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Archer by Fencer22

Fate/stay night & Worm Xover Rated: M, English, Archer, Skitter, Flechette, Words: 150k+, Favs: 4k+, Follows: 4k+, Published: Dec 4, 2018 Updated: Aug 28, 2022

1,232Chapter 4

AN: Here we go the latest chapter to christen the new thread! Still don't own Worm or Fate. Hope you all enjoy! Please remember to leave a review if you like the story!

{}{}{}{} New York State Asylum for Parahumans; Three weeks after transfer

I closed my eyes and dragged in a long, slow breath of air through my nose. For a few seconds I simply stood there and savored the smell of grass and the feel of sunlight and wind dancing over my skin. I had been locked up indoors for a bit more than six weeks straight. The closest I got to being outside was the car rides between facilities. Until I'd gotten here, I'd also been almost completely confined to a single room. Being able to leave for meals and exorcise these past three weeks had been wonderful, but there was something unbelievably frustrating about knowing I couldn't go outside when I wanted to.

Now I was finally outside and it was wonderful.

"If you are done basking, we have actual work to do, remember?"

"... aaaaand you ruined the moment. Asshole."

"One hour. Tracing with velocity. Basics of archery. Practicing reinforcing your eyes when there are things far enough away to make it not pointless, if we have time."

"Yes, Archer, I remember the itinerary. That tree work as a target?" I asked as I directed my focus onto a tree about a hundred feet away.

"It will do. Once you get the hang of it, we'll want to aim for something a bit farther away than that. Still for normal bows and arrows, and while you are just learning, it's a good practice distance."

"You could have just said yes, mister worried about how much time we have."

At Archer's answering huff I tallied up a point for myself.

"Alright much as I'd like to learn Archery, being able to use trace bullet is more likely to save my life if I end up over my head up close. Let's start with that."

"Fair enough I've covered the theory with you extensively so you know what to do. Just try to keep the speed low for the first few so that you can get the hang of aiming, we don't need you stabbing yourself at ninety miles an hour."

"Yes, Mom." Archer started to sputter and I tallied up another point. He was so easy to rile up sometimes.

The first three attempts I flubbed badly and the throwing knives I traced just dropped straight into the dirt. The fourth attempt shot forward a few feet before starting to arc down to the ground. I growled when I noticed that despite the improvement the knife had gone about thirty degrees to the left of where I needed it to go.

"Don't get frustrated so quickly, Taylor. You are doing just fine."

"Right, right." I took a couple of breaths and refocused. "Thanks, Sensei."

Archers half hearted groan at my new term of endearment was amusing mostly because I could feel how pleased he was with the title. Honestly, I kind of preferred it to constantly calling him Archer anyway. I still called him Archer, and I was starting to call him Shirou a bit too now after listening to Doctor Yamada's explanations on how cape names could be dehumanizing. But whenever he started teaching, I liked to shift to calling him Sensei. It felt appropriate.

The fifth and sixth were closer to being on target but still off. I frowned a little, not quite understanding what I was doing wrong.

"You don't have to work out an exact angle. Just focus on where you want it to hit and enforce the idea of a straight line between point A and B."

Nodding I tried again. Lo and behold the knife was on target… though it did fall well short of the tree.

"Ok, that's direction more or less down, now for speed."

I slowly ramped up the speed until I finally had the knives whistling through the air at what must have been ninety miles an hour. I grinned viciously as I sank knife after knife into the tree all the way up to their handles. I wasn't defenseless anymore. Training had helped me lose a bit of fat that had been developing around my stomach and I had built up muscle at what I was sure was a ludicrous pace for normal humans, but learning to fight was slow going. This was something immediate that I could use to protect myself. This was proof that I was getting somewhere and that one day I would be truly powerful.

"Alright, good work, Taylor. Now try with multiple simultaneous weapons."

