New Friends

Emiya stiffly walked into the house under the woman who could only be Irisviel von Einzbern. The mother of his older sister and the wife of the man who orphaned and raised him. She'd not blinked once since he'd projected his old home, the one he'd left for Sakura before following the same path as his father.

He also ignored the two small groups who were standing just outside of the blade works. One was waiting patiently for his instructions as the most senior Counter Guardian and the other more than likely wanted his head for one reason or another. He didn't want to think too deeply about the second group right now, especially not about their leaders.

'Fuck. Did they see Caliburn or Excalibur?' His thoughts were a mess even without the meeting of his 'family' on the apparent agenda for the day.

"Pardon the intrusion." Okita said, following behind him as she let her shoes fade into motes of prana. The red and black armored dress Emiya had made for her to welcome the young alter to the counterforce and separate herself from the original Okita still looked worn out. He'd have to fix that when he got the chance.

Her golden eyes still held no true inflection, remaining almost hollow like another kohai of his. She had never been particularly expressive, watching your entire timeline be erased because Alaya had decided to find out how your original would have turned out if you weren't sick would kill most of your desire to express yourself.

He'd done his best to shield her from the worst of Alaya's missions, along some of his kinder 'subordinates', but eventually she was called to erase those that would endanger the future of humanity.

Emiya shook his head as he dismissed his armor and boots, leaving him in a black shirt and some soft and loose pants. He walked straight into the living room, and flopped face first into the mat on the floor.

So he was tired, sue him.

It was not because he had no idea whatsoever on how to start what he could feel in his bones would shape up to be the most awkward conversation he'd ever had.

It was peaceful for a minute as the others settled around the living room, Okita choosing to sit in seiza and wait with her hair out of her braid for the first time since they'd met and her semi sentient blade at her side.

The air was heavy. Expectant. They were all waiting for him to get up and start but he was feeling pretty comfortable face down on the tatami mat.

Comfortable enough to actually sleep for the first time since he became a counter guardian actually.

Here in his reality marble, at the seat of his power, he was finally at ease.

No more endless missions.

No more senseless killing.

No more being summoned to kill over and over.

No more being torn to shreds and resummoned as a body for a meat grinder until his mission was complete.

It finally hit him, something that he'd refused to think too deeply about.

All of that time, using his summons as a chance to dive through time and find his world. To find the boy who would become Counter Guardian Emiya, and erase his entire existence from memory and history.

It was all useless.

Because he was free.

It was this last thought that lulled Emiya into the land of Morpheus for the first time in this new life, safe with his vigilant adoptive father and dependable kohai nearby.

After all, constant missions that stretch all across time don't really offer much in the way of a rest period, he hadn't slept without being knocked unconscious since he'd been executed so long ago.

He would deal with his family later, he had all of the time in the world now.

From this moment forward, Emiya was on vacation.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I'm booooored!" TOHSAKA whined as she rolled back and forth on the broken ground of Emiya's reality marble.

Seated on the ground next to the debt-saddled woman, Fujino Asagami sighed in annoyance as she brushed her purple hair out of her eyes, only to recoil at the new ticklish sensation. Glaring down at her hand that had given her such a thing, she threw her body back to sprawl across the ground. It was annoying for her, to suddenly have the capacity to feel any kind of sensation across her body.

Sakamoto Ryouma waved his hands helplessly, flummoxed by TOHSAKA's exaggerated reaction. "I'm sure we'll get this all figured out soon." He gently sat down against a large buster sword planted into the broken ground of the reality marble and placed his white hat over his eyes to bask in the peaceful night sky he'd suddenly found himself in. "And if we don't, then doesn't that mean your debts are void?"

Aqua eyes snapped open.

"EEEEEEEEEEE!"

"Ugh!" The distorted and cracked form of Emiya Alter recoiled at the sudden loud noise from where he was seated on a broken piece of a monolithic sized cog, only managing to avoid putting an origin bullet through the strange woman's skull because Jeanne managed to grab the gun with her gauntlet-covered palm just after it formed in his hands.

"I don't believe she's done anything to deserve that fate just yet." Her words differed from the put upon expression only an older sibling dealing with their younger sibling could understand. She sighed as she casually crushed the half formed weapon from where she was seated next to the tall short haired amnesiac.

"I do believe this will not end anytime soon, dear Jeanne." The black haired man in armor standing guard beside the two seated guardians.

"Gilles, why must you do this to me?" Her purple eyes bored into the innocently whistling man who refused to leave his best friend's side.

