The Raven and the Mage (Teen Titans/DCUniverse Crossover)

[GuardianSoulBlade]

The Raven and the Mage

Summary: Raven and Beast Boy move to Fuyuki City as they go into semi-retirement. Raven keeps a promise she made to Kiritsugu to train Shirou in magecraft and to teach him heroism, but will it be enough for him to survive the Fifth Holy Grail War and hopefully, reshape his twisted ideals of heroism.

Author's Note: I know Raven is considered immensely OP in Teen Titans, she's going to be just as OP in the Fate/Stay Night universe as her magic could be considered True Magic. The Titans won't be directly involved in the Holy Grail war, but that doesn't mean Slade can't be Shinji's bodyguard. And also, Malchior will be involved because...I always wanted to see Saber fight a dragon! Excalibur VS. Dragon Fire Breath, WHOO!

I feel better about posting this one because the fandom hasn't bitten my head off...yet.

----

Prologue

Rachel Roth heard the footsteps approaching her from behind, they echoed in the empty room.

"Thank you for seeing me again, I'm amazed you're still willing to help me," Kiritsugu Emiya spoke to her.

"The Mage Killer seeks the help of a human half demon hybrid, it's ironic," Rachel laughed.

"Raven, please, can't you help me?"

"With your emotional turmoil, yes, but why haven't you asked me?"

"Ask you what?" Kiritsugu was confused.

"Rescuing your daughter Illiya? I'm surprised you haven't asked me to take her from the Einzbern family."

"I…I can't ask you that, I'll get Illiya on my own," Kiritsugu pulled out a cigarette.

"You still haven't said why you won't ask me to rescue your daughter," Rachel repeated.

"It's because you're…a hero of justice, and I'm not," the heavy-hearted Mage sighed. He lit the cigarette and took a deep breath.

She laughed, "A hero of justice; that sounds so grand. Rescuing your daughter would be easy for me, my powers rival that of any Mage and the Church is afraid of me, but why do you feel that you should be the one to do it?"

"I'm her father, that's why," Kiritsugu sighed. "I just need your help with…the dreams, that's all."

"If that's what you want, I can do that, please sit down," Raven gestured to the chair. "Do you want some herbal tea?"

"Yes, please," he replied, taking the cup of tea she poured for him.

He put down his cigarette and drank the tea.

The Mage Killer stared at her sadly, "I have a question to ask you."

"I know," Raven replied. It was the same question he asked every time he came to visit.

"You have 300 people on one ship 200 on another. 500 total passenger and crew, plus Rachel Roth. Let's assume that these 501 people are humanity's last survivors. Giant holes simultaneously in both ships. Rachel alone has the skills needed to repair a ship. Now then, what ships would you choose to fix?"

"You give directions to people on both ships, and help them fix their boats."

She saw him start to cry. "You make it look so easy, saving the world."

"Saving the world is hardly easy, Kiritsugu, but it's not impossible, I've done it, my friends and I have saved the world so many times, I've lost count. We've even prevented the End of the World. It only seems impossible to you, because you believed that that eliminating the evil and leaving the good works, but no matter how many people you killed, there is always evil in the world. Saving the world means you save everyone, not just the good people."

Raven reached up to touch his face, "You keep thinking that if you'd done things differently, perhaps if you'd killed Shirley when she became an Undead Apostle, you would have saved your village. Let's say hypothetically that you had, you loved her, and you would have lived with the guilt of her murder. Then your father Norikata would have just found someone else to help him with his experiments and perhaps they would have suffered the same fate, he would have repeated the process until the entire village was wiped out or the Executioners discovered him. Those experiments would have continued with or without you killing Shirley."

"But I did the right thing and she died, I wanted a world where no one cries, where we can all be happy."

"Like I said, Kiritsugu, those experiments would have continued if you'd killed her or not, sometimes doing the right thing has consequences we don't expect, but you know that already."

"The Holy Grail, you think I did the right thing in destroying it."

"Yes, it's not the all-powerful wish-granting device they think it is. It was corrupted long ago. I sensed the evil presence inside it when I arrived in Fuyuki five years ago."

"I just don't understand how you with all your power, and your friends couldn't save anyone in the Fuyuki fire."

"It wasn't because we didn't try; you of all people know how fast that fire spread. We're metahumans, not gods."

"Your friend Nightwing is completely human," Kiritsugu noted.

"Yes he is, but he keeps pace with the best of us, in all our sparring matches, he wins most of them, you don't need magic to become a hero, you only need the determination and mindset to be one."

