So yeah not my first story but this is my first story for Fate/Stay Night. Made some pretty heavy changes and some stuff won't be completely cannon but that is done on purpose and not due to poor knowledge. Hope you enjoy!
The battle for the Holy Grail, possibly one of the bloodiest rituals to take place. Four of these battles have been fought already with seven masters and seven servants. Only one final pair can remain to claim the grail. Some of the past participators have tried to avoid this bloodshed but it has always ended in failure. Some things just can't be prevented. The grail will never grant the wish unless an absolute victory is obtained. That victory is only obtainable by killing every opponent both servant and master. The preparations for the fifth war were commencing. Four servants had already been summoned. So far the only ones missing were Saber, Archer, and Rider. What everyone didn't know was that there was also another servant awaiting to be summoned.
A lone figure walked through the snow shaking from the cold. This figure was no other than Illyasviel von Einzbern. The girl was heir to the Einzbern's and sole purpose of existence was to take home the holy grail and become its vessel. The reason she was out in the snow was to summon her servant. Originally one month ago she was supposed to do this task and summon the Berserker servant but someone had beat her to it. The relic she was given was supposed to be the only thing capable of summoning Berserker but obviously they were proven wrong. Today she would be trying to summon Saber as she had been presented with the scabbard of a sword. Old Man Acht the current head of the Einzbern family claimed that it was indeed a relic capable of summoning a servant. He also proclaimed that is was eerily similar to the sheathe of Excalibur so he hoped it would be able to summon King Arthur.
Currently, she was making her way to a temple to summon her servant. The wind howled in her ears as layers upon layers of snow relentlessly assaulted her as she trudged through the snow. She had been walking for hours and hoped she would soon reach the temple. She stopped walking as a different type of howling reached her ears. Instead of the harsh howl of wind, this was the bloodthirsty howl of a wolf.
She looked behind her to see a pack of wolves were flanking her on all sides and were ready to pounce for the kill. Fearing for her life she broke into a run knowing her pursuers would soon overtake her. Her words were proven true as she felt the warm breath of one of the wolves on the back of her legs a few seconds after she had begun running. It lunged at her and the only reason it missed was due to her tripping and rolling down a hill. She managed to stand up just barely before the wolves surrounded her once again closing in on her in a tight-knit circle. She knew she was in trouble as she would not be able to take on the wolves. She watched as one's muscles tensed readying for a lunge. She closed her eyes waiting for the pain but it never came.
Opening her eyes slowly she was greeted with the sight of a golden bubble surrounding her. The wolf who had lunged at her was embedded with a spike which had sprouted off the bubble. Before the other wolves had a chance to decide to continue the assault more spike sprouted from the shield and killed them. She could only watch as they bled to death as the bubble dissipated leaving her alone with the bleeding bodies of the wolves. She looked around looking for the source of the bubble and was greeted with the sight of a figure masked in a black cloak kneeling before her.
"I hope you are unharmed master." A male voice said coming from the figure. His words confused her at first until she realized what happened. She had summoned her servant. She had actually acquired her servant without being forced to go all the way to the temple and her servant had just saved her life.
"Thank you." She said tentatively as fear and adrenaline still coursed through her blood albeit not as badly as before. She felt her knees buckling and they finally collapsed from exhaustion. Instead of landing on the snow she felt herself land in a pair of arms. "You're kind." She whispered as she lost consciousness due to mental and physical exhaustion.
The male could only look at the girl in his arms with amusement. With a chuckle, he said, "Been a long time since someone told me those words." Standing up with the girl in his arms he began searching the surrounding area for the girl's footprints hoping for some indication that might lead him to her home. Luckily he had found a set nearly hidden as fresh snow filled most of the prints. It was good enough however as he now had a direction to go.
Timeskip
Illya woke up in familiar surroundings and that was what surprised her. Instead of waking up outside in the snow she was under a heavy set of quilted blankets in her bed. She instantly began to wonder what happened before she recalled what had happened before she passed out. A voice nearby, however, broke her out of her thoughts.
"You're awake." A voice said to her causing her to jump. Her head snapped towards the source of the voice to find the man from before still in the same cloak with a closed book in his right hand. Illya stood there motionless examining the man before her but was unable to glean anything due to the cloak that hid everything except for his mouth.
"You're my servant?" She finally asked.
"So it seems." He replied motioning to her hand. Glancing down she was met with a set of red runes. The command seal as it was commonly referred to. They gave her three instances of complete dominance over her servant and would be foolish to waste one. Each of the command seals was a different design hers happened to be in the shape of a broken shield.
"Thank you." She said still examining the rune on her hand.
"For?" The male replied.
"Saving me." She responded in a whisper as nightmarish images of the wolves tearing her apart began to appear in her mind.
"While I appreciate the thanks It's my job. You are my master and it is my duty to protect you." He said monotonously.
Feeling introductions were in order Illya decided to introduce herself, "My name is Illyasviel von Einzbern but please call me Illya." She said with a smile.
"It's nice to formally meet you. I would introduce myself but I promised the man that claimed to be your head of the family that I would introduce myself when he was also present." He replied uneasily. "It was rather troublesome to get entrance to this place until I showed him you and explained who I was."