"You got it."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I spent a bare moment to picture twenty of the throwing knives hovering around me. I designated the tree as point B… and fired. The chorus of thumps and the faint chime of metal striking metal filled the air even as bark fractured and blew away from the tree as if it had been hit by a small explosion. I gave a little cheer and pumped my fist completely ignoring the startled yelp from the PRT trooper carrying a containment foam sprayer behind me.

"Nicely done, Taylor. Your grouping was very tight just now which isn't bad, however, there may be times you want to spread it out more so you can hit moving targets. We should also practice aiming for multiple targets simultaneously, and firing while moving. However, you have a good grasp of the basics now and we do have other things to practice."

"Right, right, oh man that was fantastic!" I cheered. "Ok, Ok I'm good. Next is archery, right?"

"You've got it. Give me control for a moment? I think you could handle the arrows, but I'm not sure about the bow just yet. We don't want something to snap and hit you in the face while you practice."

Nodding to myself I took that mental step back and let Archer assume control.

I paid careful attention as Archer slowly traced a longbow and six dozen arrows. I could tell he was dragging out the process of tracing them for my benefit so I could see how he did it.

"Alright, Taylor. I'm going to walk you through this a few times. Pay attention to my stance and form." Archer spoke aloud.

I sent him a mental affirmative and paid close attention to everything he was doing.

Forty minutes of grueling practice and pointers later. We were on our fourth tree and I was starting to get the hang of things. Archers latest insane demand was for me to 'walk' my shots up the trunk of the tree in a straight line. My arms were starting to ache and I could now perfectly trace a basic arrow. My shots were getting more accurate but my 'line' of arrows was more of a squiggle and a few of my shots had deflected off the sides of the trunk before disappearing into the woods.

"Miss, Hebert? Your hour is up, miss. It's time to go back inside." The trooper called over.

Groaning, I nodded and dismissed everything Archer and I had traced before turning to proceed the trooper back inside.

"You're doing fine, Taylor. Learning archery was always going to be harder than learning trace bullet. This isn't just mental it's physical as well. You need practice and muscle memory. You are progressing quickly."

"Thanks, Sensei. I guess after how easy the basics of trace bullet were, I just got cocky and expected the rest would be the same."

"It's fine Taylor. Remember we have time to train, there is no rush."

"Right, you're right. Thanks, Shirou." Like always using his original name caused an odd lurch in Archer's emotions. It was too many things together all at once for me to really follow, but he had heard the same lecture from Doctor Yamada I had so he at least didn't protest.

{}{}{}{} The next day

"I heard you had a productive time training outdoors yesterday." Doctor Yamada said as she opened our session. "Judging from how some of the trees looked I'd say I believe it."

"Ahh, well, sorry? I didn't really have anything else to use as a target and I guess I got a little carried away?" I admitted a tad sheepishly.

The Doctor shook her head but her amused smile made me relax. "I suppose that's our fault. You did tell us what you planned to practice after all. Though we will have to see about getting you a more acceptable target or we may lose half the forest." She teased not realizing that wasn't as outlandish as she seemed to think if Archer decided to show me a few of his trump cards. "How are your Japanese lessons going, Taylor?"

"Meh. I know a bunch of words now, but a lot of it still confuses me. It's very different, though at least there aren't six different ways to call everything like with some of the European languages."

"Do you speak any of those? French, Spanish?"

"No, nothing like that. Mom was an English teacher. I listened to a few of her rants about other languages. Though she did always say English was just as much of a mess in its own ways too."

"I'm afraid I'm not too knowledgeable about languages, but from what I do know that sounds accurate." She nodded. "How do you feel, about your training. You certainly seem to have put on a bit of muscle in a hurry?"

I glanced down at my arms and the developing calluses on my hands and smiled. I really was getting into shape pretty quickly, and I was very pleased with the results so far. I was never going to be a bombshell, not with my build. But I was quickly developing something between a runner and a swimmer's build. I couldn't really argue with the results. That bit of belly fat was almost gone and my legs had certainly never looked better.