"I know," Kiritsugu took another gulp of his herbal tea. "All I want is to redeem myself by raising Shirou to be a good person, and…I don't want the dreams to haunt me anymore."

"I'll do what I can for you," Raven reached out and placed her hand on his head.

Kiritsugu heard her utter a chant, "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos."

Raven delved into his memories, they were horrifying and terrible, but she accepted them, embraced them, she had seen many terrible things in her life, and she knew she could bear all his emotional pain and suffering.

Still, the most tragic aspect of his life was the death of his ideals, if fate had not been so unkind to him, Raven had no doubt that Kiritsugu would have become a hero, a man worthy of the Justice League if he had taken up such a cause, if his ideals hadn't been torn apart by his father's experiments and the death of the girl he loved, no, that wasn't it. Many heroes were driven by tragedies and they used those to drive them to do good for the sake of others.

No, he'd twisted his idealism into cynicism, and he thought the Holy Grail could make his idealistic wish come true. It didn't happen that way.

She saw his memories, felt the agony of despair and hopelessness. She absorbed the emotional energy and accepted it, as an empath, she could sense all his emotions and she'd been overwhelmed the first time he came to her, nearly collapsing after he left, but she'd grown used to his emotions as he came to see her, every so often, she would heal him, taking away the deep depression and guilt.

But it didn't last, Raven noted, and he was coming more often, and he was growing weaker, not because of her powers, but because of the "holy grail".

Raven was reminded of Jason Todd, but Kiritsugu was far more troubled, and had far more emotional pain by comparison, still, he seemed to have found redemption in his adopted son Shirou Emiya that he spoke so often of.

Raven hadn't actually had time to meet him yet. Her hero work kept her quite busy, and she was newly married to Beast Boy, Garfield Logan, although he often joke that he'd happily have their honeymoon in Japan, but they knew they couldn't afford that, not on both their salaries anyway.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos. Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos."

Raven felt Kiritsugu relax, she removed her hand from his head.

"Thank you, Raven," Kiritsugu gave her a grateful expression.

"You're welcome, Kiritisugu, I suppose I'll see you when you come back to Jump City again."

Kiritsugu put his cigarette out. "I won't be coming back again Raven. I'm dying. Could you do something for me?"

"What do you want me to do?"

"Train Shirou in magecraft, I'm unable to do that now."

"My magic is from a completely different dimension, and doesn't follow equivalent exchange. I don't know what I can possibly teach him."

"You can teach him….to be a hero, will you come back with me and meet him?"

"Yes, I will," Raven replied.

Suddenly, the door opened, and Beast Boy poked his head inside. "Raven, put the pedal to the metal, we gotta go!"

"What happened?" Raven looked up at Beast Boy.

"It's Slade, he's back!"

"I'm coming," She glanced at Kiritsugu, "After this business is over, I'll come back with you."

Kiritsugu watched her leave, "My life was meant to be one solely of loss."

Raven left quickly, she had a city to save. She would meet the young Shirou soon, and she hoped she'd be able to help Kiritsugu, even if it was something as simple as teaching a little boy magecraft.

----

A few days later, Raven arrived at the Emiya manor; she was surprised at how large and spacious the house was. Apparently, Kiritsugu was rich. She saw the door open and a red-haired little boy greeted her.

"Is your father here?" Rachel asked.

"He said you were coming Miss Rachel, he's in the backyard." Shirou showed her to the backyard where Kiritsugu was sitting, staring up at the moon.

"You must be Shirou, it's very nice to meet you," Raven smiled.

"It's nice to meet you too," he gave her a smile.

The sight was a perfect picture of beautiful melancholy.

"Hello Kiritsugu," Raven greeted him.

"Hello, please sit."

She sat beside them.

"Hey! Hey, old man! If you're so tired you're gonna fall asleep, go to bed!" Shirou scolded

"Huh? Right, I'm fine," Kiritsugu reassured him.

He glanced at his adopted son, "When I was little, I really wanted to be a hero."

"What are you talking about? You don't want to anymore? Did you just give up?" Shirou asked.

"Yeah, unfortunately. Seems that wish has an expiration date. When you grow up, it's hard to call yourself one." He laughed, "I wish I'd realized that sooner."

"I see, I guess there's nothing you can do about it," Shirou told him.

"Yeah, right, I guess not," Kiritsugu sighed. "It really is a nice moon tonight."

