Hello people and happy Christmas!

I was waiting to get a beta to help me with both grammar and story before uploading anything more. Since, sadly, since it couldn't be, I'm publishing the chapter raw, with the grammatical and structural errors, sorry for that, I'll try to reupload this chapter again when someone point me the errors. I promise that I tried to get a beta, but no one of the betas who I asked for help, a moth ago, answered me.

So, if anyone would be interested in helping me with this story, please send me a private message. It wouldn't take much time and the only requirements are having read the visual novel, knowing more English than me and being as critic as possible with my work.

Said that, enjoy the chapter!

When the new array of symbols around Archer's summoning circle was complete and Rin placed the three jewels over one of the marks, she ordered him to step in. When he was in the center she whispered some words and the symbols started to emit a faintly blue light.

"This spell will use the energy stored in the stones to restore your prana. I hate to use three of my most powerful ones for this, but this way you will recover overnight instead of needing to rest several days." After saying that, she sat in a wooden chair that she had prepared earlier and stared directly at Archer with a serious face. "Shirou, Saber and Illyasviel are in the Emiya residence, if anyone tries to eavesdrop the barrier of the house would alert us. We are alone like you requested. Now talk, Servant"

Archer sat cross-legged in the floor and stared back at her.

"Before I start talking I want to know if you will continue your alliance with Saber's master even now that Berserker is dead"
Rin gave a sigh at that.

"I don't know what do you have against Shirou, but, now that my Servant lost an arm, having Saber as an ally would be the safest option. The Caster on the Ryuudou Temple is likely going to start trying to move now that Berserker is out of the scene, and the masters of Caster and Lancer are still unknown. And, if that weren't enough, attacking Caster is near impossible, as the Ryuudou Temple is protected with a barrier which entrance is protected by the Servant Assassin that caster managed to summon. So, yes, I'm planning to still be Shirou's ally."

Archer steel eyes looked intently at his master.

"And what about winning the War, Rin?"

The question seemed to disorient her. Her Servant rose up and stared at her from all his stature.

"If we manage to win with them, what happens to the Grail? I know that you are sure that Emiya doesn't want it, but Saber will not let you to get the Grail after she sought for it so much time. What would you do, then? Order me to fight Saber in a duel? Without my arm she would probably kill me in seconds. Backstab them? You wouldn't be able to do that, and you know it. You are even calling him Shirou instead of Emiya right now."

His master stayed silent after this, everything that the bowman said was nothing but the truth. It was mortifying. She couldn't betray Shirou at this point; her own conscience wouldn't let her. But Archer was right; if they stayed allies she wouldn't be able to get the Holy Grail, and she knew it. And the worst thing was that when she nearly sacrificed her Servant to rescue Shirou from Einzberg it was like saying that she didn't care about the grail anymore. And her Archer didn't seem to like it.

Normal, she thought. After all, the Servants only fight in the Grail War because they want to get their desires too. It wouldn't be rare for any Servant in his position to betray his master.

She gritted her teeth. Having loyalty issues with her servant right now would be very bad. Even worse than it could be, as she only had one last command spell.

Archer sighed loudly, distracting her.

"That said, Rin. You are my master and I'm your Servant, is your election the one which matters in the end." He sat again and relaxed, looking resigned, while putting his remaining hand over the scar that was once his shoulder. "In my current state it's nearly impossible for me to attain my wish, so I will accept your orders, whatever they are. I only want you to realize that you won't get the Grail if you are allied with Emiya."

That crushed all her current thought process and nearly made her fall off from the chair.

"Hey, wait! Weren't you going to protest about not getting your desire? You can't say things that sound like you are going to betray me and then tell me that you will accept my orders even if you don't like them!"

The Servant smiled at the sudden outburst.

"I never said anything about betraying you, Rin. Even if this time I can't attain my wish, it doesn't matter to me, as a soul trapped in the throne of heroes I will have more opportunities. I won't betray my master for that. "

"Then, will you respect the alliance with Saber's master?"

"Yes, as much as I dislike him, he is trustworthy and Saber is probably one of the strongest Servants summoned. I'll leave personal vendettas for the next time, having him as an ally would be very favorable for you to survive in this war, and that is only my concern."

