"You will not take her there! We have not finished!" Saber shouted.

Rin's lip twitched. "We have finished!" she growled, holding Sakura's corpse close to her breast. The Grail above them began to bubble over with liquid curses wrapped up with the bitter light of words Rin dared not look at. An innocent life had manifested it too early. It thirsted now. Thirsted for the essence of Servants, and something more.

"Is that really your Grail?" Archer asked, finding a place behind Rin with enough space to draw back his bow.

"That 'Grail' would not pass muster in our own world," Red said, landing behind Saber.

"Master," Saber demanded.

Nier shook his head. "That thing killed Yonah."

"That is the Grail! It will grant your wish!" Saber pleaded with her Master. Her words fell on deaf ears. The boy glowered at the cup in the sky above him. His lip quivered, yearning that such a thing could actually grant a wish.

"Archer, take me to it," Rin said softly. She knew what awaited her and swallowed hard.

Archer allowed her on his back. With a massive leap, he headed skyward.

"Rin! You will not destroy the Grail!" Saber roared.

"Saber, stop…" Nier asked.

Saber launched herself towards Rin and Archer, her invisible Excalibur drawn.

"STOP!" Nier screeched, "I command you, stop. Stop. STOP!"

Beneath her, Nier recoiled, clutching his hand as he burned through three Command Seals.

Saber felt back to earth, her cheeks burning red with frustration.

"Emil. Lean on my shoulder and look straight ahead," Weiss said. "Open your eyes!"

Emil did. Looking straight ahead, he saw a woman with an invisible sword straining to strike upward. He could smell the crackling magical energy as Saber fought back against her commands. Under his gaze, Saber seemed to be moving underwater. Weiss reached back to hold Emil. His grip was hot and wet, but weak. Emil smelled more blood than salt and ash.

"But she's with us…" Emil protested, not shifting his gaze.

"Not if she wants anything to do with that thing. That belonged to Red Eye and Legion."

A shadow flew above Saber's head, and a moment later, the power that Nier's words had over her broke. Emil followed her but shut his eyes as soon as he caught a glimpse of another Servant's claws. It was Red, Emil thought, and her Rider and Master would not be far. Without seeing the protective bubble Illya could cast, he dared not risk turning a Master to stone.

Saber jumped up again towards Rin and Archer, ignoring Nier's pleas. This time a dragon tackled her to the ground.

"Silly king," Red mocked, "A prince is wiser than you."

The Grail's curses landed on the ground behind the dragon, glistening with haunted words. What little plant life had erupted from the concrete turned brown and shriveled as it approached. Slowly it oozed towards Rider and Saber. Red lifted her tail as the curses approached and wrapped her talons tightly around the other Servant. On Red's back, both Kainé and Rider squirmed, anxious to wet their blades.

"I'll hold Saber," Illya volunteered, summoning her wirework doves once more. Saber was nearly spent as it was, with such a poor Master. It was not the finish Illya wanted for a fight so many years in the making. "Rin will destroy it from within. You must destroy it from without."

As Archer reached the highest point of his leap, he pulled Rin from his back and into his arms. Her heart leapt in her throat, more from how he looked at her in this moment than the feeling of gravity pulling them downward, and now towards the Grail.

In the precious seconds they had, Archer whispered to her, "If this Grail could grant wishes, I want you to find your 'Shirou.'"

He kissed her. The moment could have lasted a lifetime. It might as well have. There was no way back. The way forward would be short and bleak. As soon as they broke the accursed surface of the overflowing Grail, Archer disappeared and left Rin alone.

Rin grabbed the gems in her pockets by the fistful and took a deep breath. She had never felt a pain like touching the Grail's curses. The liquid burned through her clothes like fire, but fire could at least sear her nerves and the pain would go away. The Grail swallowed her up. Rin felt like her lungs would burst, trying to repress her screams of agony and the choir of words that itched around her mind and implored her to give in to their promises.

Rin unleashed an onslaught. She threw her gems, hoping that they would destroy the Grail from within. The flicker of their entrapped magecraft against her eyelids told her they hit something, before the Grail's curses scorched through her eyes and left everything truly black. Rin heard something reverberate from outside the grail and expended every magic circuit within her to create a destructive force to reach it. She went deaf, only able to feel the vibrations around her. Then she could not even feel that. Rin strained against her ruined body for every atom of power she could bring against the Grail.

