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Fuyuki was burning.
Again.
Again again again again-
"SHINNNJIIIIIII!"
The blade of Servant Saber struck out at their opponents more violently than any before it, sending Rider and her pilot crashing into the nearest surface with a steel rending hurricane wind.
"Guh! Stupid machine, work... work, work, work, work better damnit!" Was all that could be heard from within the towering black and violet frame, beneath the bloodied ruin of what had once been the arcology's outer perimeter wall, reinforced to withstand sustained artillery fire.
A wall that Shinji had slaughtered the inhabitants of, all for the purpose of feeding the souls to his lovely engine of death.
An engine of death that was not having a fun time trying to move with all of the battle damage she had sustained, not with the non-existant energy supply from her pilot. Still, she had to try. She had no choice, for the bindings that held her spirit in the frame gave her no respite from the command protocol.
The grinding howl of gears and sparks heralded the rise of Servant Rider once more, unsteady upon her lean legs, pulling herself out of the rubble with both hands bracing the inner side of the fortress bulkhead.
Only to get nailed back down again, a three story shaft of mithril through the knee that brought her right back down again.
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"Target immobilized, Rin."
From within the stark and utilitarian chamber within her nameless machine, Archer, Tohsaka Rin took this as the time to celebrate. Or would have, if not for all the deaths that had taken place already.
Beneath the dim red lighting of his interior, Rin could only scowl with her increasing rage towards the boy who dared this. Dared to harm the people of the Fuyuki arcology, her territory, no matter what the circumstances were. The competition for the Grail Driver did nothing to justify Matou Shinji's atrocities.
Feeling the thrum of her prana feed into Archer's limbs, her senses synchronizing with his like any proper magus would with their partner, she took aim once more.
"Good. Then it's time we finished this. Emiya-kun won't be able to deal the final blow here, knowing him."
"Idealists rarely can."
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"Shirou, now!"
The pure white illumination of Saber's cockpit served now only to highlight the turmoil of Emiya Shirou, would be Hero of Justice. His friend was responsible for all of this, for the second howling of the superstructure's crisis sirens, for the first blatant civilian casualties of this war.
If he didn't end this now, then Rin would. And if Rin didn't, the Battle Mage's Bureau would turn around the Photonic Annihilation Cannon from the rear defense line outside of the arcology and finish the battle themselves.
But he still couldn't do it. He couldn't just kill someone like that, couldn't just betray his ideals that way-!
"Shirou, what are you doing?! Unlock the controls so we can finish them off."
... she was right. He had to do it. For all of them. Just...
The fire.
He couldn't betray his ideals. He couldn't just let that happen again. Ever.
Not as long as he could still move.
Not even if the villain was his best friend.
"... Saber. Initiate primary distortion drive."
"Acknowledged. Restrictions disengaged"
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Rider was compelled by the command protocol to get back up, even with that damage. And so she did, throwing her nail to intercept the next volley of arrows, expected this time, and used her other hand to tear the first off in half at the back. Stumbling, she could only avoid the third by drawing ever more deeply on the well of souls that fueled her frame, forcing the metal to self-repair as quickly as magic could make it.
None of this would have been an issue if it had been Sakura inside of her. Her kind, gentle summoner, not the wretched beast that polluted her interior with his breath, and couldn't even provide her with energy in exchange.
Another volley, only now Saber was beginning to get out of her defensive stance. If she suffered another attack like that-!
The wind barrier opened up once more, and she knew she had lost.
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She should have evacuated. Her grandfather had ordered her to evacuate, and she always did what he said. What choice did she have?
But her brother was out there. Was burning buildings, destroying streets, killing people... fighting Senpai, and her sis- Tohsaka-senpai.
In Rider.
He was losing so badly, in Rider.
Getting her so very damaged, all because of her. Because she refused to pilot in real battle, refused to go against her Senpai and si-Tohsaka-senpai, or cause all of this to begin with. She had no idea it would get this bad. That her brother could get this bad.
She wrapped her white jacket around herself again, shivering from the chilling gust of wind that had just overtaken the northern hemisphere of the arcology dome. Saber's great Distortion Drive, her Phantasm device. It was beyond any magical weapon she'd ever seen, and she knew quite a few from the tests her grandfather had forced her to participate in so the Matou family could fulfill the annual military quota.