"I'm feeling better than ever." I answered honestly. "More energy, more focused, confident." I shook my head bemusedly as I compared the me of today to the me from just under two months ago. What a difference a friend and some exercise could make. "I'm, well, I'm happy. Don't get me wrong I still want out of here… But no one is trying to grind me down, I've got Archer, Shirou, and he's actually helping me, and you and the other Doctors are doing the best you can without just taking me at my word. I mean, I get why you have to be sure and all, so I'm not really blaming you for that. It's just, it's been years since I've felt like this, and…" I shook my head not sure what else I even could say.

Doctor Yamada gave me one of her signature smiles. Genuine warmth wrapped in understanding and sympathy that somehow wasn't pity. Honestly the range of emotion the woman could convey in a smile always blindsided me. Did she practice those or did they just come naturally? Was that what made her so easy to talk to? Or was it just a trick of her own that she added to all the ones every therapist knew?

"I'm glad you're doing so much better, Taylor. And I know the staff all appreciate how cooperative and understanding you are."

I just waved it off. I really did understand why they needed to be careful with me. Especially when during one of my research expeditions through the internet I'd found out that Burnscar had been a former patient at a similar institute. It was still frustrating, but it really did highlight just why they had to be so careful about capes who showed serious mental issues. And much as I hated it my case had enough similarities to serious issues that I could understand their caution. Plus, I knew from Dad that bureaucracy was just slow as all hell. This was going to take time, but that was fine. I could be patient, and I'd just use the time to my advantage anyway. At least now I knew I was really getting somewhere.

"The past couple of years, I've felt… Stuck. Like I was running in place never getting anywhere. Now I feel like I'm finally moving forward. It's slow and frustrating. But I'm moving, and I'm building up momentum." I gave the Doctor a slightly goofy grin.

"Still set on the life of a crime fighter?" I only grinned wider in response. "Of course." She sighed. "Have you had any luck working out tactics that don't involve perforating your enemies?"

"Some." I shrugged. "Blunted arrows may work and I've worked out how to trace a bola."

"A bola?"

Nodding I traced the little weapon and gave it a twirl. A trio of rocks on the end of three strings all tied together might not look like much but it was a decent small game weapon. I hoped with practice I'd get good at using it to bind legs and trip people up. Yeah, they would wind up eating pavement when they fell, but really it was combat. People were going to get hurt and at least this way no one would end up getting stabbed. So, progress.

"Haven't quite got the hang of it yet, but it's definitely non lethal."

"I see, I'm glad you're taking this seriously."

"Of course. What kind of idiot would just run out and start blasting criminals?"

"A lot of capes do exactly that, on both sides of the law. It's particularly common with teenagers, which is what makes your restraint so refreshing."

I blushed, just a little, at the praise. That was something else that had been thin on the ground before my trigger, though I was getting used to it.

"I was thinking we might spend today's session thinking about long term plans for how you and Shirou might deal with your situation."

"Umm, I guess? But we're getting along alright so far. Aren't we?" The question was directed both at the Doctor and at Shirou.

"Don't look at me, I don't have any complaints right now." Shirou answered sounding as lost as I felt.

"Right now, your whole life revolves around training, learning, and resting. You interact with barely a handful of people. What about if you make a friend that you enjoy spending time with that Shirou can't stand, or vice versa? What about when you start dating, or if you wanted to enjoy a certain type of literature?" The Doctor asked with an arched eyebrow.

"Oh no! No, no, no, no! Taylor, make her stop! I refuse to be part of this conversation!" Shirou shouted in a panic.

I could feel my blush taking over my face at the implications. Dating someone? With Shirou sharing my senses, and feeling my emotions and, and, and! I buried my head in my hands and moaned. This wasn't something I had thought about. It wasn't something Archer had thought about. Damn it all it just wasn't right!

"Nope. That's it. I'm not staying to get yelled at. I'll be in my Reality Marble!"

And just like that his constant presence in my mind faded to almost nothing. The sensation was so strange after weeks of sharing my mind that it completely distracted me from my impending meltdown. Archer was just gone? Then he was back.