Shirou shut his eyes, "Fine, since you can't do it," he looked over at Kiritsugu, "I'm gonna be a hero for you."

"Hmm?" Kiritsugu was surprised.

His voice as confident, "You're an adult now so you can't do it anymore, but I still can! Just leave it to me! I'll make it happen!"
Raven felt the emotional burden Kiritisugu carried with him lift, as he felt joy for the first time in years.

"You do that," Kiritsusgu said quietly. He shut his eyes.

Raven could feel his life force leaving him as he breathed his last and died quietly, but not before she glimpsed one final memory:

"Kerry, tell me, what do you want to grow up to be?" Shirley asked.

"Well, what I want to be, is a hero!"

Shirou knew deep down that his adopted father was gone and he began to cry.

Raven pulled him into a comforting hug. "It's all right Shirou, I'm here for you, okay."

"I remember the look on his face, the tears in his eyes," Shirou looked up at her, "over finding someone alive in the rubble. A man filled with joy, from the bottom of his heart. He looked so happy to me; it was almost as though it had been him that had been saved that day, and not me."

Shirou continued speaking, "He kept saying, "He's alive! He's alive! He's alive" And then, so fervently, even as I teetered on the brink of death, I felt jealous of him. He said, "Thank you." That he was glad he'd found someone, that by saving even one person, he had saved himself."

"It's all right, Shirou, it's all right," Raven whispered softly. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos. Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos."

Raven held him, rocking him quietly, "You're going to be fine, between Fujimura and I, you'll be fine."

"You're going to stay with me at the house?"

"Not at the house, but I'll live close by, so I'll see you often, Kiritisugu wanted me to teach you a lot of things."

"What kind of things?"

"I'll tell you something about me right now, but you can't tell anyone else, promise?"

Shirou looked at her, "I promise, I can keep a secret."

"I'm a superhero Shirou, and I'm going to teach you how to become one," Raven reassured him.

"You promise, Miss Rachel?"

"I promise, Shirou Emiya will become a hero of justice."

[Spartacus]

Oh oh oh WOW! DC Universe and Nasuverse, together, in one paragraph. And you choose the series I love the most too, Titans and Fate that is. All those Batfamily name drops.

You earned a fan.

[GuardianSoulBlade]

Winter Days, a Fateful Night Part 1

Author's Note: I appreciate all reviews from Type Moonies in regards to the Nasuverse's vast and complex magic system. I've been looking at original F/SN anime, the Visual Novel, the Type Moon Wiki and UBW for exposition of the magic system.

An interesting thing about the DC Universe is that the price for their magic is that bad things happen to people that use it, and that's rather interesting considering that in the Nasuverse, most mages have sucky lives.

I will break from canon in some ways, but events will occur just like they did in the visual novel and animes. Saber's summoning will be split up into multiple chapters because this will be long as it is, but events leading up to it will be different.
I can't believe this chapter is the first 16:30 minutes of episode 2 of Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works 2014, it's so long, even with the new scenes I added, YEESH!

----

His world is burning. He's glancing around, looking for anyone to save. He finally collapses, longing to die, to be put out of his misery.
The shed door creaked as it opened. In a deep sleep, Shirou Emiya heard a voice call to him.

"Shirou?"

"Ugh," he moaned.

"I'm sorry, but it's time to wake up," Sakura Matou said as she leaned over him.

"Good morning, Sakura," Shirou replied sleepily.

"Hi! Hope you slept well last night," Sakura was cheerful.

Shirou rested his face in his hand, "I'm sorry, I should have been up and helping with the morning chores already."

"Don't worry about that Shirou; you were up really late again weren't you?" Sakura glanced at him.

"I was, but you know that's no excuse," Shirou met her gaze.

"I know but, let me handle all the morning chores for you today. I mean, if you leave this place messy again, Ms. Fujimura will get really angry."

"Yeah, you have a point. I don't want to piss her off," the teenager agreed.

"Okay, breakfast will be ready in a minute, hurry up!" Sakura called as she made her way back to the house.

Shirou watched Sakura leave, "Man, I fell asleep before finishing again! I lack focus!"

The red head glanced back at the pipe on the concrete floor, he rested his fingers on top of it, letting his mana flow into the pipe, it quickly disappeared.
Shirou headed off to the Emiya dojo to do his physical exercise training, doing his daily routine of pushups while Sakura cooked breakfast.

Putting his shirt back on, Shirou dressed in his school uniform and headed into the house, where he saw Taiga Fujimura, his guardian, Sakura, and to his surprise, Rachel and her husband Garfield Logan sitting at the breakfast table.