If it was her in Rider, she wouldn't have to do all of this... Rider wouldn't have to fight like this, and she could have won if she did! Even if she wasn't worth anything else, she had energy to spare. Not like her brother.
And now Rider was going to be destroyed, because of her. Her loyal, protective Rider.
The crash echoed through the surrounding streets, and she couldn't bear it any longer. She knew she would die if she tried this. She knew she would, but she couldn't just stay in the faceless crowds, approaching the crisis shelters.
No matter what punishment grandfather would force on her after- no, she would die doing this.
She broke off before ArcSec could catch her, running as fast as the little reinforcement she knew would allow.
Down the streets, to what she was sure would be the first and final hurrah of Matou Sakura.
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"Matou Shinji... for your crimes against the Fuyuki Arcology, the penalty is death."
Emiya Shirou's mind was steel.
The sudden cries for mercy, for a trial, for anything other than this, by his former friend, fell on deaf ears.
Saber's invisible blade stood ready to unleash its torrent of air with all the force she could bring to bear, and all he knew he could do was follow through with the attack. The civilians were already out of the district, and the buildings this close to the arcology dome interior were sturdy enough to survive anything short of a direct strike. He would kill this one, to save the rest, and nothing bad would come of it beyond the blood on his own hands.
Except, there wasn't supposed to be someone climbing on top of the stumbling machine that their opponent was in.
The machine that was no longer struggling to get back up, to resist, as if the command protocol that Rider's pilot had forced on her no longer existed.
"SENPAI! Please, stop!"
Sakura?!
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Master?
Why?
Sakura didn't want to be in danger. She didn't want to put anyone in danger, but especially not herself.
Rider understood that. She'd accepted that. She wouldn't soil her gentle summoner with her blood soaked spirit. That was why she had done nothing to argue against Sakura giving her to Matou Shinji like this.
... so why would she risk her life like this?
"Just stop... Senpai, please."
Yes, the low whisper could still be heard by anyone piloting a Servant. The audio amplification was that good.
"My brother's done. He can't do anything now-"
Her former pilot smacked his hands against the interior, against the controls that no longer responded to his movements.
"You can't do this to me, Sakura! You can't just dump your worthless machine on me and then take it away!"
Rider turned off the audio output from her cockpit, so she could focus on her master.
On Sakura...
"Why?"
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"Saber! Stop the attack!"
His arms were struggling, mirroring the tension in his Servant's as he tried to disperse her Phantasm before it was too late-!
"I-I can't stop it now!"
"Then redirect it!"
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"S-Sakura? What the hell?! Archer, hold off on that last volley! Focus vision."
"Acknowledged."
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A titanic collumn of wind broke past the northern wall of the dome, and blew aside dozens of pieces of priceless automated war gear.
Rider was unscatched.
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That...
That was not as lethal as she thought it would be.
This was good. Right?
She wasn't just doing this as some elaborate suicide effort.
She wasn't, she wasn't, she wasn't-
"Why?"
Her thoughts froze, as she turned to look up at the unemotive face of her Servant.
"After all of this ..."
Sakura looked away, her face scrunched up in discomfort.
That's right. This wasn't a suicide effort. This wasn't her pitying herself, letting things just happen because she was a worthless, weak little girl.
She was doing this for her Rider.
"If this is what standing aside and doing nothing results in... I can't do that. I can't let you- can't get anyone else get hurt because of me. Not with Senpai, or Tohsaka-senpai, and everyone else trying so hard. Not..."
Saber's hand reached down to catch the violently ejected Matou Shinji as Rider's systems rejected his presence completely and utterly.
"WAAAAAAAH-!"
"... not when you're doing this for someone like me."
She looked back up to her Servant, her face still scrunched in pain, but resolute for the first real time in her life.
Sakura began making her way into the cockpit, to the velvet seat that would let her synchronize with Rider once more.
Let her body restore Rider's frame with prana.
Even if her sister, yes she could admit it now, was still taking aim at them from half a mile off using an elevated shuttle landing zone as a firing platform.
It felt so good, sinking into the material here.
-----------------
Rider's spirit was warm for a reason other than the mana reactors tearing into her ether to make the frame function.
If she had lips, she would have smiled.
"Welcome back, Master. We have a war to win."
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Synchronization complete.
Yes, they would survive this.
Together.
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- Giant Magical Robots
Originally Posted by Lycodrake
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