Fate/ Stay Night: Infernus

I don't own FSN or any of its concepts, be they magical or not. I do claim credit for introducing this particular brand of magic to the universe but not for creating it. If you've read my other stories, you know this is gonna be warped and f***** up the wazoo. Enjoy!

Chapter 12

Shirou was alone in his bedroom and gazing up at the ceiling. Saber had refused to stay with him and was instead out patrolling the house. Something had changed and it had scared Saber to the point of almost forsaking their bond. What…am I?

For her part, Saber was angry. Hacking Excalibur into a stump again and again, she watched it turned to nothing more than thick splinters covering her metal boots. Nothing was proceeding as she had hoped.

She had felt such…happiness when Shirou asked her to the dance but now…she couldn't even look at him. She had shut down their link to almost zero because she couldn't stand the feel of his magic. To her…it felt vile and corrupted.

Spinning at a soft thump, she turned with her blade raised but was turned aside by another blade. There stood Taiga Fujimura, face deadly serious. The blade Taiga wielded was plain and unadorned but it looked perfect for her.

"How may I help you, Miss Fujimura?" she asked quietly, head turned aside to avoid those knowing eyes.

"Tell me, Servant Saber. Do you want to know what's going on with Shirou?" she asked and raised the blade. "But to know…you must defeat me. And I will not hold back like last time" she whispered, drawing another blade from the sheath down her spine and holding them in a manner reminiscent of Rider.

Saber glared at Taiga before charging into battle. Bringing Excalibur down, her attack was easily turned aside and she stumbled past, anger making her movements sloppy. Turning and barely blocking another strike, she gritted. "How did you know I was a servant?" she demanded.

Taiga shook her head as if amused. "Do you really think I didn't know Shirou was a mage? My clan has watched over Fuyuki City for decades. I was assigned to Shirou to make sure there wasn't another Kiritsugu on the rise" she stated and spun as Saber dived at her whilst her blades whirled and slashed at Saber's right flank and thigh.

Hissing as her opponent's blades met flesh, she dodged another strike and worked on clearing her head. Slowly succeeding, she was jarred out of her partial meditative state when Taiga slammed her into a tree.

A warm feeling trickled down her neck and her eyesight wobbled. A head-wound she thought slowly. Bringing Excalibur up in an arc to try and split Taiga asunder, she knew why her abilities were suffering. The link to Shirou…was dying. She estimated that it had maybe three days left before it vanished.

"Come on! Draw power from Shirou! I want a fight, not to beat you!' Taiga taunted as she ruthlessly demolished Saber's defences and shot through once more. Ramming the pommel into Saber's shoulder and pounding the cross-guard into the blonde's clavicle, Taiga darted back and seemed to glare at Saber.

"Pathetic. And you call yourself a servant" Taiga growled before her face softened and she held a hand out to Saber. Hauling the reluctant servant to her feet and pulling her over to some steps, they both sat.

"Can you please explain what's going on?" Saber inquired. She could faintly feel Shirou squirming about as nightmares ravaged his mind once more.

Fujimura sighed and leant backwards. "We had our first inkling what was going on when we found Kiritsugu researching soul transference" she began and nodded at Saber's pale face. "Our suspicions were confirmed when Shirou was in hospital. You know when Kiritsugu 'adopted' him?"

Saber nodded without thinking and squirmed under Taiga's glare.

"Anyway. During that time he used a modified variant on the Five Star Release spell. When his magic entered Shirou, it formed its own self-contained circuit within him. It carried with him the dark side of his soul, the blood-lust and rage. And some…memories."

"Líkami Kjötöxi" Saber whispered and Taiga nodded.

"Yes, that's right. Within Shirou is the entirety of Kiritsugu's magic, experience and memories of weapons. But this is where you come in Saber" Taiga continued, ignoring the blonde servant's startled look.

"You see, your being here triggered this. Ordinarily, this would have happened gradually. Right now, Shirou is struggling to maintain himself and fight off his father's soul. If he succeeds…he'll gain everything except the berserker-like state. But if he fails…"

Saber shuddered at what was left unsaid. A being with that much power and skill could threaten reality itself. Shirou would only use it for good but…if Kiritsugu returned and with her under his command.

"Shirou is fighting it with all he can. And do you want to know what he's using as ammunition?" Taiga asked and smiled to herself. The two were good for each other…but their pasts were disturbing.

"But first, Kiritsugu also modified Shirou's memories. That's why he hated you. It is a practice forbidden by the Council of Magi but…"

Saber shuddered. Tampering with another's mind was a sin not even God could forgive.

"He's using memories of you and him to hold off the influence. But he's just barely managing it. As long as Shinji lives to provoke that side of him then…"

Saber nodded and was about to dash away to kill the son of a bitch when Taiga raised a hand. "He must do it himself, Saber. Only with Shinji's heart-blood can he be freed."