"Miss Fujimra invited us, we hope you don't mind," Gar said with a smile on his face.

"I haven't seen you in awhile Gar; didn't you say you were an actor?"

"Yeah, I get type cast as the green alien all the time, I also work with animals on set and stuff like that, so I tend to be gone from home a lot."
"I see," Shirou noticed his guardian intently reading the morning newspaper as the TV blared in the background.

"Thanks Sakura, but you really don't have to do all this," Shirou looked over the breakfast she'd made for all of them.

"Don't be silly, it's no trouble at all! I do this because I enjoy it!" Sakura exclaimed happily.

Shirou knelt down on his mat. "Hey, good morning Fuji-nee."

"Good morning," Taiga replied.

"Thank you for the food," Shirou said.

"Thank you for the food," Sakura echoed.

Shirou grabbed some soy sauce and poured it onto his rice.

Taiga let out an evil little laugh as Shirou bit into his rice, taking a big mouthful.

He resisted the urge to spit out his rice as he retched back spectacularly, falling backwards and rolling around on the floor, knocking over wall screens.
"What the hell, that's Worchester sauce!" Shirou choked, "talk about a bad combination, who could eat this stuff?!"

Garfield burst out laughing.

"Teach me your prankster ways, oh wise Fujimura sensei!" Garfield, Rachel's husband bowed, clasping his hands.

"Ha ha! Ha Ha Ha ha!" Taiga danced gleefully. "I snuck in and changed the labels on the sauce bottles earlier. Yay!" she stuck her tongue out at him.

"Fujimura sensei, you are a genius!" Gar bowed to her.

"Why thank you Gar!" Taiga grinned at him.

"Who pulls a stunt like that first thing in the morning?" Shirou complained. "I can't believe you're gonna be 25! Raven's 25 and she's way more mature than you are! I guess you're gonna be the same old Fuji-nee."

Taiga Fujimura continued to dance around.

"You deserved it, it's payback from yesterday!" She gulped down food.

"Shirou, drink tea!" Sakura handed him some tea to make him feel better.

"I was thinking you seemed awfully quiet, turns out it was because you were plotting this prank!"

"Damn straight!" Fujimura said triumphantly. "And thanks to you, I don't have nearly enough time to score some tests this morning! So I gotta run or I'll never get it done!"

"If you had scored them last night, you'd have more time to eat," Rachel observed.

"You're such a party pooper," Fujimura scowled at Raven.

"Thank you!" she called to them as she hopped on her moped.

"See you down at school. Make sure you don't get there late, and don't go back to sleep okay? Well I'm outta here!"

She prepared to peel out of there, "And Sakura, breakfast was as delicious as ever!" Fujimura drove off, but not before she ricocheted her moped off the sides of the street.

"Um, you're welcome I guess, Miss Fujimura," Sakura said in a quiet voice.

"I have to go too, see you at school Shirou, and I'll be tutoring you in English at your house later tonight!" Raven and Gar made their way to their car.

"All right!" Shirou called out to her.

Raven and Beast Boy got into the car.

"Rae, did something seem off to you, about Sakura?" Gar glanced at his wife.

"You sensed it too?"

"Not the way you do with energies and stuff, but I swear I could hear something crawling inside her."

"You can hear the crest worms?" Raven asked, horrified. "I thought sensing their presence was bad enough."

"The magical rape worms, yeah, I can hear him, it sounds like they're eating her alive."

"They are," Raven shuddered.

"Dude, so much nightmare fuel!" Beast Boy agreed, shivering.

Beast Boy looked at the road, "You said something big was goin' down, is it that Holy Grail War? Do you think Sakura's involved?"

"It most likely is," Raven replied, thoughtful. "As for Sakura, she could be involved. It's not beyond the realm of possibility."
"How do you know about it? Didn't you tell me it was supposed to be a secret?"

"When I fought Kiritsugu Emiya, I looked into his future and saw the 4th Hoy Grail War. This is the 5th, Shirou Emiya is getting dragged into it, whether he wants to fight or not."

"You're training him to be a hero, because he's a lot like you."

"Yes, his deepest wish is to be a hero of justice, just like mine was, when all I knew was that I would destroy the world, all I wanted was to be a hero of justice, to atone for destroying everything, and because of all of us, I did become a hero."

"You also said that someone else confirmed these Holy Grail Wars take place, right?"

