Rin could not ignore the sharp spike of mana being drained from her by Archer.
Even in the midst of her sleep, she wouldn't have.
And at the unholy early hour of 8 am, Rin was forced awake by her Servant doing battle.
She could feel the burn of her circuits as they opened to supply the needy Archer.
"Wha-" she sleepily said.
It was a Sunday, she remembered through the dense fog of her tired mind. No school.
She should sleep.
Rin dove her head back into her fluffy and warm pillow.
'Archer,' she complained. 'Stop that.'
Sleep secured, she went back to sleep, held in the kind embrace of her bed who most certainly wasn't a surprising rude Servant version of her crush, the school's local poster child for being a selfless good boy.
Only to jolt back up as Archer invoked a massive amount of energy, forcing her circuits to open even further.
It was like a slap in the face and despite being rather rude, it certainly caused her to wake up further.
'What?' she said, glancing at her clock.
8 A.M.
Sunday.
Way too early to be awake. She wanted to sleep until noon or maybe one, if she was lucky.
But her bond to her Servant was drawing power like he was fighting.
But it was too early for battle.
She should sleep-
Wait!
Was someone attacking? In broad daylight?
Mortal threat motivating her more than the delightfully sinful beckoning of Morpheus, Rin fell out of her bed, scrambling to find something better than pajamas to wear.
She needed to be presentable—
Wait, where was Archer?
As Rin ran to her closet, only stumbling a few times and she most certainly did not knock over a chair and her lamp while putting on her in-door slippers, she dove into her familiar bond to perceive through the senses of her Servant.
And found herself in what must be the most horrible place on Earth.
It was dark, it was full of mist, and it smelled.
And out of everything, it was simply smelling the room through Archer's nose that woke Rin up like a bucket of ice water to the face.
Figures that it would be her Archer to do something like that. Even if he was younger and closer to her date zone now.
'Where are you!?' Rin demanded as she took in the battlefield. 'How is someplace like this even in Fuyuki?'
She could sense two other Servants near Archer. One was flying besides Archer and was the boy who had handed over Kotomine to her.
And the other was some girl who was bouncing around, cutting down—
Ugh. Crest worms.
Disgusting.
And they made the pictures of the creatures which she had studied to look nice and she had scrounged up her nose when she first saw them.
'Ah, morning Rin,' Archer greeted her almost conversationally. 'Did you sleep well?'
"What are you doing?" she demanded out loud as well, as she grabbed a jacket from her wardrobe.
She might be regrettably awake, but she certainly did not need to be cold.
'Rescuing Sakura,' Archer replied as the boy Servant next to him suddenly stopped firing.
Rin froze in the middle of putting her jacket down.
'SAKURA'S THERE!?' She screamed into his mind, causing Archer Lily to wince as he stopped shooting Noble Phantasms too. 'Where? Rescue her, right now! Do everything you can to save her!'
What was Sakura doing there? She was a Matou, they should be protecting her from even being close to a place like that!
Forget getting dressed. Sakura needed her!
Rin cut the sensory sharing as she ran out of her bedroom, nearly hitting the wall as she turned corners in her haste, not even noticing that she still had her jacket in her hand.
Sakura was in danger. Sakura needed her. She had to save Sakura.
It was in that attire and attitude that Rin ran out her front door, only pausing long enough to put the jacket on so that she could free up a hand in order to pull open the front door.
'Emiya!' she demanded as she ran down the hill towards the Matou mansion. 'Tell me what is going on!'
'Zouken Matou is threatening everybody in Fuyuki, so me and Gilgamesh came to stop him,' Shirou told her calmly. Although the reason for him being calm might just be that he was rather distracted with his battle.
Realizing that, Rin flipped all of her Magic Circuits on. If Shirou was saving Sakura, then he needed all the power she could give him.
'Who cares about him!' Rin flared as she ran at full speed down the slope. It felt rather like falling. 'What about Sakura?'
'He threatened to use the Crest Worms he implanted in Sakura to kill her if we do not retreat.'
