The Caster Sisters are "Halping". . . .

Earlier

Being they still were dressed in the purple robes of their dark profession, hoods and all, they look rather silly being that they were somewhat shorter than they had been more moments before. . .

Now, before we go on it should be said that the situation that Heroic Spirits have is a rather odd one indeed. Now, Nasu lore has it that that basically except for odd situations the "original" self of the Heroic Spirit gets stored (for want for better words) back in the Throne of Heroes while "copy/clones" get summoned back on Earth for various reasons. Once the job the summoned is completed, the copy is . . .basically destroyed (kind/sorta) and the information gathered is sent back to the original supposedly in some fashion that does not cause the "original" to change (thus preserving them as they had been upon coming to the Throne of Heroes). How this exactly works is beyond the scope of this discussion both for the length involved in discussing it AND the fact that due to whatever means the Champions here have found this world in? Well, things have mutated from Nasu canon quiet a bit!

To put it in another way, the clones are date capture device and the "originals" back in the Throne of Heroes? Consider them stored there in non-volatile memory, to use some vaguely computerish terminology. It’s an odd situation indeed, but being that clone and original are linked in one manner or another where the clone comes from the original (and the data gathered from the clone returns). This relationship still stands in this reality the Champions found themselves. Even though the "originals" somehow have been returned to life and had been reenacting the key turning points of their lives--in case of Medea the part where she would have slit her own brother’s throat and sending her down the dark path of the Witch of Betrayal—what happens to the clone would NOT have any effects on the original. At least up until the point where the Higher Up that had granted Caster’s wish stepped in to the mix, and then a link was established where for at least a moment, the original and the clones influenced the other directly.

The Higher Up felt like something was owed to Medea for how the Avatar stand-in had right royally screwd her over, but new that simply just plunking the clones down into new lives wouldn’t do. Frankly the clones--the Servant we should call Servant Caster from various "routes" the erog-video Japanese novel—was too set in her ways as a Witch of Betrayal. She (or rather her original) was too mentally screwed up when she’d died and gone to the Throne of Heroes, and this condition had been carried over and copied right into the Caster clones. Basically, she WANTED to change. She WANTED to have a new life. Wanted to make up for the wrongs she’d done in her old life. WANTED to not be judged for the crimes and sins she’d committed while the Witch of Betrayal in her old life. BUT she wouldn’t be able to do that without drastic actions on the part of the wish granter. The old trite cliché of bad habits being hard to break apply here. Caster had been too wielded to the bad habits of being a Witch to have been able to realistically start again anew and fresh, she’d sooner or later done some dark deeds to somebody she’d been annoyed with or angered and . . .the cycle would begin anew. This was a ghastly oversimplification, but I explains why the wish granter had done what they’d done. Oh, the wish granter could have just "adjusted" Caster’s psyche to something less monstrous. Basically, transforming Caster’s personality into another person in a way, but that would have just been arguably just as bad/good as a "reset". This way? Caster/Medea kept her old self more or less intact since . . .

. . .

Look at least this way Caster/Medea was still Caster/Medea, just without the years and years of baggage from all the betrayals and such she’d had as the Witch of Betrayal. Such measures were needed due to how ingrained bad personality traits that had been birthed by the magicks that has warped her mind and soul into a Witch. It had been so pervasive that once she’d finally been freed from the magical induced love for Jason she’d opted on the insanity on staying as she’d been; a witch she’d become and a witch everyone (even those who’d known the truth about her) they wanted and a WITCH she’d stay just to show them all.

. . .

Okay, maybe her personality and behavior wasn’t exactly due to lingering magicks, but it was a root cause (if NOT totally THE main cause). But the poor girl had been driven . . .psychologically insane by it all in the end by what she’d been forced to do AND the continued bull headed insistence of OTHERS to push all their failings and bad luck on here, blaming her (as a witch) for . . .

Look, at the end of all things best to make a break from it all and start fresh, sort of. What she’d been forced to do (and forced to continue to do due to a "career" people insisted for her) . . .

Not something that a sane person would do and leave at that. A "reset" was need to put her back to right so a "new life" could be had, see?

As for other things? The Caster sisters becoming exact twins of Princess Medea (the one that Rei and her trope had met earlier)? Kind of complex but the simple answer: original and clone are "connected".

Princess Medea (the Original) is the one who’d originally been installed into the Throne of Heroes and who’d been "copied" (i.e. Cloned) when the Heroic Spirit business of the Grail War went down.

Nasuverse metaphysics is . . .involved. Be my guest and read more about it in detail here if you must: typemoon. wikia. com/wik i/Heroic _Spirit

The thing where Medea (the original) had been "touched" by Rei’s magic, eventually causing her to be transformed into a Champion? That hadn’t been exactly what the wish granter had been after, but it fulfilled the wish’s parameters so instead of what had been originally intended (each clone given a new identity as a magic using women, in one of the various Aqualarias of the Terra branches of the multiverse), they instead were transformed into Amazonian warrior princesses like Medea before the link between original and clone could be severed by the wish granter.

