ACT I - Rebirth

"Shirou! Shirou!" Saber called to the lifeless body of her Master. The two of them had won the Grail, there should be no reason to warrant this outcome. What about her wish? The spirit in the Grail known as "Gaia" told her that her wish would be granted? Another unexplained phenomenon was that Saber did not feel her prana draining away, without the constant flow from a Master Servants were not supposed to be able to stay in the world.

Instead she began to feel strange, as if the exact opposite was occuring. Instead of feeling weaker she began to feel stronger, much, much stronger.

"Just what on Earth is going on? The two of you won right?" Aiah Cromwell the former Master of the Servant Archer and an aquaintance of Saber had a confused look on her face.

"Don't worry, he'll be back. Just give it a moment." A woman they had just met earlier said. Her name was Arcuied Brunestud, a vampire. It was her that was responsible for the current events and reactivated the Holy Grail Wars that were supposedly stopped.

"Maybe you should start explaining yourself then. You seem to know quite a bit about what's going on here." A man with many wounds on his body said as he laid on a piece of rock with a priest named Ciel healing his body. His name was Waver Velvet, the former Master of Rider. He participated in the War to figure out why they had started up again.

Arcueid sighed as if she didn't want to explain herself and took on a rather bored expression. She sat upon a rock on the top of the platform the group was on. "I'm not a normal vampire. I'm what's known as a True Ancestor, I have no need to drink blood. In fact I detest the thought of it." She explained as she crossed her legs and arms. "I was able to recreate all this through an ability I have called Marble Phantasm. Basically, if something exists within Earth's rules I can make it happen. I guess you could call it being in tune with nature." She began to kick a small pebble with the tip of her shoe.

"So Shirou-kun will come back?" Ciel asked as she finished tending Waver's cuts. She was equally worried about him as everyone else. What kind of wish could he have made that would lead to his death? She cast a glance at his lifeless body, the blade of a sword was protruding from his chest. Just as she was about to look away his body began to glow with a faint white light. "What in the world?"

Saber stood up and backed away from her Master's body, and it appeared as if he was slowly melting into the ground. The group stared at the event as Shirou's body was absorbed into the earth. The Grail which had not yet dematerialized began to make a humming sound, creating a windstorm inside the hollowed out mountain.

Everyone looked up and held onto whatever piece of rock was nearest to them to keep them from blowing off the platform. Only Arcueid stood as if untouched by the wind, her eyes brightened as if she was expecting what was going to happen. No, rather she knew what was about to happen.

Saber shielded her eyes from the wind and grabbed onto Aiah to keep her from losing balance in the gale. Just as quickly as the wind started it stopped, the Grail pulsing with light. A figure was seen being lowered down from it's interior bathed in a golden light. The figure was laid lightly on the ground and the bright light was cut off, revealing an uninjured Shirou laying on the stone ground.

Saber and Aiah ran to his body and knelt by him, finding he did not look the same as he had previously. His skin was reverted to his natural white color, his hair also returned to it's natural color which was a light shade of brown. After a few moments, the Grail floating above the platform faded steadily from existance having fullfilled the wishes of the two winners of the War.

The cave returned to almost complete darkness save for the phosphorecent algae on the walls giving the area a faint green glow. After the Grail had disappeared Shirou's body started to convulse as if every muscle in his entire body was reactivating. Everyone on the platform stopped and looked as his body shook uncontrollably.

After a few seconds Shirou's eye's shot open and he grabbed onto whatever was nearest to him at the time which was Saber. Shirou gasped loudly and squeezed Saber's shoulders as he began to fill his lungs with air. He looked up at who he was leaning against and saw that it was Saber, he saw that she had a combination of both concern and happiness in her eyes and it had almost brought her to tears. Shirou gave her a reassuring smile, "Didn't I tell you that I'd see you soon?"

Shirou was no longer the man he was earlier. He felt power coursing though his veins the likes of which he'd never felt before. There was also something he sensed inside of him, a presence like a far off voice in his head telling him something. 'Alaya' is what his instincts told him it was, the spirit of all humans much like Gaia was the spirit of Earth.

"Shirou?" Saber called out to him, he seemed to be in a trance as he just clung to her mindlessly. Unfortunately due to the magical bond between them being cut upon Shirou's "death" she could no longer sense his well being. It almost felt like half of her was just taken away. "Shirou, are you alright?"

Apparently "alright" is the word that seemed to return Shirou to normal and he released his grip on Saber and stood up on the cold, stone floor. "Remind me to never do that again." he said sarcastically as he looked at everyone. They were all staring at him except for Arcuied who was leaning against a large piece of rock with a smirk on her face. "Welcome back, Mr. Counter Guardian." she said with a playful tone in her voice.

"Would you like to tell me what you hoped this would accomplish then?" Shirou asked her, something told him there was more to this than she let on.

Arcueid put her hands on her hips, "The fact of the matter is I need your help. I've been waiting for a Counter Guardian for a long time."

"Forget it. Unless some interfering force tells me I'm supposed to go with you I don't owe you anything." He looked at everyone scattered about the top of the platform. "Let's get out of here. I need to talk with Rin and Sakura before I leave." Saber's eye's widened as she heard the word "leave".

"Shirou, are we going somewhere?" She asked as everyone else started to make their way down the steps save for Arcuied who looked unhappy.

"Yeah, something is telling me I should go back to the Burial Agency with Ciel." he nodded. Wherever he was going, Saber planned to follow. She no longer required a constant supply of prana to stay in the world thanks to the Grail, and she would follow Shirou to the ends of the Earth and back.

They all made their way out of the cave including Arcuied who was no doubt tailing Shirou. Her arms were crossed as she walked, her long skirt swaying with each step. Dispite her attitude she was actually very graceful in her movements as if she was royalty.

***

"You know the only reason your wish was granted was because of me. The least you could do is hear me out right?" Arcueid said as she walked behind Saber and Shirou. The rest of the group had already gone their separate ways, Ciel took Waver back to the Church for some additional treatment. Aiah, after reluctantly saying goodbye to Shirou planned to return home to her family.

"Fine, but once we get to my place out discussion ends." Shirou couldn't deny the fact that Arcuied was in fact the person responsible for allowing him the chance to become a hero.

"Hee hee, thanks!" she said with a large smile and hugged Shirou around the neck from behind.

Saber gritted her teeth and a vein could be seen poking out of her forehead as she saw Arcueid hug Shirou.

"Basically the situation is my sister is planning something big with the other Dead Apostle Ancestors. She's extremely powerful and I can't beat her on my own, therefore I want you two to help me. If you and a few of my other friends join me we should at least be able to slow her down." Arcueid explained her situation vaguely.

At the mention of these so-called Dead Apostle Ancestors Shirou began to get a strange feeling in his gut. Alaya was telling him to go with Arcueid. It was almost like an urge making him want to do things he normally wouldn't, you could call it an "interfering force." Shirou uttered a sigh, it was almost like his free will had been altered slightly to do whatever Alaya told him.

"Crap."