Falling's maximum acceleration from gravity was approximately 9.8 meters per second per second if you managed to remove drag coefficient of the air.
That was too slow.
She needed to be there, with Sakura now.
Rin let herself fly down the hill, every step feeling like she would fall over and tumble down, head first, down the hill.
'Then stop!' Rin commanded Archer. 'Don't let him kill Sakura. We can come back another time, when Sakura isn't in danger and after we have removed the Crest Worms in her.'
Crest worms in Sakura! That was—That was—
She didn't have the words for it!
'Lancer has already left to protect Sakura from his threat,' Shirou replied calmly with a grunt as his battle nearly distracted him from the conversation.
At that moment, Rin turned the corner and saw the Matou house down the street.
And two figures, one short and with a weapon staring towards the other, which was a greyish statue.
Odd, Rin thought as she got closer to the two. The statue looks like—
SAKURA!
* * *
Lancer Lily paid the utmost attention to how many milliseconds she kept her gaze on Sakura and exactly how much power left her while she did, all the while her heart beat to a nervous tempo.
Right now, she wished that she had her older self's Breaker Gorgon. If all they needed was to keep Sakura sealed away from Zouken, the Noble Phantasm would have helped a great deal.
But Lancer Lily figured that it wouldn't work. The worms were already inside Sakura and Zouken's soul resided in his worms. Breaker Gorgon wouldn't be able to separate the worm from Zouken because they were already part of Zouken.
As it is, petrifying Sakura felt like a tightrope. Not so strong as to render Sakura unable to return back to normal eventually. The effect would wear off over time if the person was not completely turned to stone. But not so weak that Sakura and the worms that were inside of her, would be able to act before being immobilized. Sakura's worms needed to be mostly stone and immobile, but still alive. If they died, then it would have been enough to kill Sakura too.
Lancer didn't like this tightrope. Both she and Sakura were on it and Medusa didn't want to die.
But Sakura was on the rope too and if Lancer made the rope too wobbly…
Sakura would fall off and die. And Medusa would soon follow without a Master.
So Medusa paid desperate strict attention, bending all of her focus and concentration on feeling her Master's life force slow down to nearly a halt through her bond to her Master while keeping her eyes under control.
Every moment had to be evaluated precisely. Every bit of power had to applied carefully.
But she didn't have much choice, Medusa grimly affirmed as she closed the flow of power from her eyes.
Sakura would die if Zouken could access her and the worms inside her. But Medusa would die if Sakura was turned completely to stone and it wouldn't help Sakura at all.
The only thing to do was to hope that her weaker Cybele, that wasn't up to nearly the strength of her future self, would be weak enough that it wouldn't kill Sakura instantly.
But she could still feel Sakura through her Master-Servant bond. Barely. Her Master was weak and in danger, on the verge of death due to Lancer's own eyes having nearly killed her.
But Medusa knew that if Zouken was able to control Sakura, then Sakura would die or Zouken would use Sakura's life as a form of control over the three of them.
And Gilgamesh was not one to be controlled, the goddess knew from legend and story.
Sakura would die either way.
And Medusa knew that she wouldn't be able to defeat Gilgamesh. The King of Heroes was too versatile and strong and she had seen her own Harpe among the weapons he had used.
That blade would enable him to kill her rather easily in an imagined clash between the two of them.
But now that Zouken's worms weren't threatening Sakura anymore, Medusa only had to pay attention to Sakura's recovery.
If Sakura recovered too fast, the worms would recover too. In which case Medusa would have to petrify Sakura again.
But if she petrified her too much, Sakura would die.
It was like pushing the tide to the shore. Push too long and the water washed away the sand. Push for too short of a time and the water would recede and the sand, which was both Sakura and the Crest Worms, would be exposed to Zouken.
Worse of all, this wasn't a cure. The Crest Worms would try to devour Sakura even if Zouken was dead. No, this was only a stop-gap measure meant to keep Zouken from making the situation worse while the Archers killed him.
After Zouken was dead except for the worms inside Sakura, then they could focus on getting rid of those worms.