"Uh, so apparently I can duck into my Reality Marble. Honestly had no idea I could do that before now. Umm, problem solved?" Aaaaand he was gone again.

Groaning I thumped my head against the table. Repeatedly.

"Stupid, Shirou! Problem solved my ass! When he pokes his head out of there, I'm going to give him a piece of my mind! Took him how many freaking weeks to figure that out?! I could have been enjoying nice long showers instead of stupid military scrub downs, and he only figures this out now! When I get my hands on him!"

"Taylor?"

"That idiot is hiding in his Reality Marble!"

"His what?"

"Reality Marble, the Unlimited Blade Works, it's." I bit off what I'd been about to say. She didn't need to know about that. No one in this world would hunt us down for study because of it, but it was our trump card, and it might pay to keep an ace up my sleeve. "It's a sort of mental plane, with information about every bladed weapon he's ever seen, and I think a few shields, and maybe some clubs, and mauls, and well, you get the idea."

"I'm sorry, I don't think I understand."

Growling, I chained my irritation for later and dragged my full attention back to the Doctor. Holding up my hand I traced a regular old dart with striped red and black tail fins. Without even looking I chucked it at the dartboard off to my right. The muted thump confirmed that I was getting far too much practice with the damn things if I could do that without even looking.

"That's tracing. It's basically turning energy into a sort of fake matter. It doesn't last forever, but while it does it's real enough. Thing is, to trace something you need to understand it." I fixed the Doctor with a serious look as I stressed the word understand. "I need to know what it's made of, its exact dimensions, how it was made, how it has been used." I waved a hand trying to encompass just how much that was. "And I need to do all of that in an instant." I said, tracing another dart in under a second, holding it up for her to see. "The human mind just isn't meant to hold that much information simultaneously. And Shirou can do it with any simple weapon he has ever seen."

Doctor Yamada leaned back in her chair looking thoughtful. "So, it's a thinker aspect to your powers? A place where all that information is stored?"

"Basically, yeah."

"So how is Shirou able to hide inside of it?"

"I don't know! I don't even think he knows!" I shouted letting my frustration back out. I only just managed to catch sight of the barest twitch of Doctor Yamada's lips. Ugh, I suppose from the outside this must seem pretty funny. But I was the one dealing with it and I was so going to give Shirou a piece of my mind when he stuck his head out again.

"Still, this is at least something of a solution, or at least a stopgap. It wouldn't exactly be fair to Archer to ask him to isolate himself all the time. Then again even if it is frustrating for him it would be less awkward for both of you. What do you think?"

"It'll be enough for now." I answered a bit absently trying to plan out the rant I was going to subject Archer too.

"Yes, but what about in the future? You have a whole lifetime like this ahead of you."

"Not really, just until Shirou fades. Not that we have any idea how long that's going to take..." I couldn't fight off the wince. "Honestly, I've been trying not to think about that." I said sadly. Archer was my best friend; age difference and mentor role be damned. I couldn't just share my head with someone so willing to help me for weeks and not get attached. He had been my only real support after my trigger. The one person I knew would always be on my side no matter what, and someday I was going to lose him too. It was the one thing about my powers that I truly hated.

"Shirou is going to fade? What do you mean by that exactly?" Doctor Yamada asked seriously.

"You didn't know? I know I mentioned it at least once at the last place, but then they were really only interested in the answers to all their Master Stranger questions." I rubbed at my left arm, a nervous gesture I was trying to give up. "I've had Shirou in my head for six weeks. I can already trace weapons and fire them. I developed a decent level of skill with a bow in about forty minutes. I can reinforce my body a bit to push past my normal limits for a short amount of time." I listed off the skill I'd developed so far.

"The archery you might be able to chalk up to having a skilled instructor, but the rest?" I shook my head. "It's not everything Shirou can do, and I'm not half as skilled as he is with any of those things, but I'm learning at a rate which should be impossible. Tracing weapons the way he does took him years to master and I'm picking it up in weeks."

