Fate/Stay Double

Assassin nodded. Only slightly oddly to herself, she was still smiling at the prospect of having to kill others in battle. After all, she'd done it before, without even a fight(they had dserved it, after what they did)... and she had to, in order to win. And she was going to win. With what Assassin wanted to wish for, she had to win. And then everything would be alright.

"Alright, Mother, we have to wi..." she trailed off when Archer entered the room, and quickly fought to regain her confidence. "W-win."

Archer looked down, saddened. She had heard Assassin sounding more confident when she wasn't in the room. This just strengthened her belief that the other servant didn't like her. She nodded in agreement with Aimi's reasoning and quickly resumed eating, makng much less of a mess now.

Assassin spoke quietly to Takako, "Listen. You must stay back, because... that is the honorable thing to do," She said, making that up for the sake of keeping her from getting the enemy to change their mind by becoming a threat. This was said even though her goal was actually to run away with her Master and avoid this fight altogether...

Wait a second. It seemed that Lancer was otherwise preoccupied. Interesting. Three Darks were suddenly aimed at Lancer, as well as three going straight for Sukoshi. These were aimed at their vitals and moving at the speed of bullets.

-----

Illya looked at Shirou, and had an emotionless look upon her face as she did so. Berserker one would at this point come back towards her, "Onii-Chan, you aren't very bright, are you? Come on Berserker, lets get out of here," She assumed that Miyu would also retreat with them.

"Be ready, Onii-Chan. You won't get away so easily next time," She said so in a sing song voice as she walked away with her Berserkers in tow.

Lancer was still dazed, until she saw something move out of the corner of her eye. This seemed to be just enough to snap her attention off of Kaguya long enough to keep the magic from effecting her two harshly, and she was now staring at flying pointy things zooming directly at her. Darts? How cute. She didn't even flinch as the weapons slammed into her, doing nothing more than ripping her clothing where the darks had hit, before they fell uselessly to the ground.

She then noted that, behind her, her Master was likewise about to get shanked, but she was too far off from him to respond in time. Hopefully, Mulan would take care of that. It would be unpleasant for her Master to get skewered so early in the battle.

--------------------------

As Aimi looked at Assassin, she couldn't help but be slightly off-put by the feeling that Assassin was going to enjoy fighting a bit too much. She supposed it was normal, though, considering the name the girl was summoned under. She had to keep reminding herself that, despite Assassin's innocent appearance, she was a Servant, and no on had summoned a Servant was wasn't capable of fighting and killing.

"We will, definitely. We all have something good worth fighting for, right? So we need to. Just don't.. do anything too dangerous you two, alright? If you feel like you're going to lose, run.. Run instead of letting yourself get killed." She frowned at her word choice, as she had been trying to be euphemistic about it earlier.

"After you two are done eating, I'll give you something to wear to bed since.." She paused, looking at the.. odd outfit choice that her two Servants seemed keen on. ".. those clothes don't look particularly.. comfortable..."

"I'm not going to die, Mother," Assassin said quickly, her tone insistent. She wasn't going to die, she had to make her wish, and she had to stay with Aimi. She didn't think it would be right for Archer to die either... even though she was still very nervous around her. Of course, Assassin was barely able to speak to the other servant without an excess of stuttering... she felt the same way about meeting everyone outside of 'Mother'.

When her clothing was brought up, her face flushed red.

"O-oh, I... um..." Assassin folded her arms and turned away from everyone, trying to be as small as possible. "Y-yes..."

Archer looked up, first to Assassin and then to Aimi. She nodded "I promise, neither of us will die." She refused to die without her wish being granted and there was no way she would let Assassin get hurt. Of course, if these objectives were to clash, she...well, she'd have to find a way to protect Assassin and her goal. She smiled at the younger servant...

...Who promptly turned red and looked away when clothes were brought up. Archer turned her gaze back to her master. "Thank you, master. Although I could make do with these if it's too much trouble."

Berserker suddenly stopped his assault and backed away. He then turned without a single word, following his master obediently. Rin seemed to sigh in relief. They had gotten lucky, but they shouldn't take it easy just yet. She turned to Shirou and Rider...

