as he felt joy for the first time in years.

"You do that," Kiritsusgu said quietly. He shut his eyes.

Raven could feel his life force leaving him as he breathed his last and died quietly, but not before she glimpsed one final memory:

"Kerry, tell me, what do you want to grow up to be?" Shirley asked.

"Well, what I want to be, is a hero!"

Shirou knew deep down that his adopted father was gone and he began to cry.

Raven pulled him into a comforting hug. "It's all right Shirou, I'm here for you, okay."

"I remember the look on his face, the tears in his eyes," Shirou looked up at her, "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 almost as though it had been him that had been saved that day, and not me."

Shirou continued speaking, "He kept saying, "He's alive! He's alive! He's alive" And then, so fervently, even as I teetered on the brink of death, I felt jealous of him. He said, "Thank you." That he was glad he'd found someone, that by saving even one person, he had saved himself."

"It's all right, Shirou, it's all right," Raven whispered softly. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos. Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos."

Raven held him, rocking him quietly, "You're going to be fine, between Fujimura and I, you'll be fine."

"You're going to stay with me at the house?"

"Not at the house, but I'll live close by, so I'll see you often, Kiritisugu wanted me to teach you a lot of things."

"What kind of things?"

"I'll tell you something about me right now, but you can't tell anyone else, promise?"

Shirou looked at her, "I promise, I can keep a secret."

"I'm a superhero Shirou, and I'm going to teach you how to become one," Raven reassured him.

"You promise, Miss Rachel?"

"I promise, Shirou Emiya will become a hero of justice."