"I imagine it was difficult," Illya replied knowing how Acht tended to be. To be perfectly honest she didn't care at all about him and would have preferred to have no contact with him. No most of her feelings died with her mother and the man who was more of a father than anyone to her. She found it strange she was being somewhat kind to her servant as she never showed many emotions anymore but blamed it on the fact he was her servant.
A knock on the door interrupted the conversation as a female voice which belonged to one of the maids asked a question, "Miss Einzbern have you awaken?"
"I have," Illya replied.
"Mister Einzbern will be pleased. I shall bring him her right now." The sound of footsteps receding echoed from beyond the door. A few moments passed in silence before the sounds of footsteps returned but unlike last time there were two sets. The door opened presenting the two occupants in the room with old man Acht.
"Illyasviel, I see you are doing better." He stated while looking at her checking for anything wrong.
"I am." She replied in a monotone voice. After assuring himself that there was nothing wrong his gaze met the cloaked figures.
"I believe it's time to introduce yourself." He said annoyed.
"I believe so." The figure replied smirking. He began to take off his cloak and with one effortless move he removed it while placing it over his shoulder. Both Illya and Acht stared at him and his appearance. He had unruly ice blue shoulder length hair void-black eyes with a dark luminous purple circle in the center, and he had a scar in the shape of the letter 'P' on his cheek. However, the scar was so small and pale it almost went unnoticed.
"I would say my name but I do not have one." He said. "But my servant class is Defender." He finished. If his appearance hadn't already got their attention this did.
"What?" Acht asked annoyed thinking he was lying.
"I am a Defender class servant." He repeated once again. Acht was clearing getting annoyed and was about to draw his concealed weapon before Illya spoke.
"What do you mean by you being a defender?" She asked. She wanted to believe him and she didn't know why she did. She just knew that he wasn't lying.
"You both know of the Avenger instance in the third war yes?" He asked. After receiving two nods he continued, "The grail has been corrupted due to that instance and has summoned me as an additional servant." He then turned his attention to Acht, "As you know the Grail is supposed to summon a second pair of seven servants in case the first set decided to ally this was made as an unlikely contingency plan. The way I was summoned is another contingency plan."
"But I would know of this!" Acht exclaimed.
"Normally I would agree with you. But with all of the intricacies embedded into the grail and after being contaminated it has attained a sentience of sorts allowing it to try and make sure it carries out its original task no matter what. This includes making decisions on its own."
"So you're saying the grail is broken and you were summoned by it to be fixed?" Acht summarized.
"Precisely."
"I do not know how I feel of this but I assume that something catastrophic would happen if it was activated as it was?" Acht question was answered with a simple nod. "So if we win the war and the grail is fixed the original task can be carried out?" He received the same answer as last time. "Then that's all that matters. So explain to us what a Defender class is."
"As the name Defender says I am a defense class servant. It could be compared to Berserker's offense."
"I see, what would you say your chances are in combat?" Acht asked.
"Depends on who I fought. I could easily handle Saber, Lancer, and Assassin, Rider would just be an annoyance but easy to kill, Archer and Caster would have a ranged advantage on me so they would be hard to kill but I would probably never fall to either of them, so the only one that could fight me evenly would be Berserker." He replied as he put his cloak back on leaving the hood down.
"I see," Acht said mulling over the information he had just received. "If you will excuse me I have to make a call." With those words, he left the room. A minute of silence passed by before Illya spoke.
"How come you don't have a name?" The Defender servant looked startled at the question but quickly replaced it with a face of no emotion.
"I once had one but it was taken." He said in a cold voice.
"Taken?" Illya asked wondering what he meant.
"I do not know how. But my enemy performed some sort of spell of dark magic taking away my name and left me with this mark." Defender replied pointing to his scar. "That spell made sure I couldn't remember my name and no one else would either."
"That's horrible!" Illya exclaimed.
"Yes it is, but I have learned to live with it." Illya couldn't help but want to help him so she came up with an idea.
"Forgotten." She simply said.
"What was?" Defender asked.
"Your old name was forgotten so your new name will be Forgotten." She said with a smile. Defender pondered her words for a moment before he smiled.
"I like it." Defender or now Forgotten replied. Illya smiled at the fact she had helped her servant. Before any more words could be spoken Acht returned.
"I have arranged for you two to leave tomorrow morning. You will be leaving by jet and arriving at Fuyiki City. Once you arrive you will depart to an isolated Einzbern castle in the nearby forest, am I clear?" He asked sternly as his gaze flickered between Illya and Forgotten.
"Crystal," Forgotten said as he picked at his nails. Acht's gaze then focused on Illya until she also confirmed.
Acht began to leave the room and just as he was about to shut the door he said one last thing, "The next time we meet Illyasviel I expect you to have the grail." With those words the door closed.
Day gave way unto night and night turned into day soon enough. The next morning found Illya and Forgotten on board a private jet flown by two servants who would be staying with them at the castle. As the jet took off as Forgotten gazed out the window he was completely unaware of someone else looking through that window but miles away.
"So you stole my rightful master this time around?" A figure muttered as he watched the jet take off. The figure began to leave from where it was perched before some final words were said, "It's a pity I'll have to kill her with you then."
Not sure whether I should burn this and bury it or continue this. Tell me what you think by either praising it or insulting it don't really care which it is. Until next time!