"What does that have to do with Shirou fading?"

"Because he's not exactly fading. He's being… he called it being subsumed. His skills, his knowledge, bits of his personality, I'm slowly absorbing them all. It's how I'm learning so quickly. Eventually there won't be anything left, and it will just be me. A heavily influenced version of me, but me."

"And you're alright with that?" She questioned.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't have a say in it. It's going to happen no matter what I do. I just have to try and hold onto the things that matter the most to me and hope for the best. Honestly there are worse role models to emulate. That's not exactly what's happening, but it's a good analogy. I think, if I can be less self sacrificing, and more willing to open up to others than him... Yeah, I could live with that."

"That's…" Doctor Yamada seemed to be having trouble finding the right words.

"It's crazy, and scary, I would be lying if I said I wasn't terrified I'll end up losing myself. But I can't stop it, well I could." I mimed slicing a line down my inner arm. Doctor Yamada's eyes shot wide open and her mouth opened to protest, but I waved her off. "I'm not suicidal, Doctor. Like I said, there are worse role models to emulate. I won't mind being more like him, confident, in control, powerful, willing to fight impossible odds to keep others safe? He has a lot of good qualities. I never gave up when I was being bullied, I won't give up now."

"I'm glad to hear that, but in the future please try not to scare your therapists like that. The idea of a suicidal patient who can make and launch blades is…" Doctor Yamada shook her head and looked extremely pale.

I winced and nodded. I hadn't really thought about it like that. It was supposed to be a dark bit of humor, but then for a psychiatrist I guess it was probably more like a flashing neon warning sign. Ugh, I bet I'd be under increased observation for a while.

"Sorry. My sense of humor is pretty rusty, and between spending so much time with Shirou and everything I've been through I guess it's gotten a bit dark." I shook my head.

Doctor Yamada nodded acceptance even though she was eyeing me much more carefully than before. Definitely going to be under increased observation.

"How does Shirou feel about this? About the fact he's dying, again?"

Ahh, well that was a tricky question. How much to tell her? How honest did I really want to be about all of this?

"You'll have to ask Archer directly sometime if you really want his opinion, but he's accepting it. I think. Being a Counter Guardian, that took a huge toll on him. He always wanted to save people, killing all the time like that… it made him hate his dream. I always get the impression he's happy to pass on his skills to me, but he's always reminding me to not make the same mistakes he did."

"So, he's trying to prepare you as best as he can for the future? I suppose that makes you his legacy?"

The question caught me completely off guard. I'd never really thought of it like that. It was always about getting ready for all the enemies out there waiting for me. I'd never considered how Archer might see me. Archer's legacy. Pride burned brightly into existence as that thought settled firmly in my mind.

"Yeah, I guess it does." I answered, with a proud smile gracing my face. The Doctor's answering smile was just as warm.

{}{}{}{} A few hours later.

Space in the gym was limited, but there was enough for me to practice with swords, and just enough to practice with a spear.

Shirou always pushed swords, especially the pair of married Chinese swords. Even after having more or less given up on teaching me his style he was still attached to those two blades. But I didn't have that emotional attachment to them. More to the point, the swords were short and heavy. I could swing my practice versions, but it was tiring, and their limited reach worried me. I needed a style of combat that kept opponents at a distance when possible. Like I had told Shirou there were some kinds of powers that no level of skill could compensate for. I needed to be fast and light on my feet, never letting opponents lay so much as a finger on me.

Light and fast, that was the key. Spears, rapiers, knives, katanas maybe. Katanas were fast blades, but with the focus on slashing they were still slower than thrusting weapons. In and out, attack and fade back. Constantly circling to slide around attacks and get the enemy in the side or back. Even without Archer's guidance I could manage to trace a simple spear, and was just good enough at sympathizing with the weapons history to get a feel for the basic stances and thrusts. So, I drilled them, again and again until my arms shook, and my legs ached.