And then Rin felt nothing, except that her world had turned upside down. Her world turned from black to white.

7 seconds later- Nier

"…r."

"…ier."

"Nier!"

Nier opened his eyes. He was alive but something else was tugging at him ineffably.

"Kainé," Nier said slowly, slowly realizing who stared down at him, and whose lithe arms cradled him.

"You fucking bitch, don't do that to me again!"

"Do what?"

"Fucking die on me."

"Why would I?"

Nier looked around as best as he could, not sure if he might have actually died after all. Not far away, he saw Saber sitting in the field. He remembered the whole area being filled with rubble, then with curses dripping down like hot tar. Now, everywhere the Grail's essence had touched, white flowers erupted from the naked concrete. No, they were more than white, they were luminous. Yonah was in there somewhere, Nier thought. A giant, full-moon seed had swallowed Yonah before it turned into the Grail. The Grail wept curses blacker than a moonless night. Now they were white again. Saber plucked a flower from in front of her and looked at it sadly.

"Saber, you're still here?"

"For now."

"You can't stay?"

Saber shook her head. Nier felt the truth even without words. She needed his mana to exist without a Grail. He did not have much for her to survive on. What was more, he had failed to secure her wish.

"These flowers came out of the Grail. Couldn't they…?"

"Nier. What would you expect? 'It is, It is not. It is, it is not,'" Saber chanted, pulling a petal from the flower with each phrase. Saber's eyes grew wide.

"It is," Nier said. Saber must have expected a six-petaled lily. The Grail's tears had only five.

Saber smiled. She held her flower with its single remaining petal to her chest. "You think I can have my wish, without a Grail?"

"I know it. Someday. Somewhere."

"A true leader needs that hope," Saber sighed. She began to fade, blown to pieces by the slight wind.

"Saber!" Nier called out, but all he saw in return was the Servant's fading smile. The sight cut deeply. In one day he had lost Yonah with a scream, now Saber in silence. His breath hitched hard in his lungs.

"Hey," Kainé whispered, "It's OK. She'll be back."

Kainé plucked another flower from the field and tucked it in her hair. Its paleness brightened her face, bringing a supposed innocence to someone whose two hands preferred serrated swords and killing Legion. Probably more than Legion, if they crossed her.

Nier nodded. He looked around, taking in the sight. Flowers in front of him, where there were once ruins. The crumbling remnants of Tokyo beyond. Legion had clamored towards them moments before, but now were nowhere to be seen. Here, there was life and newness.

"Kainé, will you stay here? With me?"

"With you? Fuck yeah."

7 days later- Illya

Illya sat down at a long table, her notes set neatly in front of her. By now, her partners in Hamelin and the Japanese government did not even look askance that her feet did not touch the floor when she sat at the same table as them. She kept her expression flat. None of them would ever know that a mere week ago, a war had taken place under their own noses.

"Hamelin will be pulling out of Tokyo. Legion activity is down 80%, and their actions have been less centralized as of late. We expect only a nominal force will be able to mop up the rest," said one.

"How does that influence Project Gestalt?" asked another.

"It doesn't," Illya answered firmly. "This Red Eye is gone but I can guarantee there will be another. WCS rates have only increased locally. We must have more funding."

"More!?"

Always more, Illya thought, swinging her legs idly in her conference room chair. She should have been glad that the Matou family was extinguished from the Grail Wars, should she unlucky enough to somehow encounter a third in her lifetime. If not, the Tohsakas seemed unlikely to fund an heir. The Einzberns seemed guaranteed a victory the next time, with so few prominent families in the running. Only more reason to focus on Project Gestalt. She had seen promise of the Third Magic made manifest a week ago. Illya would make sure it was truly realized before there was another Grail War.

"We will need three billion yen at a minimum for the next five years."

"Billion!?" a man balked, nearly spilling his tea as he stood up, "Where would we—"

"Take it from your American friends. Surely Hamelin can squeeze so little blood from even that stone, given our latest success?"