Taiga had been educated for years upon the Magi and the Grail War. No talent ran in her family at all so they changed to the self-styled guardians of Fuyuki, or GOF. Similar to the Chamber of Gof within Christian mythos.

She had been trained in the best ways to kill a magi, training far beyond what Kiritsugu had achieved. Each member of the clan carried Iron blades, perfect for draining a magi's strength or deflecting a blow. Cold iron was the weakness of magi.

Even the mere presence of it could destabilize a mage's casting. She had known the very first second Saber had stepped into the living room what was happening. She had seen the faint tinge of red on Shirou's forehead, almost hidden by his hair. The mark of Kiritsugu's middle finger and Saber's kiss.

She had purposefully lost to Saber, relinquishing five moments in which she could have disabled Saber. The Servant may have been trained in the arts of swordsmanship to be sure but Taiga had years more experience on the Servant.

Saber sighed. "Kiritsugu…was a cruel man. He didn't try anything with me, he had Irisviel for that. What he did was even worse. He tainted me with his magic. I feel it like a cancerous growth" she whispered and covered her heart with a hand.

Taiga winced and nodded. "After he had transferred his other self to Shirou, he changed. He became a pacifist, trying to pass on his ideals to Shirou. To weaken him. But in a perverse way…the burns you caused made him reject Kiritsugu's philosophies."

I made one mistake and they keep throwing it at me Saber though darkly. Feeling warmth on her cheek, she looked up and was startled to find the sun rising. They had been out there for the entire night without realizing.

Saber gritted her teeth. "Shinji will die this day."

Taiga nodded and grinned.

ASASASASASASASAS

Shirou walked into the living room and paused. Saber stood there with a jacket and waiting for him.

"Come, Shirou. We hunt Shinji today" she announced brusquely and tossed the jacket to the momentarily stunned Shirou. She couldn't help the shiver of revulsion as the malevolent grin spread across his face.

It was the same grin Kiritsugu wore when he slashed a magi in half.

ASASASASASASASAS

Saber stood in front of the Matou house and sensed. She didn't want to be here. But fortunately from what she could sense, Sakura was currently dormant. But no Shinji was within. Shaking her head, they both hurried out when a flock of ravens took flight from around Sakura's room.

Stopping to eat, Saber decided it was time to spill the beans about what was going on to Shirou. Sitting down at a café, she wasn't aware that it was one that couples frequented. After all, such things didn't exist back when she lived.

Shirou sat cautiously and looked around. Does Saber even know what this place is? He thought to himself and shook his head. Her innocence caused more problems than corruption. Relaxing and ordering a water for himself, he shook his head as Saber ordered a hot chocolate.

"Shirou. Your father…Kiritsugu Emiya…transferred part of his soul into you" Saber began without preamble. "No doubt some of your memories are hazy, right? That's because they were manipulated."

Shirou was rocked back both literally and figuratively. It wasn't possible! His father took him in and loved him…but the results were there. His memories were breaking, revealing different things. Like clouded glass revealing what lay beneath. And that strange state he entered…

"You have to kill Shinji, Shirou."

Killing someone…oh, he had talked big in the past but the actual killing of someone…taking a life. Such a massive step. Finishing their drinks in silence, Saber was left worried. She didn't know what would happen when he actually killed, merely he would be cured.

Unseen, Taiga stalked them. She had gotten away from the barrier just before activation the other day and so, she was fine. "We need you back…Kiritsugu."

ASASASASASASASAS

Shirou sighed and collapsed onto the bench in the torched park. He was tired, so very tired. Saber sat next to him and he envied her calmness and lack of tiredness. His mind had been busy all day long. But being around the blonde servant had made it that little bit easier and he had indeed gained some headway against the malicious influence.

Saber noticed how tired Shirou was. But there wasn't enough room on the bench for him to lie down. Hearing giggling, she turned to see another man with his head in a girls lap. It gave her an idea.

Smoothing down the skirt she had worn for this day, she glanced at Shirou. "Shirou, lie down and rest your head on my lap. You need rest."

Blushing and glancing about nervously, he acquiesced and sunk down until his read was pillowed by Saber's thighs. This…is comfortable he thought. The warm sun on him, his breathing and Saber's slightly hitched breathing…quite comfortable.

Saber was sitting still like an alabaster statue. In fact, had you replaced her with such a statue, it would have taken a while to spot the difference. Sure, she had offered but actually feeling him lie there like that…it was a very new sensation.

As the hours passed, Saber herself drifted in and out of sleep with her years of training allowing her to stay immobile and alert even as she dreamt. Opening her eyes as she felt…something impinge upon her sphere of alertness. Eyes snapping wide, she froze at the sight of Rider standing before her.

