As promised, here is the new and improved Prologue chapter! There aren't a whole lot of differences, but I did clean it up a bit with help from some of my reviewers as well as my good friend AshDarling27.

Hello, everyone! I'm very excited to present to you my first-ever story!

I've been reading the fabulous works on this site for many years and finally mustered the time, courage, and motivation to try to add my own contribution. The initial idea for this story started from a conversation I was having with the incomparable genericdarklord that spawned the amusing idea of Shirou taunting Tywin Lannister with a traced Brightroar. From there, the idea sat percolating in my brain as I tried to figure out the hows, whys, and wherefores of such a story.

Fair warning: I will be ignoring canon as I see fit, so please don't come at me about that; the source material is fantastic, so if you want canon, consume that. This story is going to be an unabashedly unbalanced Fix-Everything-type fic. Seriously, I'm going to use Shirou to help the people I like in ASOIAF/GOT, and piss off/kill the ones I don't. There will be many, many instances of characters surviving who don't, and vise-versa.

Please drop me a review/send me a PM if you like; CONSTRUCTIVE criticism is always welcome. Flames, however, will be summarily ignored and deleted. Seriously, if all you can say is that you hate everything I wrote, stand for, and believe in, why bother reviewing? Just go read something that you do like. I write because I enjoy it and because I hope others will also.

This is a Heaven's Feel-ish route Shirou. Most of the events are those of Heaven's Feel, but I will be interspersing details from the other routes as necessary.

It is generally considered a good practice when writing to assume the reader knows nothing about the finer points of the work; to be perfectly honest, I've struggled with that my whole life. I'm going to try to eliminate the learning curve as much as possible, but I truly doubt I will be able to do so entirely. If you have questions, or just want to learn more about the Nasuverse or the World of Ice and Fire, I have found that the Type-Moon fandom wiki and the Wiki of Ice and Fire to be excellent resources, and have called upon them many times while developing and writing this story.

A/N Added 5/17/20: As I'm writing further into the story, I'm noticing that Shirou is acting...somewhat out of character. If this is not your cup of tea, you might want to bail now; you have been warned.

Now, buckle up, it's going to be a hell of a ride and even I don't know where or how it will end!

Prologue

The world erupted with a flare of golden light. An aureate beam lanced through the emerging Avenger, burning him up as easily as the desert sun does a cloud's shadow before impacting the writhing mass of the corrupted Greater Grail. An agonizing wail split the air before a silent, illusory explosion erupted as the concentrated malice of the Grail evaporated in the face of the power brought to bear by the Sword of Promised Victory.

As the light faded, Emiya Shirou dropped Excalibur from numb hands and fell to his knees.

"It's…over," he panted. "I…did it."

His eyes blurring and strength fleeing, Shirou collapsed to the ground.

I guess that's all I can do, he thought. I saved the world. It only cost the lives of…everyone…everyone I cared about is dead.

I wish…

I wish I could have saved everyone.

No sooner had the wish crossed his mind than Shirou slipped away, succumbing to the encroaching darkness.

"You've fought so hard, little brother, and sacrificed so much. Now it's my turn: let me show you…a Miracle. It's amazing. After all, not everyone gets a second chance."

A sudden voice intruded upon his solitude. Shirou couldn't see the speaker but had an impression of red eyes and silver hair as his consciousness drifted through the void.

"There is a world that is heading towards disaster; death and sorrow haunting great and small alike. The weak are preyed upon by the strong and Justice has been put aside in favor of Power. They need a hero, a true hero. Not an Asura; not one who weighs the lives of those around him for the best outcome, sacrificing one innocent to save ten, but one who stands against evil and injustice and wrong. You will find plenty of use for your swords there but, more than that, you will find friends; friends who will become as family to you, the brothers and sisters that you were denied in this life. You may even find Love, a miracle every bit as wonderful as the one I'm about to show you."

She seemed familiar.

"I wish we'd had more time together. I think I would have greatly enjoyed more time with my cute baby brother. Sadly, my time is done; the greater Magicks, such as what I am preparing, always have a cost beyond simple energy. In exchange for your life, all of the weapons of combat that you and Archer have gathered, all your tools of taking and defending life are stripped away. In exchange for bringing you to this new realm, you forfeit your ability to ever return to ours."

Within his mind, Shirou beheld all of the Noble Phantasms he'd copied fade away. Caliburn, Caladbolg II, Hrunting; one by one each sword faded from his Unlimited Blade Works. Kanshou, Bakuya, Rule Breaker; each departure took with it a feature of his mindscape. Gáe Bolg, Gram, Rho Aias; in their place, each weapon left behind a blade of grass containing its history and memory. Joyeuse, Nine Lives, Durandal; faster and faster his arsenal vanished. Excalibur; the Sword of Promised Victory shattered, the shards vanishing into the sky. Avalon, the Everdistant Utopia; unlike the others Avalon sank into the ground, fusing permanently, Shirou knew, with his very being. He found that knowledge somewhat comforting; even though he knew he would never again be able to project Avalon, it would still be a part of him, a constant reminder of his father.

As Shirou looked out across his mindscape, he beheld a sunlit field with a strange, bone-white tree with blood-red leaves in the center. At its base, he saw a glint of light shining off of what appeared to be a sword embedded in a patch of flowers.

"Because I'm a fantastic sister, I'm not about to send you out into a violent, monstrous world unarmed, unprepared, and unprotected. Instead, I will leave you with three gifts. First, my Magic Circuits. Father allowed you to do such harm to yourself as you were learning Thaumaturgy. I can't believe he didn't notice that you were forging a new circuit every time you attempted a Magecraft. Despite being such poor, brittle things, your Magic Circuits are a monument to your determination and, like a monument, are now only good for remembering from whence you came. Magecraft is foreign to your new world and its mana is more resistant to Odic conversion; your old circuits would have shattered under the strain. In order to accommodate your new circuits, I had to modify your soul slightly. You should note that this influx of Magic will have a — ahem — slight effect on your appearance…you'll see."

Shirou could feel himself slipping away but fought to concentrate on the speaker's words.

"Next is Tongues of All Creation, an innate spell that will allow you to understand and be understood by all whom you meet, regardless of the language they speak.

The effort of focusing on the voice was becoming unbearable.

"My final gift to you is -"

Soon he could only hear the speaker intermittently, as if they were trying to reach him through a wall of static.

" -that you may not enter this new realm empty-handed. They are well-kno- to the peo- orld, but these -ons are much grea-eople suspect."

Shirou watched as two shapes materialized in front of him. The first was a one-handed sword with a curved, single-edged blade. Beside it appeared an unusual kite shield. Instead of being held perpendicular to the arm, its length ran down the arm with the point extending about six inches past the handle.

"My time with you has just about ended, but know that, no matter where you go or what you do, I am forever proud of my baby brother."

As the speaker fell silent, Shirou thought he heard music…First violins, repeating, then a powerful swell of cellos with the driving beat of drums in the background, then…

"DADDY!"

A/N: A note on Illya: I've had many people comment on how Illya seems less like a person and more like a, as one reviewer put it, Random Omnipotent Being. That is mostly intentional. Illya is, by this point, the metaphysical embodiment of the Grail, which I chose to depict as her being somewhat removed from her humanity. I know this isn't really canon but, well, fan-fiction and all…