"AAAAAAAGH!" Just as Shirou yelled in pain. He reflexively shot up, clutching at his shoulder. Having an arrow punched out your shoulder was a very unpleasant experience for the boy, and he passed back out soon after.

"Emiya-kun..." Tohsaka's voice contained a hint of worry for the boy's safety. But she knew she had to take charge in this situation, "Let's hurry and get back to Emiya-kun's place. We may get attacked by another Master if we're not careful, and Emiya-kun isn't exactly in great condition for that."

----

Miyu had also stopped her attack when Illya ordered the retreat. Though she was slightly confused by this, she did not question it. Instead, slinking further into the shadows to follow Illya from a good distance.

----

Mulan reacted quickly, with lightning speed she moved in front of her Master and deflected all the darts with her sword. She narrowed her eyes at the assassin, prepared for anything she may throw at her.

The strange behavior of Lancer and Caster did not go unnoticed though. It seemed neither had the magic resistance to avoid the effects of Mystic Face.

Saber started to lift Shirou by the shoulders.

"Who wants to grab his legs?" she asked.

--

"Fine," said Takako, starting to back away. "BUT YOU BETTER NOT LOSE!"

"Ouch. Man, I forgot how squishy you people were. That was bloody." Rider huffed in disgust as she tried to shake the blood off of her hands, then shrugged and licked a bit of it off. "Coppery."

Pressing her necklace to the boy's wound, she exhausted its current power. She'd have to dunk it in some running water later, that'd fix it right up. "Alright. Let's get back then. Come on, stupid Master."

"I've got it." She joined Saber, picking Shirou up by the legs. "Let's get a move on in case shorty and her pets decide to come back and kill us all."

--------------------------

Aimi couldn't help but giggle at Assassin's reaction. "I'm sorry, I should've known you would've been embarrassed by me pointing that out. It's really not that big a deal, alright?"

She stood and picked up the empty places, heading back into the kitchen and rising them off before putting them in the dishwasher. She was still smiling from the two's response about definitely not dying. She hoped that their conviction would hold true when they actually ran into other Servants and Masters. She also hoped she wouldn't get herself killed on accident, as that would make it much harder for any three of them to win the War. Not to mention she wasn't really ready to die yet.

"It's really no trouble at all, though any clothes I give you may fit you both a little weird. You're a bit taller than me, Archer, and Assassin is.. much smaller, so.. only sleep-clothes for now, I supppose, and we can figure out what to do in the morning later."

Sukoshi could just barely follow Mulan's movements with his eyes, but he couldn't possibly have deflected those Darks himself. Shaking slightly, he bowed.

"My sincerest thanks, Rider." He said, and backed away from the fight. "I will stay back. I do not wish to be a nuisance to you."

----
"Very well, Master." Archer obediently followed Tohsaka, concern for Shirou evident in his expression.

The battle was over. The opponent had fled, for as of yet unknown reasons. Saber was still perplexed. The boy must've been completely unfamiliar with Grail Wars, she reasoned. Why else would he attempt to save his servant from a situation like that when his death would result in hers, as well? After all, many servants could heal, certainly from just an arrow as long as it didn't strike any immediately lethal areas.

That said, Saber felt mild concern for the boy. While it was possible that herself and her master would end up fighting him, they were working together at the moment. Naturally, one should feel concern for one's allies, and Saber didn't have any intent of killing masters unless she had to. Or if she was forced to... but she very much doubted that her master would give such an order.

Saber sheathed first her katana, then her wakizashi. "Yes, Tohsaka-dono."

With that, she followed the other servants, carefully keeping an eye out for any form of danger.

----

Assassin nodded, still looking squarely down at the ground. The mention of her clothing, which was really just underwear, a loose corset, and boots, had embarrassed her. Really, her clothing embarrassed her to start with. Having it pointed out only embarrassed her further. But the prospect of clothes-any clothes-to replace her current ones sounded pretty good...

"I-I w-will be pleased with any c-clothing you give me, M-Mother.

Archer was far less bothered by the mention of clothing, it covered what needed to be covered and didn't really get in her way in combat. But if her master insisted, she wouldn't argue. The servant found it strange that Aimi seemed to care for herself and Assassin as people. It wasn't something she was used to.

"Thank you, master."

True Assassin smiled at her opponents, "Right about now your Lancer friend will be feeling the effects, I think, judging by her ineptitude with Resistance so far..."