"Umu! It is always good to express oneself through the arts!" A blonde woman in a rather revealing armored red dress said, nodding to herself, adjusting the steel crown with three knots wrapped around her neck subconsciously. "I shall join her in her most passionate song!"

"Do that and I'll kill you." Shiki Ryougi said casually as she flopped down onto the large flat cog piece under her, her hands placed in her small red jackets pockets and her black yukata swaying gently in the wind with her hair. "Boss'll figure things out in a bit, till' then, just relax and be quiet."

"Um! Why must you get in the way of my performance?!" Nero Claudius demanded as she huffed and stomped her feet, sending her skirt flying among the wind. "All of Rome would come to see my spectacles!"

"Your voice sounds like a legion of cats dying while scratching a chalkboard." Shiki casually destroyed any semblance of pride the Roman Emperor had in her voice before closing her eyes once more to rest in the peaceful world of blades.

"Waaag!" Nero crumbled under the vicious assault leaving Shiki the victor.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"My lord!" Bedivere said as he kneeled before the numerous forms of his king, along with a good deal of his comrades.

Lancelot was kneeling next to the beautiful young knight whom he had murdered the day of her knighting in a madness brought on by the witch Morgan.

"I am prepared for your word, your majesty." Agraivan kneeled next to Bedivere, his expression as bland as it had always been. At his side was the semi restrained Gawain, the knight of the sun had to be restrained in order to not strangle the illicit lover of Queen Guinevere.

"What are your orders?" Sir Kay stood next to his little sister and king, his scar only half visible under the strange world's moonlight.

"We will rest here for the night." The eldest among the forms of Artoria Pendragon, the once and future king of Britain. The one to wield the pure form of Rhongomyniad rather than the leader of the wild hunt beside her.

"Kay, could you go hunting?" The youngest of the five, the only one to wield Caliburn spoke to her older brother. "We need a lot of food."

"Whatever you say, cub." The scarred one eyed man said as he drew his blade, calling her the name he'd given her once she'd fallen sick as a child and carved her a small misshapen lion charm to get better.

"Tristan. Galahad. With Kay." The blackened form of the leader of the wild hunt called, her golden eyes staring off into the distant stars alongside the king of Camelot and wielder of Excalibur.

"Mordred. Gahris. Gareth. Percival. The borders first." The blackened tyrant wielding Excalibur Morgan ordered, her tone distant and cool. "Our host is honorable despite his words to the contrary. As long as we do not break the peace we shall have shelter."

"He's sleeping." The youth wielding Excalibur muttered to herself, her hair out of her bun and swaying gently in the wind. She spun around, ignoring her knights and alter personas to make her way towards the house up the hill.

The other knights looked up to watch the large full moon of the reality marble slowly be covered by small white clouds.

"What does that mean for us, your majesty?" Palamedes asked quietly, his helmet firmly on his head signifying how serious he was taking this. His ebony hair fell freely down his back and his armor glinted blue along with the cursed spear on his back.

"It means the first to break the peace dies." Saber Alter called behind her dispassionately as she made to follow her other, her black dress swaying softly with every step "This world will erase every sign you existed. Do not give it a reason to do so."

"Do not provoke the others, I will secure an alliance." The pure woman who wielded Rhongomyniad called behind her calmly, walking up the hill with the blackened form of the leader of the Wild Hunt beside her. "Settle a patrol schedule between yourselves, do not let your guards down. There are too many enemies, old and new, all around us for us to make a mistake."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

KNOCK KNOCK

Illya perked up from where she'd almost fallen asleep on her mama. She could see Papa beside Shirou and the strange woman who looked like Papa and Shirou standing up holding a huge gun out of no where.

Chloe followed behind the two, holding Shirou's swords, ready for anything. Illya held tight to her suspiciously quiet Kaleido stick Ruby up and prepared to fight.

A beam would erase most of the house and wake up her big brother at the same time.

And then a few pretty big sisters walked in along with the super scary saber Chloe beat by possessing her body and absorbing Shirou's card.

All five of them sat on the other side of the table from her stupid sleeping big brother with Papa and Mama next to him. The strange woman who looked like Papa and Shirou was leaning on the wall behind them back in her super pretty red dress that looked like the armor Chloe and Shirou wore.

"Hello, Kiritsugu. Irisviel." The one with long hair and no braid or ponytail said as she sat in proper seiza. "It's been some time, hasn't it?"