"Yeah, Death the Endless incarnated herself to pay me a visit to complain about it," Raven sighed, "The Holy Grail War disrupts the life and death cycle unnecessarily, and Heroic Spirits annoy her. She can't send them to the afterlife properly and the body counts have been spiking since the third war."

"I see."

"She said she's also coming to Fuyuki to investigate what she called a "quirky anomaly." I feel sorry for whoever she visits. Unlucky sap."

"It's bad enough when Death wants to visit you, and it's worse when she looks like a hot chick!" Beast Boy shouted.

"Is there…any way we can help Sakura?"

"No, not unless I go into her mind, but that would break her, whatever she's hiding, she's really good at hiding it."

Beast Boy pulled the car to a stop, "We're here. I'll be leaving now."

"Say hi to the others for me!" Raven called to him. "Tell them to stop by the house while they're in Fuyuki!"

"You got it!" Beast Boy morphed into a bird and flew away.

Raven went inside the school to her classroom; she had a long day of lessons on Arthurian mythology ahead of her.

----

"Damn that Funji-nee," Shirou complained to Sakura. "Look, I know that she's the landlord's daughter, but why does she have to eat here every single day? She's no better than a freeloader!"

Shirou gulped down his nasty breakfast.

"Did you do something to her yesterday that made her want to pull that prank?" Sakura inquired.

"I accidentally called her by her nickname," Shirou explained, calling Taiga Fujimura "Tiger" always set her off.

"If that's the case then you deserved it," Sakura replied. "You should be careful, she hates her nickname, and she especially hates it when she hears it coming out of your mouth."

"Mmm," Shirou grunted to himself.

"In our next story, workers in a new building in New City's office district were discovered unconscious by relief shift workers and were taken to the hospital late last night," the news reporter on the TV said.

"Since the victims seemed to be suffering from hypoxia when found, they believe it may be the result of a gas leak."

"Did you hear that? Another gas leak in New City," Shirou gazed at the TV. "That's disturbing news. We gotta be careful too."

"You don't need to worry about that!" Sakura spoke quickly, "I've got it under control, I double check the gas valve every day, so we're safe!"

Shirou stared at her, "I think you missed the point."

Shirou and Sakura walked to school, they separated at the front gate, "Well work hard at club practice!"

"okay, thanks, but why don't you maybe stop by the dojo this morning."

"Thanks," Shirou apologized, "But I have to go to the student council office."

"Oh, yes, yes, of course!" Sakura stammered hastily. "I'm so sorry, please forget I asked. Well, I should get going. I'll cook something for dinner you like tonight okay?" She ran off.

Shirou made his way to the student council office, his friend Issei was waiting for him.

"The schools budgeting priorities are completely out of whack," Issei Ryuudou complained.

"Yeah, athletic clubs get most of the budget, and everybody else gets the crumbs." Shirou was busy repairing a damaged heater.

"And so the non athletic club rooms are in bad shape," Issei concluded. "They've given zero thought to how to deal with our heater problem."

"You're kidding me! There are more broken heaters?"

"There are," Isseei told him.

Shirou touched the heater, "Like I figured; this one's just showing its age."

"Yes but can you fix it, Emiya?" Issei asked eagerly.

"I can."

"That's a relief."

"I'll have it fixed in a jiffy, Issei, could you wait outside?"

"Of course, I'll get out of your way," Issei left the room.

Shirou shut his eyes and let mana flow into the heater.

"Okay," he used his magecraft to perform a structural analysis of the heater.

"There are two spots where the heating element is about to break…" Shirou told himself. "The heat transfer pipe is still good. I can patch the electrical cord with power tape for now."

Shirou finished his repairs and finished putting the heater back together. He was just putting a piece of electrical tape on the power cord when he heard Issei's voice.

"T-Tohsaka…" Issei stammered.

"Tohsaka?" Shirou was surprised; honor student Rin Tohsaka didn't usually come to school this early.

"Well, student council president, are you really patrolling the campus this early in the morning. Or is it maintenance on the club rooms?" Rin asked. "Not that I care either way, ever the diligent student."

"Hmm," Issei smirked, "And what might you have up your sleeve this morning? I know you aren't in any clubs, so why are you here so early?"

"I felt like it that's all," Rin retorted.

"Okay Issei, I fixed it!"

Shirou carried the heater out of the room and set it down.

"Thanks a lot, I asked for your help and then you ended up doing everything," Issei apologized. "I'm very sorry, Emiya."