"Then, why you questioned me about continuing the alliance or winning the war?"

Archer smirked with an expression that seemed to say "Isn't it obvious?"

"Because any information about the battle against Berserker would too important if I were to fight against Saber in the end. They having this information would be dangerous if the alliance broke by some cause. "

Tohsaka face adopted an interested look.

"What information is that, Archer?"

"A very important one, to both allies and enemies. Believe me when I say that this information will be very useful for you when planning future battles."

"What is it?"

"It is how I defeated Berserker."

"Should I tell you about my Noble Phantasms, master?

The priest was standing in front of the altar, eyes closed.

"I've returned, master"

The servant of the lance materialized at the entrance of the church. He walked eyeing the destroyed seats and the huge hole in the wall of the stance. He chuckled.

"Happened something interesting while I was out, I see. Someone tried to kill you today, Kotomine?"

The priest opened his eyes and looked indifferently at Lancer.

"Nothing that you should know Lancer. Here only came a scared person to whom I gave a second chance"

"Huh? What are you talking about now?"

The priest smiled slightly.

"Like I said, nothing that concerns you Servant. More important is the information you got. So, tell me, what happened to mi puppil and Saber's master in the castle of the Einzberg?"

Lancer smirked at the question and answered.

"Nothing."

The expression of his master turned serious and stared at him.
"What, Lancer?"

"Nothing, they defeated Berserker without any personal loses. And even if I tried to kill them, it would be too bothersome to do with two Servants on the same forest. So I oversaw the damage and returned to the patrol until the time to meet you"

Kotomine Kirei appeared to be really troubled by Lancer's words. He started to walk, thinking, while Lancer smiled with satisfaction at the signs of distress of his master.

After some seconds, the priest stopped and started to talk.

"Is… interesting this development, who and how managed to do such feat? Was it done with Saber's mysterious weapon, maybe?"

The Servant sat on one of the undamaged seats, amused with the guess of the priest.

"It was your student's Servant, that Red bowman with swords. He fought alone and killed Berserker…. Was it nine time? Well nine were the times I could count, at least. You see, at some point some weird barrier appeared and didn't let me see, so I abandoned the place leaving a Rune that would tell me when that thing disappeared."

Kirei seemed to analyze the word quietly. It was surprising that the Archer of the fifth War was so powerful; the first scouting of Lancer didn't say that.

"But while waiting outside, Archer exited the building and the castle exploded. Of the explosion came out a big wave of fire and lots of shrapnel. It was damn hard to use another Rune to block the heat while deflecting fucking tiny metallic shards. When the explosion and the other things vanished, Archer appeared, alive. There weren't any rest of the castle. Then I got out before Saber went for my ass."

The priest nodded at the report.

"Did you see any Noble Phantasm, then?"

"Yeah, I saw Archer's strange arrow that exploded at contact, nine strange attacks with Berserker's sword, a seven layered shield that Archer used…" He paused.

"Anything else to say, Lancer?"

"I did saw another Noble Phantasm, master."

"What one?"

"I saw… my own Gae Bolg" He finished with a mocking tone and making the lance appear at the same time.

His master didn't react to what he tough some king of humor attempt from his Servant.

"I do not need to know something as trivial as that you saw your own weapon, Lancer."
Lancer chuckled again as he dematerialized the lance.

"What do you say, Kotomine." He said in a clearly amused tone. "Then I didn't saw more than the other ones."

"Did you saw what happened to the Einzberg master, then?"
Lancer negated with his head.

"Nah, I don't know where that child is right now."

"I see. That was all, Lancer continue scouting then, like previous ordered"

The servant of the lance dematerialized himself as fast as he could and got out of the church, returning to the city.

He wanted to get his own fight tonight.

And with some luck someone would kill Kotomine while his servant was away.

In the middle of the night there was still someone awake in the house of Tohsaka Rin.

Sitting silently and in total stillness in the middle of his summoning circle, Archer was thinking about the course of action more appropriate to follow this War.