The man scoffed. Illya leaned in. His 'friends' would have to come through. The Einzbern foundation was tied up in too many other ways in Europe. The closest she had to friends could not help, at least in funding. Rin had taken Number Seven back to Fuyuki on Illya's request. Nier and Kainé were still in Tokyo, but cared for little except caring for the beautiful white flowers left behind in the Grail War. Weiss had rejoined Hamelin in another unit of survivors scavenged from the field. Illya could find Weiss easily, when she needed to. She did not need him yet.

"If you don't fund Project Gestalt, Japan loses. Europe and the USA will find their own solution and put themselves first, as they always do. If their billionaires will pay to be first in line for a cure, let's have their money come to Japan."

Whispers erupted through the room. Illya wished she had Berserker at her side. With him, there would be no question on who to obey. She might have a true friend in this room.

"Miss Einzbern. One billion, and Project Gestalt must raise the rest privately. Any further fundraising from us must be put to a vote."

Illya would not let this chance slip away. The Third Magic depended on it. Humanity depended on it. "The fighter jet that slew a dragon, right before we first discovered WCS… how much did that cost? And the damage caused by the giant which appeared in Tokyo? The one the dragon killed?"

More whispers. All the men and women around Illya looked at her like she was not a little girl, but an indomitable giant.

Illya smiled.

7 years later- Emil

"… With the latest Replicant victory over Legion, local officials expect parts of Tokyo can be resettled as soon as 2034. And now, the weather. We can expect an unseasonably warm week in Fuyuki…"

Emil switched off the radio. The weather report mattered little when Emil had a myriad of things to occupy himself with within the Einzbern castle outside Fuyuki. Such as now, Emil thought, his fingers resting softly on the yellowed ivory keys of a grand piano. He opened his eyes, studying the sheet music in front of him. He had an hour, Emil expected, before his command of magecraft failed. An hour to study the score in front of him before his eyes overcame his skill and everything would threaten to turn to stone.

Illya had been pleased with his progress in the past seven years. She would be even more pleased when she next returned from Tokyo, Emil thought. The closer it came to the end of his apprenticeship, the more at ease he had become with magecraft, the more he was able to expand and invent without the oversight of the Einzbern homunculi. All the same, Emil knew it wasn't for Illya's sake he studied so hard.

Four years ago, he could not see the world with his own eyes for more than a second. Three years ago, he was up to a minute before the effort exhausted him. Two years ago, five minutes. Last year, half an hour. Emil's apprenticeship would end in three years. How long would he be able to see Weiss' face then? A memory of a smell of salt and ash had carried him for so long.

Emil stretched his fingers across the keyboard, rolling through chords he could not quite hit all at once. Seven years, and he had grown as much as Illya and the homunculi servants and the prototype androids that had recently joined the estate—that is to say, not at all. His hands drifted over the piano keys in a soulful rubato.

Rubato, Emil thought. He stumbled over a passage and restarted more slowly. Robbed time. He still had no memory before seven years ago and the Grail War. Had he stolen time for himself, or was it stolen from him? Surely Weiss would know him when they met again. Emil imagined once meeting a boy not unlike himself. Perhaps now the Hamelin boy would be a man, have started growing a beard, have grown broad shoulders and muscles like all the Fuyuki boys that Emil glimpsed on the rare occasion he went into town with open eyes.

"Emil, I thought you were going to tell me when you were going to practice again. My sister and I wanted to sing with you."

Emil closed his eyes. He caught a glimpse of the android, enough to know it was an android and not a homunculus from her red hair. She swayed slightly, and smelled strongly of alcohol. Someone had gotten into the Einzbern wine cellars again.

"Oh, sorry. I wanted to make sure I got it right first," Emil said.

"In that case, I'll check back later. We have time."

We have three years, Emil told himself. He laughed. Three years in a place where time meant nothing at all. He could wait a thousand years if he needed to, to see Weiss for the first time. He kept on laughing.

?- Rin

Rin walked through empty streets, in a Tokyo that was no longer Tokyo, on an Earth that was not Earth. She held a black flower in her hand, and a song in her heart.