Rei and the other Champions had moved a LOT quicker than expected, taking VERY risky measures to break the magicks on Medea’s mind as well as healing her wounds from John’s desperate body tackle (re: 104935). Magicks which worked in part due to Rei’s magery having origins from the time of the "Epic of Gilgamesh" (aka Rei learned from Dragon kind back on Terra Prime who’s recorded history stretched all the way back THEN). Which kind of gives you an idea how . . .whithered the magicks of the Greek God (standins) had become if mortal magicks (from those earlier times) should have even a chance of being broken. The Wish Granter had expected to step in after Rei’s magery failed, backstopping her efforts of course but . . .that didn’t happen that way.

. . .

Since the "original" Medea had chosen to become a Champion and had been gifted by various gods and goddess’s of her pantheon as an atonement for wrongs done to her by the "stand in" avatars while they’d been gone doing . . .things. The clones had caught the "Champion bug" like Medea got before the Link was severed so . . . the Wish Granter had sighed since the die was cast and went with it. And Because of the link between Original and Clones, every blessing and tweak in the Original OF COURSE got carried over to every last hair follicle to the Clones.

And due to the exhalation the Original had felt upon her transfiguration and induction, they’d been MORE than happy to stay the way they were despite offers to change over to something else. Heck, they’d even been MOST insistent on following in their Original’s footsteps.

And they’d also picked up the "Champion bug" like Medea had caught from Rei, like we’d said before.

That needs repeating, supposedly.

. . .

Yeah, that is what can happen when "Outsider" magick are cast directly on a person from this realm, it appears. Can warp and alter their way of thinking from the Nasu-verse norm into what is considered a VERY warped mentality (but is almost mundane by "Terra Prime" standards).

Medea caught the "Champion Condition" and so did her sister/clones. . . .

So, within a matter or moments the too large of dark cloak which had been flopped over each Casters’ heads suddenly was too SMALL as they’d grown to a size more fitting to young Amazonian warrior woman. Their minds suddenly found themselves filled with combat tactics and strategy and skills befitting the warrior woman they’d become while keeping with the knowledge of spell use (in a fashion).

Medea (the original) was NOW more a priestess of her goddess than a magus, relying on spell work granted through prayer and religious ceremony than magical study. Oh, research and discovery through a mage’s workshop was still there, but it was more a . . .religious thing actually. A religious devotion to her goddess by seeking magical knowledge, revering her goddess in the process.

Where as before it had been more akin to a business transaction where the worshiping had been giving this for that and all that, instead of the nurturing relationship the goddess had for her priestess (like mother to child).

Kind of a sea change for the Caster sisters when (after their cloaks and gear had shifted and transformed into mirror images of the equipment and weapons load out the original Medea had been gifted with. Even AFTER their link with the Original being severed, they still react rather like the

After a quick meeting (with a LOT of scared gasping and throwing themselves to their knees in worshipful terror) with various Higher Ups (who may or may not be the Greek goddesses of their religion) and a short induction into the ranks of Champions, the Caster sisters found themselves tasked with needing to join up with the original Medea and helping with her Quest.

It was a task they were ILLL prepared for here, but they accepted without a moment’s hesitation because . . .frankly, they were more than a bit star struck by the Destiny they suddenly found themselves having been allowed and they wanted to dive into it feet first as quickly as possible: help with their Original Self’s/Sister’s Validation Quest.

Her Validation Quest would be their Validation Quest as well, full details of which would be revealed once they link up! All they have to do is contact their Original Self/Sister! How hard could that be?

Uh, forgive them, in their resetting they’ve lost a bit of worldly knowledge and are . . .young and naïve in a sense. Things in the world they find themselves in? Not like what they remember from the times of Ancient Greece and all that, technological updated knowledge aside.

See, they were given a knowledge on how their equipment and such works, the technology involved, but NOT exactly the "normal/everyday" use of said equipment. Much less the society which gave BIRTH to said technology. . .

How does that matter? Well, take for example this.

Example would be they’d know how a television would work and how the TV signals would be received and such, but NOT for why. They’d think it would be for a form of communication . . .and not the more mundane reason of entertainment. At least not initially, for while hardly what one would call "stupid" they still are VERY much fish out of temporal waters. Fish who do not have the benefit of a guide like she has with her new friends like Rei and the gang.

Hellfire, they don’t even have memories of just WHO saved their Original self her fate from becoming the Witch of Betrayal, what with their last memories before the being fully transformed/transfigured (and returned to full living entities Spirits given human form through magic) had been SOMEBODY tackling them and their ribs cracking under the strain!

Still, they have an idea on how to at least proceed. Just head out from the trail in the woods they’d found themselves within and over to that odd looking complex (a foreign temple at a guess) where the ley lines seem to form a powerful nexus and use the power their to perform some scrying spellwork to track down their Original Self and such. . . They just need to go through the back here since the soon in the better!

But that all said, this entire process took . . .a bit longer to complete when they came across . . .an altercation they just felt they COULD not in good conscious let stand!!

The place is known as the Ryudou Temple where another young appearing woman called Saber from the route the Champions keep calling "Heaven’s Feel" is to be found. . .

It is as they feared, the Champions. Something they’d hoped they’d successfully avoided with the discovery of Saber from Fate/Zero.