The effects she speaks of being a loss of speed, and a weakness in muscles, at least for now.

------

Shinji was feeling bad. Useless Caster... Useless Lancer at that! What kind of Hero can't control his damn weapon?!

Shinji found himself walking into not his own room, but his sister's. He looked down at her, menacingly glaring. She was so lucky... why was she so lucky? Shinji was certain that, had she intended on fighting properly, she'd have gotten excellent servants. That's it, isn't it? She purposely gave him terrible servants!

He moved to hit her but was stopped by the sudden appearance of ... a large insect? What kinda thing was this?! It was holding back the full force of his fist!

From wherever the bug came from suddenly Caster appeared, "What are you doing, Master?"

"What business of it is yours huh?!" Shinji screamed out, waking up Sakura, who tried to pretend to sleep.

"Oi, Caster. I'm glad you're here," Shinji said, smiling. "I have a job for you that will take all night with your level of skill," Shinji smirked.

"Oh? What kinda job is that?" Kariya was wary, but he couldn't just disobey a direct order.

"I want you to go down to my school. Since I can't just expect that nobody will attack me, I want you to set up a boundary field there that is even stronger than the one you set here,"

Kariya darkened. "Yes, Master," He said, and vanished. The bug that was there was gone as well.

The events that occured in the room caused Sakura to scream, but the boundary field has long soundproofed these screams for years.

Aimi had to cover her mouth to keep her grin from showing, thoroughly amused by Assassin's reaction to her offer of clothing. It wasn't that she thought Assassin looked bad but.. it just didn't seem appropriate for one with the body of a child to be wandering about in her underwear. At the very least she needed to put some pants on.

Archer's reaction was a lot tamer, which didn't surprise her. She wasn't as bad, but her clothes seemed a little.. off.. at least in this era. For now, though, she'd just give the two something more comfortable to sleep in.

Getting up, Aimi motioned for them to follow her to her room, where she reached in the bottom drawer of her dresser to pull out what looked like oversized sleep shirts and boxers, one set for herself and the other for Archer. For Assassin, she found one of her nightgowns from when she was younger tucked it the back.

"This should be good for now, I suppose. As for clothes to wear outside or something.. I suppose we can figure that out in the morning."

-------------------

Caenis went to approach the True Assassin when she suddenly felt her legs start to give out from underneath her. She quickly righted herself by slamming the blunt end of her spear into the ground, which caused her arms to shake a bit.

"What on earth.. what have you don't you me you cur?!"

"The effects...?" Mulan asked. Did that mean...? Oh. Oh boy, things were turning south real fast. And it only solidified her worry when Caenis stumbled and slammed her spear into the ground to right herself. "Damnit."

This was bad, if they didn't get out of here now, they would die. There was no doubt about this.

----

Shirou woke up in his room with a throbbing pain in his shoulder. He sat up with a groan, feeling the chilly cold air hit against bare skin. Looking at himself, he realized that he didn't have a shirt on and there were bandages wrapped around his shoulder. So it wasn't all a dream.

Finding him another shirt in his room, he headed out to the dining room only to be halted in his tracks when he saw a certain girl in red, sitting at his table drinking tea. "T-T-Tohsaka?! What are you doing in my house?!"

"Didn't I already tell you that I was going to be staying over until our alliance ends?" She stated simply, taking another sip of her tea. Shirou could clearly see it. The glint in her eye that told him she was taking pleasure in his utter embarrassment of the situation. "I have a few things I need to go over with you, but first, I'm sure your servants would love to have a word with you, Emiya-kun."

Saber walked up to Shirou, and slapped him.

"IDIOT!" she yelled. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW STUPID THAT WAS? WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU DO SOMETHING THAT DUMB? DO YOU HAVE SO LITTLE FAITH IN US THAT YOU THINK RIDER WOULD BE BROUGHT DOWN BY A SINGLE ARROW?"

She brought her face uncomfortably close to his and poked his shoulder with her finger.

"Protecting you is hard enough without you needlessly endangering yourself! So don't do it again! Understand?" she said.

Assassin's response was simply to nod. She took the night gown and retreated off to a more private room to change out of her... needless to say embarrassing clothing and into something more suitable to sleep in.