"It's okay, where's the next one?" Shirou asked him. "We don't have much time."

"Right, it's over in the AV room, they say it's been acting up lately, but I think it's finally lived out its lifespan."

"If it's dead, I can't fix that. Why don't you buy a new one? It'd be quicker."

"That's true, but I'd appreciate it if you'd take a look at it anyway. I mean, It looked lifeless to me, but you may be able to see if it's just faking it."

"Okay, I'll give it a try," Shirou told his friend.

Rin Tohsaka began walking away.

"I didn't know you came to school this early," Shirou told her.

"Hmm?" Rin asked curiously, she continued walking down the hall.
Issei and Shirou left.

"The Art Club stove will have to wait until lunch."

"You're quite the busy bee, Emiya," Shinji Matou said in a condescending tone of voice. "I was wondering what you'd been up to after quitting the club."

If anyone deserved to be punched in the face repeatedly, it was Shinji Matou.

Shinji's face was smug. "So you're the student council's errand boy?"

Issei moved to defend Shirou, but Shirou held him back, "If you need anything, just let me know Shinji. If it's something I can help with, I will. You were never good at mending bows, or restringing them for that matter."

"Uh, I don't need or want your help!" Shinji snapped, pointing at him. "Besides, you're not a club member anymore! So stay out of the dojo if you know what's good for you!"

The irritable young teen stomped off in a huff.

"Matou's a real jerk, talking to you that way after he's the one who single-handedly drove you from the club," Issei sighed.

"It's okay. That's just the way he is. You get used to it the longer you know him."

"Really? You do, do you?" Issei sighed.

"Yes, I'm afraid you do," Shirou replied.

The school bell rang.

"Look out, Miss Fujimura is about to barrel in," Shirou went over to his seat and sat down.
Taiga Fujimura rushed to the door, missing it by a foot, but she made it inside.

"Yes! Made it on time! Yay!" Taiga pirouetted joyfully. The Human Jet Coaster didn't jet coast herself into the floor today.

I'm going to take attendance now!"

Later that day, Issei was eating lunch as Shirou fixed the Art Club stove.

"Emiya, you better hurry and eat before the lunch break ends and you have to go back to class," Issei warned Shirou.

"It's okay, I'm just about finished," Shiriou continued his repairs.

"I can't believe you're not only fixing heaters, but also personal items for other people."

"Like they say, in for a penny, in for a pound," Shirou kept working.

"Ugh, I know you like being Mister Nice Guy, and being helpful is great, but you should really learn to say "No" sometimes. You take "turn no one away" way too far."

Shirou frowned, "Hmm, do I look that unprincipled to you?"

Issei turned away from the table and looked at Shirou. "Look, you're opening yourself to be taken advantage of by the inconsiderate. You could think about turning people down every once in awhile."

"I'm afraid not, Issei. What's wrong with helping others? As heir to a temple, you shouldn't think that."

"Emiya, I'm just saying that you take it too far," Issei scolded him. "If you keep going like this, it'll burn you out!"

"Thank you, that's dually noted," Shirou finished his work. "There! I'm all done!"

Later that day, Shirou sat in Rachel Roth's mythology class.

"Shirou, read the next paragraph please," Raven instructed him.

"All right," Shirou stood up.

"But Arthur sprang to his feet in a great fury, drawing his sword and shouting in defiance at king Pellinore, who whereupon came down from his horse and drew his own sword. Then began a fierce battle, with many great strokes; they hacked and hewed at one another, cutting pieces off their shields and armor, and suffering each of them so man wounds that the trampled grass of the pavilion was stained with red. They rested once, and charged each other again: but their swords met with so mighty a crash that Arthur's broke in two, leaving him with a useless hilt in his hand."

"Thank you Shirou," Rachel told him. She continued speaking.

Shirou had always enjoyed the class because it was about historical heroes. Even if the reports were long and the books could be rather slow. The stories that he found interesting he would devour quickly.

Later that evening Shirou was walking up the hill towards his house. It was late and there was no one out.
He glanced up, startled by the sight of someone at the top of the hill.

There was a little white-haired girl smiling at him. Shirou thought it was odd that a little girl would be out so late at night.

Shirou kept walking, she passed by him, but not before he caught sight of her smile that sent a shiver down his spine.

"If you don't summon yours soon, you're gonna die, big brother!" she said in a serious voice.

Shirou gasped, turned and looked back, there was no one there, he was alone.