Not quiet Saber Alter YET, but due to being defeated she was on the way of being consumed and soon reborn, known as Saber Alter

(Author’s Note: next taken in part from the video novel Heaven’s Feel and video game "Fate: Unlimited Codes")

In the courtyard outside of the temple building that Saber had locked away her Master in the hopes of safekeeping, she fought and was defeated by "True Assassin" who’d been with . . . an unexpected and powerful ally we could call the Shadow for want of a better term.

All she can do now is sink deeper and deeper into a magical/toxic trap of mud that is destroying her and will kill and consume her. She made a terrible mistake and now she will pay dearly!

She has no power to escape now, and even if she did, it is too late.
The ominous presence now emanates from within herself.
The shadow has invaded her legs and is now up to her waist.
She is becoming a part of this darkness, which swallows up even the moonlight.
Then everything is too late.
...The shadows creeps up.
As her vision fades, the silver swordman . . .sword woman . . .
"Forgive me-----Shirou." . . . Manages one last, apologetic gasp before sinking into the deep mud.

And consumed, only to be reborn and transformed within it’s muddy embrace and await her new Fate and Master! But while she waits, she . . .dreams of sort in the dark womb she is now within

" ...What is this hatred I feel?" Saber Alter mutters to herself, eyes closed " ...What kind of spell is this? ...Ah, is this the true form of the Holy Grail that I so sought? ...I see. Now all is clear. The duty of a hero is to be hated, to be ostracized. I was long prepared for that on the day I drew the sword from the stone. Then let it be. "All the World's Evil." If this is the darkness that you speak of, then I shall take it up. I entrust my blade to you. The obligation to do so is mine. I owe it to all the lives that were lost because of me..." She then feels a tugging, and fully expecting to finally meet her new Master and find herself elsewhere, she is rather surprised when something ELSE happens.

Yelping in surprise she finds herself being mystically drawn forth rather violently from the mud that had remade her and into a spell circle which lights up and binds her in place, blinding in it’s power.

"It burns! It BURNS!!!" she screams, as she feels magicks like she’d never felt before begin to scrub at her body and soul. "AAAAHHHH!!!"

Screaming higher and higher, she soon passes out from it all, not knowing who or what is doing this to her. Or even WHY it is happening, only that dimly in the background she keeps hearing a struggle in the background and Shirou shouting, as if trying to reach her. But real or not, she soon passes out from the agony of it all, for though the magicks being done to her actually WERE intended to cleanse her of the impurities and evils that had defiled her and transformed her into Saber Alter, it wasn’t what you’d call gentle magicks. Harsh Magicks indeed needed here.

The kind that the Caster Sisters, not being able to speak a lick of Japanese, still know how to dish out after seeing there was a job that needed to be done here and they’d be damned if they leave a fellow warrior woman in need down.

Once that was done, THEN they’d go about trying to sort out what was going on here, and who was the "good guys" and the "bad guys". What that mud had been, however, wasn’t something they’d let stand.

It was EVIL. It was corrupting and controlling, and it was something that . . .just rubbed them the wrong way, as if it was somewhat akin to the fate they’d just been saved from.

They would have asked the red headed boy about it, after they’d cast a suitable translation spell, but they were too busy trying to cleanse Saber Alter and transform her BACK into Saber to manage that much.

It took a LONG time, made much longer by Shirou’s (of the Heaven Feels route) well-meant interference but soon enough, soon upon light of the up coming morning shines upon them all.

Saber Alter groaned, waking up and weakly tried to lift herself off the ground, only to pause in confusion as she looked at herself in a magical mirror that had been part of the ritual done upon her.

She . . .wasn’t wearing the armor she should be wearing. It shouldn’t be the silver armor of her old Self. It should be all black and demonic and . . .

Saber Alter shook her head, feeling a wave of dizziness overtake her, and stared anew as she saw her pale, dead looking skin darken back to something like what she had . . .before.

Her ash blonde hair darkened back to gold. Her yellowish green eyes darkened back to emerald green. BOANG! Her ahoge(i.e. style of cowlick in Japanese: "idiot hair") sprung back into place!

"Boang? Boang?!" Saber Alter blinked stupidly, suddenly shaking her head and closing her eyes in confusion as the world spun and . . .

"Shirou, what happened?" Saber asked confused massively, opening her eyes and looking at the image of a very concerned looking red headed teen being held back by a pair of young looking warrior woman she . . .feels she should be wary of but didn’t feel them to be villainous for some reason. "I-I was fighting True Assassin and the Shadow . . .What happened?!" Of course, a lot of shocked (and a bit frightened) shouts of surprise then happen by all there when for a brief moment transformed from the warm and friendly golden Sun they all were familiar with had been transformed into a swollen Red Giant star for a moment before the sky flickers, and the comforting image of the Sun they all were familiar with returned.

But, the illusion was shattered wasn't it?

Yes, it was indeed shattered.

1. "Shirou . . .did I hallucinate there a moment or did the Sun look like it was coming down to EAT the world for a second?!" Saber blinked, shocked into asking what would be a silly sounding question in other climes.

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