After changing, she returned. Sleeping, while it wasn't strictly required for Servants, would help her build up strength in preparation for any fights. Assassin was used to being awake at night... But she didn't want to disturb Mother, and she could sleep at night just as well as she could sleep during the day.

----

Saber lingered near Rin. She was glad to see that Shirou hadn't died, at least, or else their alliance would've been for nothing. His servant's quick action prevented anything like that, anyway. She said nothing at the other Saber's... outburst.

Rider didn't feel the need to yell after Saber's severe admonishing. Getting up from her seat near Tohsaka, she walked over and gently nudged Saber away from Shirou.

"Alright, sweetie. I think he's properly berated now. Still."

Rider turned towards Shirou, and pinched his cheek, shaking it a bit before letting go.

"Bad Master. My Class is known for speed, right? But even if it had managed to hit me, it wouldn'tve wounded me too bad. I'm a lot less soft and killable than you, so let me take care of the big bag arrows."

Archer took the clothes and left the room. When she reached the doorway, she turned around, a slight smile on her face. She was glad that assassin and herself had been summoned by such a kind master. She just hoped kindness wouldn't become a problem later.

She withdrew from the room and found a place to change before returning.

"Master, where are we going to sleep?" the servant asked. She assumed one of them would be in that guest room they'd cleaned earlier, however it wouldn't take a genius to realise that Assassin wouldn't like the idea of sharing a room with...well, probably anyone but Aimi.

---

Kaguya stopped swooning and quietly regained her composure.

Aimi seemed to pause and think about Archer's question, looking between her two Servants. It was clear to her, as Archer had thought, that Assassin wouldn't be too keen on sharing a bed with the other Servant. The young girl was painfully shy, and while it was cute, she really wanted the two to get along.

Tempted as she was to have Assassin stay in the room with Archer, she knew it would do them not good, and forcing their relationship along would only make it worse.

"Mmm.. I guess you can take the guest room, Archer. And Assassin can stay in my room with me," she looked at the shorter Servant ", if you don't mind, of course."

Assassin's expression brightened considerably.

"Y-yes, of course, Mother!" she said, quickly, making no effort to hide how happy she was. She'd had a history of not sleeping well, back when she was a normal human. Now... she didn't know if that would stay the same, but surely sleeping in the same room as Aimi would help, right? She was so nice... it had to help. "Thank you!"

Archer smiled at Assassin before looking back to Aimi.

"I suppose I should go then. Goodnight you two."

With that, she left the room. Heading down the hallway, she retired to the guest room for the night.

Illyasviel happily trotted along with her two berserkers and now Miyu should be catching up soon. They were heading back to the Castle... it would be a long trip back but Illya wanted to get to know Miyu a bit. In a non-combat way. She didn't expect much though, she was rather professional.

Even so, a light chat would make the walk back a bit more fun, right?

---

Assassin smirked under her mask. She had them now. Rather than take light of the fight however, she had only a finite amount of darks, so she threw only three more for now, two at Sukoshi, and one more for Lancer, to further increase the effects of the poison.

Shirou flinched at all the berating he was receiving, wincing in pain when Saber poked his sore shoulder. Oh but that wasn't the end of it, Rider began pinching his cheeks and putting her own two cents into it, "Owowowowow..."

"I think Emiya-kun has had enough of that girls, we have other matters to go over first," Rin said before smirking, "You can continue telling him what an idiot he is after we've made our plan."

Shirou sunk his head down, clenching his fist slightly. "I..." He began, "I don't regret what I did. I know it was stupid but... I don't regret helping Rider."

The dark haired girl sighed. Honestly, this guy was something else, "I figured you wouldn't. Look, let's drop it for now. Like I said, we have to go over what to do from here."

----

Again Mulan acted quickly, blocking the darks thrown by Assassin with her sword. "Tch..." She knew they couldn't stick around. Of course, she was confident in her ability to take out Assassin. However, she was worried about the health of Lancer. If she died here, they would be at a huge disadvantage from the get go. No, she needed to get them out of here so they could see about healing Lancer.

So, as soon she blocked the darks aimed at her master, she grabbed him then ran toward Lancer, grabbing her as well. She continued to run, using her Rider class speed to get them out of there. Hopefully, with Caster still recuperating from the effects of Mystic face, they wouldn't make chase.