Leaning against the wall I sipped my water.

Archer's style of combat was all about directing the fight, but that couldn't be how I fought. My opponents were too diverse and untrained for that to work. I had to be like wind or water, constantly moving, flowing around my opponents and always adapting. Like that one boxer said, float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. That was what I needed to be.

There were other more practical reasons for focusing on learning the spear as well. Spears were really just staffs with a point. If I could fight with a spear I could fight with a staff, and staffs were a lot less lethal in a fight. It would be a good weapon for taking down normal people without a lot of stabbing and bleeding. Yeah it was still pretty violent, but really what was I supposed to do? Ask criminals nicely to surrender?

Just the thought of it made me chuckle. Maybe once I built up a reputation that might work. Assuming the criminals weren't complete idiots.

I'd have to look into martial arts. I was sure there were at least a few out there that worked on the principle I was aiming for. At least some of those must have weapon components. Even if they didn't, I could hopefully adapt them to suit my needs. I was going to make the absolute most out of my abilities, and I wasn't afraid of hard work. It still might not be enough in close against some capes. Velocity for example was fast enough no style would really be enough for me to evade him. For opponents like that I would just have to be creative.

"Don't suppose you'd let me off with an apology?" Archer asked as his familiar presence flowed back into my mind.

"Don't know, are you planning to run away again if I don't?"

"Ahh, well…"

"I get that you didn't know you could do that, I don't have the slightest clue how you even managed it. But I'm still pissed! All those awkward moments and military scrub downs… I could have been taking actual long hot showers, Archer! Do you have any idea how much I've missed those?!"

"Well,"

"And where do you get off running away like that?! You just up and left me to deal with a bunch of stupidly awkward questions by myself you jerk! She got distracted for a bit by a few things, but I had to lie about what your Reality Marble! And then she still made me discuss strategies for not just shoving you out of my mind all the time!"

"Wait what was that about my Reality Marble?"

"Don't change the subject!" I shouted. "You still haven't even apologized!" I don't know what prompted me to try, and I didn't expect it to work, but I did my absolute damndest to convey a slap across my mind.

"Oww! How the hell did you slap me?!"

"How the hell did you hide inside the manifestation of your soul while inside my mind?!" I shot back. Partly because I had no idea how I slapped him and partly because I really wanted to know how he managed that.

"I don't know! Now how did you slap me?!"

"Hell if I know! And I'm still waiting for that apology!"

"Alright, alright! I'm sorry! Jeez, are you happy now?"

"No." I huffed.

"...Why aren't you happy?" He asked cautiously.

That took me a few minutes to work through. I was a bit pissed still. But time, exercise, and the fact I managed to slap Shirou had definitely taken the edge off.

"You left me on my own." I started slowly. "And Doctor Yamada and I ended up talking about the fact that you're being subsumed. Then, then you stayed in your Reality Marble all day. It's just, you've never been gone before, and it reminded me that one day…"

"Ah." He said awkwardly.

"Yeah." I grimaced and took a sip of water to distract myself.

"Does it really upset you that much?"

"You're my best friend Archer. And you've supported me through all of this. You're teaching me everything you know… and someday you'll be gone."

Archer's sigh echoed through my head as I wrapped my arms around my knees and leaned back against the wall of the gym.

"I'm sorry, Taylor. Of all the things I thought were unfair about this situation that never crossed my mind. I've been alone so long… The idea of people actually missing me once I'm gone is just…"

"Guess we're both pretty messed up, huh?"

"Yes. I suppose we are."

We didn't say much more to one another the rest of the night. Both of us had too much on our minds, and no idea what to say to one another. The consequences of long term isolation I suppose. Even now that we both had someone we could rely on, someone we could confide in, we just didn't seem to have the words. Though Archer only retreated into his reality marble long enough for me to have a proper shower. His now familiar presence helped to ease some of the tension that had been building all day. He might not be here forever, but he was here now.

It would have to be enough.