Protecting Rin was his priority; he had pretty much accepted that he wouldn't cause the paradox he wanted, this time, when he stayed to try to stop Berserker. His younger self was necessary, together with Saber, to protect Rin from the other servants once he died against the stone giant.

Until that battle everything was in control, he had enough knowledge of the alternatives Grail Wars to know, more or less, what were the things that, most probably, were going to happen to them afterwards.

Then he did something that never happened in any previous war. He won. He killed Berserker time after time and reduced him to ashes using the fires used to make the blades that were his own soul.

It felt great. When he realized that he killed Berserker he felt like a true hero, achieving something that seemed impossible, defeating what indefinite other instances of himself lost against. When his consciousness vanished he was sure that his work was done and his master and his younger self were going to win the War with Saber's help.

Then it happened. He didn't die.

He awakened and, even if incapable of moving, he was still alive.

That was wrong; he should have died as weak as he was. The world should have erased him. He knew that he couldn't have survived by his own means. There was only an explanation, someone else had helped him. He didn't really care about who or why.

He cared about that because it was, too, the first time that he knew of someone else in the forest.

It wasn't that he did mind changes between the different Wars; it helped him to not mix them as they seemed to near repeat themselves. Some things changed but the great scheme of the things was never altered from some principal paths, little things changed but everything was equal in the end.

But something like a Servant surviving when he shouldn't and someone else in the forest, enough near the battle zone to help him before the World killed him? It was too much, too unique and too estrange. It would have repercussions, and the repercussions would have repercussions, and those would have repercussions themselves.

Everything that he knew that was likely to happen in this iteration of the War wouldn't happen. Every knowledge he had about the possible paths that the War could take, was null in the moment that it took a never seen one.

He didn't like it, but the events were out of his hand now.

And because of that, when he said that he was going to talk about his Noble Phantasms with his master, he lied.

Well, he didn't lie that much; it was more like omission of selective information. Maybe other time he would tell her about his magic and his name. But revealing everything that night wouldn't serve to any purpose and would risk his newborn plan.

He only told her about Caladbolg, Kanshou and Bakuya, Gae Bolg, Berserker's sword and the Rho Aias, the ones he used against Berserker outside his reality marble. Obviously he didn't called them by their names when he explained their powers, Rin would notice immediately that it would be impossible for the same hero to have them, he reused the memory problems excuse and said to his master that even if he could summon the weapons and use them he still didn't remember the names. Rin seemed to not believe that very much; but in the end, after explaining to her what the Phantasms did to Berserker in detail, she was pleased enough to not ask him more questions about them.

Then she ordered him to rest and exited the basement. He obeyed, he would have done it even without orders, and stayed still to let the new magical array around him do its effects.

So the only thing he could do now was to prepare, to anticipate and to plan.

He would use the night to review his blades, one after one, and to discern the still usable ones of the ones that would need a two handed grip to wield. He needed now, more than ever, to know everything about every sword in his being.

The other steps to assure the wellbeing of his master would have to wait until tomorrow, when they went to the Emiya residence.

Sometimes, Kirei thought, technology and society hold the solutions to problems caused by magic.

After meditating about Lancer's report he reached the conclusion that Kirutsugu's son and his pupil appeared to be more problematic than expected. The destruction of the homunculus's heart would be problematic for Gilgamesh who, unaware of this change in the War, was planning to get it and to kill Berserker tomorrow with his new "master".

Kirei, for his part, has already planned how to remove them.

He took the phone of his desk and marked the noted number.

Sometimes a few seemly innocent questions to the right people and a good use of the phone book could help him more than Lancer could.

The phone was answered.

"Hello? Sorry for calling at this hour. My name is Kotomine Kirei, the priest from the catholic church of the new part of the city… Yes, the one from the church that took in all the children from that explosion years ago. I called because I need to speak privately with someone… It's a very important and delicate matter."

While waiting for a reply he eyed another time the phone book before closing it, in the page a number was marked.

"Who is he? I'm sure you know him, he is going to wed for what I heard."

The name at the side of the numbers was one well-known around the city.

Ryuudou Temple.

"Kozuki Souichirou. And please be discrete, it's about his fiancée."