When he got home, Taiga Fujimura lectured him. "You should really come home early at times like this. Weren't you listening to me in homeroom?"

"Well, um, I had to do some errands," Shirou explained.

Taiga sighed, "Don't tell me you were trying to help someone again! You're a lot like Kiritsugu, trying so hard for others, and it makes me worry about you."

"Excuse me, Miss Fujimura?" Sakura asked. "I have been wondering if Shirou has always been this way."

"Yeah," Fuji-nee replied. "For as long as I've known him, as you can see, Shirou can't turn away anyone who's in trouble, I guess that's his personality."

"To help the weak and crush the strong!" he used to say. When he was younger Shirou wrote, "My dream when I grow up is to become a hero of justice!" It was quite an essay!"

Sakura gasped, clapping her hands, "Sounds like he was amazing when he was young too!"

"Well you can chalk that up to Fuji-nee," Shirou let his annoyance show. "When kids are around immature adults, they try not to follow them too close."
Shirou gestured at her with his hand, "Now if you don't agree with me, then cook your own damn meal for once."

Taiga gasped in mock horror, "Wha-?" she feigned crying. "You bring me to the brink of tears!"

She slumped her shoulders, but perked up immediately, "Sakura dear! Refill please!"

There was a knock on the door, "Shirou can I come in?"

"Yes, Miss Rachel, the door is open," Shirou called to his teacher.

Rachel took off her shoes at the door, "Sorry, I didn't know I interrupted dinner."

"Please have some Miss Roth," Sakura offered her some food.

"Hello Fujimura, it's nice to see you," Raven greeted her.

"Now Rachel, I know you're a friend of Kiritsugu's but that doesn't mean you can give Shirou a free pass in his mythology class!"

"I'm tutoring Shirou in other school subjects, and not my mythology class," Rachel grinned.

"And which class is that?" Taiga queried.

"Your English class Miss Fujimura," Raven laughed.

"It's not fair; you're fluent in English, so you're giving Shirou a huge advantage!" Taiga whined.

"I'm fluent in English, German, Latin, Romanian, Ancient Sumerian, and Sanskrit," Raven continued laughing, "So you're right, it's not really fair."

After they finished eating, Taiga and Sakura left for the night. Shirou headed over to the shed with Raven.

They both sat down cross-legged. Raven always taught him in English, because he needed to learn to focus.
"Shall we begin?" Raven asked.

"All right, Trace On," Shirou nodded.

"Tracing basic structure. Now tracing basic materials," Shirou continued. "Altering structure, begin."
Raven watched as the mana glowed, tracing a path down his arm. Shirou touched the metal pipe.

"Component materials, strengthening," Shirou began concentrating.

The mana transferred itself from his arm to the pipe, it glowed normally, but something felt off.
It suddenly began to fizzle and turn an ugly bright orange color.

Raven felt his circuits break, that wasn't supposed to happen.

"Damn I failed again; this is so basic I can't believe I still can't do it! I'll always be a novice!"

"It took me years to learn how to control my powers, and you're not a novice, I've taught you plenty, but your natural talents are very difficult to learn, let alone master."
"This is so frustrating. I can't figure it out. How am I going to become a hero of justice?"

"It'll take time, but you'll get it." Raven leaned over his shoulder, "But I'm disturbed that your magic circuit keeps breaking, are you using your natural circuits?"

"I thought I had to create a new circuit every time I use my magic," Shirou looked over at her.

"And what are you using every time you make a new circuit?" Raven asked, his technique was both wrong and dangerous.

"My nerves," Shirou replied.

Raven took the pipe and hit him over the head with it, none too gently either. Raven hit him again twice, then three more times. She knew if Beast Boy were here, he would have laughed at them; it looked like it came straight out of a cartoon.

"Shirou! You're frying your body every time to activate your magic circuits?! Do you know how dangerous that is?! If I did that every time I had to use magic, I'd end up killing myself!"

"S-sorry, I was just trying so hard to do it I—" Shirou stammered, embarrassed and ashamed.

Raven patted his head affectionately.

"It's okay; you take this so seriously, take it easy. I'm going to open your magic circuits, and then we'll try this again."

"Rachel, do you have magic circuits?" Shirou asked curiously.

"No, I don't," Raven replied.

"You don't? But how can you use magic?" Shirou didn't understand, Rachel broke the rules of the world completely.

"I come from a dimension called Azarath, and the magic I was born with is vastly different from your own, because of my father."

The young mage was surprised.