----

Miyu silently appeared out of a nearby, shadowy alleyway, moving to walk behind Illya. Her job was to protect Illya at night, and while she was at the mansion, considering she was a vampire and thus much weaker during the day. Luckily, most Grail battles took place in the cover of the night, so this proved to be no problem for the young vampire.

She remained silent, though. She had always kept a professional space between her and Illya. She was a vampire, and her bodyguard. It was better for them both to keep their relationship strictly professional.

"Awww! Such a sweetheart." Rider smiled and grabbed both sides fo Shirou's face before giving him a quick little kiss. "And I'm very grateful for your idiocy, I truly am. Don't start getting all grumpy."

Then, she turned around and headed back over to where Tohsaka was, sitting down. "Right, time to figure out exactly what we're going to do. My vote is for not trying to accost the small girl and her two giants. At least not without a small army behind us."

--------------------------

Caenis, stubborn as ever, wasn't about to let some stupid poison slow her down. No sir. She was about to go whoop that Assassin's ass.. when she felt someone grab onto her and proceed to drag her away from the battle.

Dragging her away!? She wasn't done fighting yet!

"Release me this instant! I'm going to hoist that knave on a pike and allow her to be pecked to death by birds! I will not allow her underhanded tactics to defeat a true warrior such as myself!"

As much as she hated to admit it, though, she further they got away from the Assassin, the better she started to feel, and this fact is what finally made her stop complaining. Now she just let herself be pulled along while she tried to ignore the weakness in her body and seethed. How could she be so foolish as to let an enemy that crawls in the shadows like a coward get her in such a state?

She wouldn't let it happen again, that she swore. For right now, though, she was starting to have issues thinking straight and the like.

-----------------------------

Aimi smiled down at Assassin as well, gently taking a hold of her hand. She then looked back up at Archer as she started to leave.

"Ah, goodnight Archer. If you need anything, don't hesitate to let me know, alright?"

With that, she headed back to her own room with Assassin, to get ready for bed and such.

"We'll have to defeat them eventually, through whatever means," Saber said, lowering herself into a sitting position. "Though I agree, an attack now would be... ill-advised, to say the least."

She paused for a few moments, to take a breath. "When the time comes, attacking the girl directly is out of the question."

Saber decided she would mention that now, to spare them of any possible future issues. That girl may very well be a mage, but killing her to stop the Berserkers was something Saber would never, ever do. Hopefully, her master and the master of Rider and the other Saber would share her opinion.

----

Assassin simply followed Aimi, smiling slightly. Sleeping would recover her energy for the day, after all.

"Perhaps this was not a good opponent for us to face. It is better we retreat to fight again another day." Sukoshi said, grimly. He was still shaken from the attempts on his life, which he had been powerless to stop. He had never felt so weak...

---
"I agree. We should instead think of a strategy to take down those two monsters." Said Archer, scratching his chin. "Perhaps an ambush. If we can draw the two Berserkers away from that hidden archer and strike them suddenly, our odds of victory may increase."

Illya smiled back at Miyu as she began to walk backwards. She wasn't sure what to say to break the silence.

Finally she decided that she'd say something nice, "You know Miyu, I like your hair,"

----

True Assassin sighed, "Good. Are you alright my master?" She asked, turning to Takako.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," said Takako. "Lets go home. We'll just tell my uncle that we fought the enemy and Kaguya scared them off,"

--

Sigmund trained behind Illya and Miyu. Truth be told; he hoped that his master would befriend the girl. He wasn't all that confident in how long he and the big, armored guy would be around; and he wanted his master to have a friend after he was gone.

He looked up at the other berserker, and decided to attempt conversation. Though he doubted he would get a direct response; he might be able to get some kind of reaction. Even if he was completely ignored, it would tell him a little bit about his more mysterious comrade.

"So...does it ever get hot in that armour?" he asked. "I mean,you must be roasting in there! Geez, such overly complicated armour! Why couldn't you just use good old fashioned chainmail?"

"Hmph, the cowards. Fleeing like that. So much for their 'honor'." Kaguya muttered, now more or less back to normal. She looked down at her 'master', "I couldn't care less what you told your uncle."