Rider raised a hand and made a motion for Saber to be silent. Kneeling before both of them and looking almost mournful, she shook her head. "Stay silent, Saber. My time here is limited as is my time as a servant."

Despite her instincts screaming at her to attack, Saber stayed still.

"Good. You know Saber…I am jealous of you. You managed to find a Master who is pure. Yet I, who has known only cruelty through my life ends up once more with a cruel master. My true Master has fallen and now…"

Saber knew she had been lucky. With Sakura's magical potential, she could easily have been summoned by her and be in Rider's place now. Such a thought made her ill.

"Shinji is lying in wait on top of a building. There, we shall fight and see who is superior" Rider whispered before back-flipping above the tree-line and out of sight.

Saber felt Shirou stirring and relaxed backwards so he was not stressed when he fully woke. This battle would be difficult as it would be on Rider's own home turf. Where all of Saber's power could not be utilized.

Shirou sat straight up the moment he opened his eyes. Whilst he felt rested, his heart was thudding in his chest like a hammer. "Let's go, Saber" he whispered and stood, walking towards the one section of town they hadn't checked.

Saber nodded and followed Shirou, already sensing the way Rider had left.

ASASASASASASASAS

Saber knocked Shirou away and deflected the nail that would have punctured Shirou's skull like a balloon. Spinning in the air and landing daintily, she glowered up at Rider. Taking to the air, she drew on Shirou's magic and with a blinding flash of light, was clad in her armored dress and other accoutrements.

Gripping Excalibur in plated gauntlets, she noticed Shirou run into the building and she turned to Rider. Leaping forward and slashing at her, she frowned as Rider nimbly dodged before sweeping back with a leg and nailing her in the back of the head, cracking her head on the stone building.

Rider laughed and leapt back again, nails launching from her hands to just barely miss Saber as the servant dodged. Landing behind Saber and using the impaled nails and chain as a leash, she wrapped it around Saber's neck and started to tug.

Saber scrabbled ineffectually at the chains before stopping and slamming her head back into Rider's nose. Released, she then delivered a brutal punch to Rider's jaw with her spiked gauntlets and then followed up with a leg sweep which sent Rider skidding across the cold building.

"Not bad Saber. Let's take this to the next level" Rider whispered and flashed forward with nails held in a backhanded grip. As she drew deeper on the diverted link to Sakura's magic, tiny hooks appeared on the end of every strand of hair and the nails gained length so they looked like two nails joined together and the chain going from the middle.

Leaping up towards the roof and barely dodging the nails, the hooks in rider's hair raked along her arm. Eyes watering as the hooks ripped through flesh and scored bone, she leapt upwards to where the roof was. If she could get on level ground, she'd be fine.

ASASASASASASASAS

Shirou pelted up the stairs as fast as he could, taking two and three at a time. He couldn't feel the evil magic permeating the air, the feel of raw bloodlust coming from a landing he just passed. He didn't think it anything odd when he reinforced his legs and leapt up a whole flight of stairs without breaking stride.

Kiritsugu Emiya was not going down without a fight. He refused to be consigned to oblivion, refused to be done away with so easily!

Shirou slammed into a wall with another leap and kept running, the small crater not seen or felt. His arm popped back into its socket and he slammed out the door to the roof and turned to glare at Shinji Matou's life. Before he turned…and paled.

Saber was standing there, bent over. And kneeling before her was a Pegasus. But that wasn't the horrifying part. No…the horn was sticking out right where her heart had been. "No…Saber…" he whispered.

Kiritsugu felt the first flash of fear as he felt his own son scream back into the fight, pounding against him mercilessly. Taking his magic for his own, ripping it from his own self-contained circuit.

Vermillion and azure energy snapped around Shirou as he raced towards the slumped Saber, blood pooling around her. It was already cold and lumpy. Her form was paling and shimmering, in and out of reality.

Dodging a swipe by Rider and her Peagsus, he kept running. As bolts of shadow shot from Shinji's tome and split the air, they faded ineffectually into the aura surrounding him.

Reaching Saber, he kissed each of his fingertips before slamming his hand down upon her heart, fingers spread to their maximum. "Five Point Star: Release!"

And Saber screamed.

ASASASASASASASAS

Raw energy flooded her, like a thousand suns being born and dying simultaneously. She trembled and then started to spasm. Arching her back, her soul which had been but a second from returning to Bedivere and the field where she slew Mordred…came back.

This power…it was intoxicating. She hungered for more, as if it was a drug. And then it stopped. Tentatively reaching up for where Pegasus had cleaved her heart, she found it repaired and her armour shimmering. Grasping Excalibur in both hands, she summoned the Cardinal Winds.