"Azarath, but I thought that dimension was a myth, a realm filled with mana, buildings made of gold and streets of marble. Where pacifists meditate day and night in peace and serenity."

"Stand up Shirou, I'm going to open your magic circuits," Raven told him.
He stood up as she placed her hands on his shoulders.

Raven chanted, "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos."

"AAARRRGH!" Shirou screamed as he felt her magical power surging through his body, flooding his magic circuits with energy.
Raven let him go and caught him as he collapsed.

He was breathing hard for a minute. Then she told him to sit back down and try again.

"Trace on!" Shirou concentrated.

He could see it in his mind, a beautiful golden sword.
"And let the energy flow through your entire body, feel your thoughts giving it power and form," Raven glanced over at Shirou. "Good Shirou, you've—"

The sword shattered and fell to pieces, "—almost got it."

Shirou watched the pieces vanish.

"You're focusing on strengthening when you need to focus on projection. Shirou, you've read the books I let you borrow?"

"I've read all of them, the knowledge is in my head, but when I try to apply it, it just doesn't happen."

Shirou sighed, "I'm a horrible student. I'm sorry I disappointed you, Rachel."

"Nonsense, over the last five years, you've mastered alchemy, runes, bounded fields, and structural analysis. Besides projection magic is a very specialized field and it's very difficult to master, most mages think it's useless, but they're wrong."

"How do you know so much about projection?" Shirou was amazed at her vast knowledge, it seemed to be limitless.

"Projection is my specialty," Raven held up her hand. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos."

A blade formed in her hand, made of pitch black energy.

He swung the pipe at her; she used her energy knife to block it.

"Amazing! It's not like a real sword at all! But you can still fight with it!"

"No, every time I use my power, I put a little of my soul into the object I move," Raven smiled. "Give it time and you'll be able to do projection magic soon, but I should examine you to make sure you're all right."

She ran her hand down his back. Shirou grunted in pain.

"How do you feel?"

"My left side's numb and my center of gravity feels off," Shirou replied.

"Consider yourself lucky," Raven told him, "I expected some necrosis. It looks like something that was closed has opened."

"Something that was closed has opened?" Shirou asked.

"Circuits you were supposed to use went dormant when you neglected them for so long, don't worry, the numbness will go away."

"When I suddenly flooded the circuits you weren't using with mana at full power, I essentially threw them into a state of intense shock. However, it means that those circuits are now active."

Raven pressed down on his spine and Shirou screamed. She saw his circuits glow visibly green as the mana flooded his body.

Shirou gasped.

"There, you should make a full recovery in a few days, and by that time, you should be a slightly better mage than you were before."

She glanced over at him, "And give projection magic a rest while you wait for the numbness to go way, then we'll do this exercise again Try it too early and you go numb again."
"Okay, got it!" Shirou told her. He was so relieved, he'd finally be able to do something with his magecraft.

"I have something for you," Raven pulled out what appeared to be an ordinary mirror.

"Take my hand," she instructed.

"What is it?" Shirou glanced at the mirror.

"It's a portal into your mind," Raven replied. Suddenly, he felt himself being puled inside somewhere.
Shirou landed on the ground hard, he climbed to his feet.

Before him was a vast hill, swords as far as the eye could see. They were embedded in the sand. There were so many, from various eras and in different shapes and designs.

"Huh?" Shirou asked himself. He turned to Raven.

"Rachel, is this…a reality marble?" Shirou stared at the vast landscape in awe. Could they really be inside his mind?

"No Shirou, this is a mirror for meditation, it's a portal into the mind, but it's not a reality marble. It's not a forbidden spell that manifests the caster's inner world; rather, the mirror pulls its user into their inner world from the outside. This mental landscape doesn't encroach on reality."

Shirou glanced at her, "But why is mine a hill of swords?"

"Only you can know that, before you do your training, I want you to meditate. It will help you focus. The mirror I'm giving you is yours; please remember it's not a toy."

"I see, why would you give me this?" Shirou was curious.

"Because you have a lot of issues to deal with, and many of them are mental Shirou. If you want to become a hero, you have to come to terms with yourself, and you still haven't done that yet."

Shirou felt confused. "I don't understand."

"You'll understand eventually, Shirou, don't rush yourself with things."

"All right," he smiled.

"Let's stay here and meditate for awhile. They sat down began to meditate.

The sound of "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos," echoed through the mental landscape, and Shirou let himself relax.

Shirou wondered why he couldn't find that golden sword he'd seen in his mind earlier.