They roared in triumph as they were brought down. Each a different colour. One was a deep blue for water. The next was orange to fiery red, constantly shifting for fire. The third was brown and filled with ash, a tempestuous storm of the earth and the fourth was oddly clear and silent…but within it, winds which could flay meat from bones raged.

They swirled around her blade, manifesting it within the mortal realm once more. As the winds slowly dissipated, the blade was held. Not seen for over five centuries, the blade of promised victory was once more held by it's King.

Excalibur.

Shirou watched in awe as the four different funnels descended from the heavens to wrap around the blade. Each element seemed to be reforging the sword on the spot…or reconstructing it, the phantasmal creation just the baseline.

Shirou turned to glare at the slightly disconcerted Shinji. And within his mind, he demanded obedience.

Give me Líkami Kjötöxi! He roared into his mind and threw both his own magic and his fathers against the tenacious presence which reeked of death worse than any cock-roach.

Slowly, static electricity sprung up from the ground and seemed to sketch something in the air around his hand. The massive axe was slowly traced. Almost four feet in height, the blade was made of metal not found on Earth or even the asteroid belts within the system.

But it was still not truly forming. The axe phased in and out even as Shirou forced it into being. Kiritsugu was fighting him with everything he possessed.

No! You will not have my axe! My son would not dare do this! Kiritsugu howled into his sons mind as he struggled to tear the axe away. His son had already stolen Flesh Ripper, he would not have Body Cleaver.

Seeing Shinji smirk and raise the grimoire, Shirou ripped the final remnant of his father's soul to ribbons with the magic he had stolen from his father.

And Líkami Kjötöxi became real once more.

Shinji fed all the power he could into the grimoire and watched as a hundred snakes of shadow erupted from the tome and shot toward Emiya. Driving into the pavement and ripping apart the entire floor, he grinned…before paling.

Emiya stood on a small supporting pillar, Líkami Kjötöxi held so the flat of the blade shielded him. As he stood from being crouched behind it and leapt over the abyss which yawned below him, Shinji started to panic.

Saber felt the cursed axe blaze once more into being and as she turned, she saw Kiritsugu's face hover over Shirou's for an instant. It looked like he was in horrific agony before the image shattered and she saw Shirou standing there with the axe.

And it looked like it belonged. Kiritsugu had always had to exert some kind of control over the axe but this…this was different. He was wielding it like it was his own arm. He was born for that axe she thought before turning to glare at Rider as she bore down on her.

"Behold, EXCALIBUR!" Saber screamed and swept it down in an arc. Almost liquid-like fire erupted from the blade and spun up towards Rider who had an odd smile on her face. A…grateful smile. As the immense pillar of spinning flame struck Rider and merely erased the Pegasus from existence, her blinder shattered. "Thankyou…"

Shinji was now scared witless. He had been cornered on the edge of the roof. "Please Emiya! Don't! Remember our friendship!" he called and nodded as Emiya slowed. "Remember those times we laughed at the teacher?"

Shirou stopped and nodded. Before his hand whipped out and grabbed Shinji by the throat and lifted him as the sky screeched as it was split. "For your crimes…for the lives you have ruined…you die."

Tossing him up in the air and out over the edge of the building, Shirou brought the axe slamming down into Shinji's body and cleaved right through it, sundering bone and organ without care.

Shinji opened his wide and in a perverse twist of fate, the axe had just missed severing his heart and wind-pipe and lungs so as he fell, he screamed.

Shirou watched Líkami Kjötöxi plummet with Shinji. That axe made him sick but he had wielded it for that blow and that blow alone. It had felt good but…wrong also to have both hands wrapped around the axe.

Turning and seeing Saber kneeling and taking deep breaths with Excalibur gradually disappearing, he leapt down to her and wrapped an arm around her. "Up you get" he whispered and hauled Saber to her feet.

"Is…is he gone?" Saber whispered. And she was not referring to Shinji. She had seen him split by the mighty blow and the flicker of distaste across Shirou's face as he had done so.

Shirou blinked then nodded. "Yes…he's gone. I sent his soul into the axe. And when the axe vanishes…so will he."

If Shirou had kept looking over the edge…he would have seen Sakura wrench the axe from the pavement and grin, features splattered with blood.

Shirou smiled as he looked at the exhausted saber. Soon...soon it will be ready.

A/N: Alrighty! I do hope you enjoyed the chapter. Now before you rant and rave at me for giving Shirou more power and the such…I didn't. He still doesn't have conscious command of it. He has all the weapon skills but can't summon Líkami Kjötöxi since Sakura now has it.

Now I may not update for a while as I need the rest of the discs from my cousins boyfriend. Aside from that, I have a new project! Fate/ Stay Night: Timesunder!

Hope you enjoyed!